

RELICS 



FROM THE WRECK OF A FORMER WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 



'' The very ground on which we tread, and the mountains which sur- 

 round us, may be regarded as vast tumuli, in which the organic remains 

 of a former world are enshrined." Parkinson's Org. Rem., Vol. I. 



ACCUSTOMED to consider the whole of nature as having 

 sprung out of nothing at the Divine command in the course 

 of a few days and erroneously deeming this belief as es- 

 sentially connected with the fundamental articles of Chris- 

 tian faith it is little wonder when Hutton announced to 

 the world that the earth offered no trace of a commencement; 

 nor any prospect of an end, that he was assailed as an in- 

 fidel. But time effects changes in the moral as well as the 

 physical world, and such a belief is now considered no way 

 obnoxious to a true interpretation of the sacred text. 



Some of our divines are among the most celebrated geolo- 

 gists, and the vast antiquity of the earth has become as 

 fully accredited as if it had formed a distinct subject of rev- 

 elation. A few cavillers are still to be found, but not among 

 the enlightened portion of the Christian community. It is 

 only from those who, assuming t/ieir preconceptions to be 

 true, and their interpretations of Scripture right, that we 

 find any opposition to the stubborn evidence of fact. 





