118 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



alone on the great events which yet remained to be accom- 

 plished in the fifth and sixth days, namely, the creation of the 

 animal kingdom, " closing full in man," each individual in 

 full maturity and perfection, by the immediate and instantaneous 

 act of God ; and to shew, in the concluding chapter of this 

 part, how positively the philosophy of Bacon and Newton de- 

 cides the first great question, the mode of first formations, in 

 favour of the Mosaical geology. One important fact, however, 

 we must remind the reader to keep in his recollection, viz., the 

 structure of the bed of that ocean, on whose ruptured slimy 

 bottom were now deposited, in abundance, marine matter of 

 every kind, vegetable and animal, and which continued to in- 

 crease, in a multiple ratio, during a period of more than sixteen 

 centuries. 



Our author, in the third part, proceeds to examine the second 

 great question, the mode of the universal changes or revolutions 

 which the mineral substance of the earth has undergone since 

 the creation, and whether the evidences of revolution which it 

 reveals, correspond with the statements of the sacred record, 

 and are sufficiently accounted for by it ; or " whether the mi- 

 neral geology has found evidences of revolution not reducible 

 to those stated in the record." 



God having determined, in consequence of the wickedness of 

 the human race, to destroy both it and the earth, suspended for 

 a time the order of things which he had established, and again 

 assumed an immediate operation in the works of his terrestial 

 creation ; " All the fountains of the great deep were broken 

 up, and the windows of heaven were opened." But, after the 

 deluge had accomplished its work of destruction, and the 

 Almighty was pleased to withdraw the waters a second time 

 from the surface of the earth, " what was that second earth 

 upon which the ark was brought to rest, and whence did it 

 derive its origin? " 



We cannot fail to perceive that a repetition of the same process which 

 pToduced the forma' earth was alone requisite to bring to light another 

 earth to replace it. We have already seen that a violent disruption and 

 subsidence of the solid surface of one portion of the subaqueous globe pro- 

 duced at first a bed to receive the diffusive waters ; and that these waters 

 drawn into that bed from off the other portion of the same globe, left it 

 exposed and fitted for the reception of vegetation, and for the habitation 

 of man. That exposed portion was now in its turn to sink and disappear. 

 By a similar disruption and subsidence of its surface, which should depress 

 it below the level of the first depressed part or basin of the sea, the waters 

 flowing into a utill lower Jcvel, would leave their basin empty, exposed and 

 dry, and thus by a similar separation render it in its turn a habitable earth : 

 — thus that first depressed part or basin of the former sea is our actual 

 present earth. 



This idea, we believe, is peculiar to our author, who, with 

 great depth of learning and argument, contends that the de- 

 struction of the former earth was not temporary and confined 

 .to the surface, but final and entire. The most strenuous advo- 

 cate for the mineral geology cannot deny that the conclusion 



