18 Essay introduclorii to Geology. 



Mr. Lyell's own diagram, as dearly as any mathematical truth may be 

 demonstrated from the diagrams of Euclid, the proposition which never- 

 theless he somewhat unaccountably supposes himself to be opposed to, 

 namely, that the actual convulsions of the crust of our planet neither are, 

 nor, on tlie evidence which he has himself adduced, can possibly be, equal 

 in intensity to those which prevailed in the earlier geological epochs. 

 Instead, therefore, of comforting ourselves, as he does, with the prospect 

 that we may expect in our own days convulsions violent as those which 

 iipheaved Mont Blanc, or " Chimborazo, giant of the western shore," we 

 may rather repose with Leibnitz, (assuredly not a less philosophical 

 authority,) in the persuasion, " Tandem quiescentibus causis atque aequi- 

 libratis, consistentior emergeret rerum status." 



And here, purporting to proceed in my next communication to the local 

 facilities which the neighbourhood of Bristol presents to the study of 

 Geology, I should conclude, were I not anxious to remove from the mind 

 of the reader every feeling which may possibly arise in his mind, of any 

 supposed hostility of those convulsions of human science, to the dicta of a 

 wisdom whose influence is as far more valuable to the best interests of man, 

 as its origin is from a higher source. I would particularly invite the atten- 

 tion of such to the discussion on this subject which has already appeared 

 in that most excellent journal, the Christian Observer, (Nos. for May, June, 

 July, 1834,) whence I may quote the following observations. 



" Several modes have been proposed of conciliating with the sacred record the 

 conclusions forced upon the mind by the facts of Geology. They are chiefly the fol- 

 lowing : — 



1. At an earlier period of the science, De Luc and others imagined these beds to 

 have been accumulated beneath the bed of the antediluvian ocean, between the six 

 days of creation and the Noachian deluge ; and that at the latter epoch, by a sort of 

 general oscillation of the surface, the oceans and continents changed place. This 

 view has been now generally abandoned, partly because the time, 1600 years, seems 

 insufficient to account for the phenomena ; an objection of great weight, though we 

 should hesitate to assert that the point admits of absolute demonstration. A greater 

 difficulty is, that in this case we should hardly expect to find so many successive 

 veins of different organic genera ; the latest rocks alone containing any approxima- 

 tion to the present orders, and alone also containing any traces of terrestrial animals. 

 All the phenomena seem to suggest successive periods oj' animal creation, closing with 

 that of the land quadrup ^ds, and antecedent to the existence of man. The difficulties 

 in the way of this interpretation would therefore be very embarrassing, though we 

 cannot affirm that they are insuperable. 



2. The next solution is by means of a former creation, interposed between 'the 

 beginning' (Gen. 1.) and the six days, which had become extinct, and whose ruins 

 termed the chaos of the second verse— referring the oi-ganic remains to this supposed 

 former world. We have already alluded to this passage, as respects its exposition ; 



but, in addition to the point of biblical criticism, there is aphysical difficulty, arising 

 from the idea that this former supposed world possessed light, and probably a sun, 

 and a general system of animal and vegetable economy, analogous to the present. 

 Those, therefore, who adopt it, with Dr. Chalmers, explain the words which more 

 naturally seem to imply a first creation, as denoting a re-creation of objects previ- 



