” Notice of the Wonders of Geitagy. 13 
unity of purpose ; all bearing the impress of the same Almighty 
hand. The creation of man, and the establishment of the exist- 
ing order of things—which we are taught both by revelation and 
by natural records took place but a few thousand years ago—are 
events beyond the speculations of philosophy. 
“It follows, from what has been advanced, that both animate 
and inanimate nature, linked together by indissoluble ties of mu- 
tual adaptation, have been governed by the same mechanical, 
chemical, and vital laws, from the earliest geological periods to 
the present time ; and that the absence of the fossil remains of 
whole orders of anitaals i in the remotest periods, although, per- 
haps, in some measure attributable to the feeble development of 
those types of being, may have been also dependent on the ob- 
literation of their remains in the igneous rocks by high tempera- 
ture: at the same time we must not forget, that we are examii- 
ing ancient ocean beds, and may not yet have explored those parts 
ob their vast abysses in which the spoils of the land are concealed. 
I need not add, that the assumption of successive creations of 
new forms of being, adapted to the varying physical conditions 
of the earth is only modified, not weakened, by this argument. 
“What, then, is the result of our inquiry into the ancient state 
of our globe ?—That, so far as our present knowledge extends, 
all the changes produced by mechanical, chemical, or vital agen- 
cy, whether on the surface or in the interior of the earth, have 
been taking place from the earliest periods revealed by geological 
_ research ; and, as like causes must produce like effects, will con- 
tinue to take place so long as the present material system shall 
endure. ‘Thus deposits now in progress may subside to the inner 
regions of the earth, and by exposure to long continued igneous 
action, all traces of sedimentary_origin may be destroyed ; and at 
some distant period, the metamorphosed masses may appear on 
the surface in the form of peaks of granite, bearing with them 
the accumulated spoils of numberless ages. I cannot, therefore, 
concur in the opinion of those, who imagine that in the granite 
we see the primeval solid framework of the globe—a consolida- 
ted crust formed on the surface of a cooling planet, and subse- 
quently broken up by changes in the temperature of the earth. 
To me it appears that the only legitimate inference in the present 
state of our knowledge, is that the solid materials of our globe, 
at a certain depth, become so entirely changed, as to afford no 
