On the Cosmogony of Moses. 285 



that time he had not committed to writing, or even fully em- 

 braced the opinions, on these subjects, >yhich have since done 

 him so much credit, in the opinion of all impartial Observers : — it 

 is by still retaining in Geology, so many notions and opinions, 

 which were worthv only of the nurseries of our grandmothers^ 

 that it remains in its present degraded state. 



I liad intended to have this month fulfilled my promise in 

 p. 224, as to some remarks and inferences regarding Fossil 

 Shells, but the above has too much encroaclied on mv time, to 

 allow it : the delay may also, 1 hope, give me the advantage, of 

 some observations from yours or Mr. Sowerby's correspondents, 

 on what has already been attempted, in the way of arrangement, 

 by Your obedient servant, 



12, Upper Crown Street, Westminster, JoHN FaREY, Sen. 



Oct. 10, 1815. 



P. S. — Your Correspondent " Homo," (p. 229), has only to 

 turn to p. 339 of vol. xliii. and p. 276 of vol. xlv. of your work, 

 to find, that the interpretation of the Mosaic account of the 

 CreaMon, which he mentions*, has long been entertained and 

 enforced bv me, as also in p. 5 15 of vol. xxxiii. of The Monthly 

 Magazine, and in various other places : my observations on fossil 

 Shells, for a future number, will further enforce this doctrine, I 

 trust. 



LI. On the Cosmogony of Moses ; with some preliminary 01- 

 servations on Dr. Gilbv's Communication in Number 209. 

 By hC. PmcKARD, M.D. 



To Mr. Tillnch. 



Sir,-—! observe in the last number of the Philosophical Ma- 

 gazine and .lournal, a communication by my friend Dr.W. H.Gil- 

 by, containing some ingenious geological observations, in the 

 course of which he animadverts on a paper of mine which ap- 

 peared some time since in the Annals ol' Philosophy, and imputes 

 to me an opinion which is very different from that which I there 

 maintained. I was so far from considering the mountain lime- 

 stones as!)elongiiig to the transition formation, that the professed 

 object of my paper was to ascertain the position, which they 



• I don't mean to include tliat of his Cuinmcntutor, where lie seems to 

 revive tlie aljsurd notion, of a c/iaotic state of tlie Earth. F. f . 



t The Editor, to wljoin Mr. I"', has assi;;iie(l the profession of " Com- 

 mentator," in tlie Notes which he subjoined to lloMO, thought he hail so 

 expressed himself that he could not have lieen misunderstood. He had no 

 other aim than to state the opinions of ullicis, tending to coniiini the lead- 

 ing idea of Ho.MO. Mr. F. may for the oiVensive word cliuox, read matter,' 

 and expunge the word thaotk, without injuring the sense intended to be 

 con\ eyed by T. 



and 



