226 On JameiG7i*s Preface 



versal deluge ; nor does any thing m the Mosaic account of tho£ 

 ^onderftil event, induce the necessary belief that any important 

 change took place on the surface of the earth in consequence of 

 it. Indeed, had this been its effect, we should in all probal)ility 

 have discovered the bones of men mingled with extraneous fos- 

 sils; and since the bones of men have never been thus found, or 

 even in alluvial soils in any considerable quantity, may we not 

 reasonably infer that they were carried off by the retiring water, 

 and that they lie buried in ocean ? 



It forms a question that continues greatly to puzzle some <jeo- 

 logists. Why, if man inhabited the earth at the same time with 

 those animals whose remains are found in such vast numbers, are 

 not human bones found with them ? since tliere is nothing in 

 their composition that should make them less enduring than 

 those of other animals, as is amplv testified bv such as are 

 found beneath the surface of the soil in ancient fields of battle, 

 both in this and in other countries. 



But other Geologists are of opinion that some of those cata- 

 strophes, by whicli animal life suffered so greatlv, and of which 

 the remains actually constitute almost entire strata in certain cal- 

 careous mountains, actually took place before the earth was in- 

 habited by man ; — that other animals were created long before 

 him ; — and that the earth existed a long time previously to the 

 creation of animals. The following extracts will, as it seems to 

 me, show that these are the opinions of Cuvier. 



He speaks, p. S, of the revolutions which took place " previ' 

 oiisly to the existence of all nations." 



At p. M , he says pointedly, — " there have not been always 

 living creatures on the earth." 



At p. 21, he says, '^It is impossible to dcnv that the waters 

 of the sea have formerly, and for a long time, covered those 

 masses of matter vvhich now constitute our highest mountain* ; 

 and further, that these waters did not support any living bodies." 



The concluding sentence of his Essay is as follows : " And man, 

 to whom only a short space is allotted upon earth, would have 

 the glory of restoring the history of thousands oj' ages ivhick 

 preceded the history of his race, and of thousands of' animals 

 that never were contemporaneous with his species." 



These quotations seem decisive of the opinions of Cuvier ', 

 and it remains for Professor Jameson to show the agreement of 

 such opinions w'th the sense in which the words of Moses are 

 usually accepted : they appear to me exactly the reverse. 



There now lies beside me an edition of the Bible printed by 

 Baskett in 1767, in whicb, at the head of the first chapter of Ge- 

 *^is, are these words, "Year before the common year of Christ, 

 40(x^" which I Lake it for granted means that we should con- 

 sider 



