1872.] Notices of Books. 371 
The whole of the reports are exceedingly interesting and well 
worth reading, though in one or two places they betray by their 
language their American origin. 
A Vision of Creation. A Poem. By CuTHBERT COLLINGWooD, 
M.A. and M.B., Oxon, &c. With an Introduction, Geolo- 
gical and Critical. London: Longmans. 1872. 
Ir is not our custom to review poetry, and even in this case we 
shall have but little to say about the literary value of Mr. Col- 
lingwood’s work; it is the geological introduction which induces 
us to notice the poem. The key to the title will occur to every- 
one who has read Hugh Miller’s ‘‘ Testimony of the Rocks.” A 
seer such as existed among the Jews before the Prophets of later 
date displaced them—a seer cf visions in a patriarchal age— 
whether Moses himself or some earlier worthy, is left undecided, 
is visited by a heavenly messenger, who is commissioned to 
communicate to him the mysteries of the origin of the universe, 
but who first draws his attention to the physical phenomena 
surrounding him, and describes how man shall in after ages 
learn for himself from the records around him how the world 
came into existence. This angelic being then conveys the seer 
to a desolate region, and presents to his eyes visions of the early 
condition of the world when emerging from its primeval 
chaos into the full perfection of its present condition, and these 
visions are accompanied with an explanation of the events as 
they take place. The words of the Book of Genesis are used as 
an outline, which is filled in by the light of modern science. 
Thus the beginning is made to answer to the period anterior to 
all geological record and to be suggestive of the Nebular 
Hypothesis. ‘The earth, ‘‘ without form and void,” corresponds 
to the Azoic age of igneous rocks. This state of chaos 
the seer describes as “a world, yet not a world,” for which 
the Greek is given, and a reference is added to Genesis i., 2., 
leading one to suppose that this is the Septuagint version 
of that verse, which is misleading. The creation of light 
is made simultaneous with the so-called metamorphic rocks 
of the Laurentian and Cambrian series. The first appearance 
ofa firmament or atmosphere is the period of the Silurian rocks 
formed beneath a shallow sea of almost universal extent. The 
appearance of dry land characterises the Devonian period, in 
which the old red sandstone produces mosses, &c., whilst vege- 
tation of marked type, both ‘‘ herb” and ‘ fruit-tree,” have left 
their record in the carboniferous strata. The appearance of sun 
and moon, already created, but until now hidden by dense mists, 
denote the introduction of a new era, and the new red sandstone 
accordingly marks the beginning of the secondary rocks, and 
lies between the vegetation and the reptiles of the next age. 
