116 WRITINGS OF JAMES SMITHSON. 



contested cases, they would be silent ; but it appears that 

 this stupendous prodigy, 



" Like the baseless fabric of a vision, 

 Left not a wreck behind." 



Of the occurrence of marine depositions at great altitudes, 

 the elevation of the stratum by volcanic efforts, furnishes a 

 far more easy solution than the elevation of the sea, as it 

 refers the phenomenon to a natural cause, and does not 

 require the immediate interposition of the divine hand ; 

 and the ruptured state and erect position of the strata on 

 all these occasions, testify strongly in favour of the simpler 

 supposition. 



To collate the revered volume with the great book of 

 nature, and show in their agreement one author to both, 

 was an undertaking worthy of the union of piety and 

 science. If the result has not been what was anticipated ; 

 if we look in vain over the face of our globe for those 

 mighty impressions of an universal deluge, which reason 

 tells us that it must have produced and left behind itself, to 

 some cause as out of the natural course of things as was 

 that event, must this doubtless be attributed. 



By his entering into a covenant with man and brute ani- 

 mals, and having for ever " set his bow in the cloud," as a 

 token that the direful scene should never be renewed, the 

 Creator appears to have repined at the severity of his 

 justice. 



The spectacle of a desolated world, of fertility laid 

 waste, of the painful works of industry and genius over- 

 thrown, of infantine innocence involved in indiscriminate 

 misery with the hardened offender, of brute nature whose 

 want of reason precluded it from the possibility of all 

 offence, made share in the forfeit of human depravity, may 

 be supposed to have touched his heart. 



Under the impression of these paternal feelings, to oblit- 

 erate every trace of the dreadful scourge, remove every 

 remnant of the frightful havoc, seem the natural effects of 

 his benevolence and power. As a lesson to the races which 



