142 On the Mammaliun Drift of Wiltshire and its Fossil contents. 



upon the coasts, and the deposition of silt by rivers (then probably 

 larger and broader than at present) were the combined agencies 

 employed by an All- wise and Beneficent Creator, to produce that 

 admirable admixture of sands, clays, chalk, and other matters 

 which form our fertile surface soil. 



It has been frequently stated in the course of this paper, that 

 vast periods of time have been occupied by the various changes 

 which have affected the earth's surface ; and the more fully we 

 become acquainted with facts of geology, the more fully will this 

 conviction follow. The mass of evidence which combines to prove 

 the great antiquity of the earth is so irresistible, and so unshaken 

 by any opposing facts, that none but those who stumble at the^ 

 wondrous period occupied in that great work, which the history of 

 the earth as illustrated by the discoveries of the geologist compels 

 us to admit as an undisputable fact, can for a moment conceive the 

 present state of its surface to have been the result of only six 

 thousand years of existence. Those observers and philosophers 

 who have spent their lives in the study of geology, have arrived 

 at the conclusion, that the formation even of those strata which 

 are nearest the sarface, must have occupied vast periods, probably 

 millions of years, in arriving at their present state. But let us 

 contemplate time as it relates to the Infinite Creator, and not to 

 ourselves, and we shall be no longer alarmed at that which the 

 history of the earth demands. As astronomy shows the wondrous 

 and uniform manifestation of a Divine creative power through 

 the immensity of space, so also does geology in the multiplied 

 illustrations still preserved for our instruction, and presented to our 

 observation in the rocks around us; exhibiting alike the one great 

 and glorious purpose of Almighty goodness, and the same unvary- 

 ing demonstration of Almighty power. 



