GEOLOGY. 313 



gravity and crystallization ; and that they have since been convuls- 

 ed arid dislocated by some dreadful commotion and inundation 

 that have extended to every region, and again thrown a great part 

 of the organic and inorganic creation into confusion. 



Hence have originated the Plutonic and the Neptunian hypothe- 

 ses: the former ascribing the origin of the world, in its present state, 

 to igneous fusion ; the latter, to aqueous solution. Both of these 

 theories are of a very early date, and both of them have been agita- 

 ted in ancient as well as in modern times, with considerable warmth 

 and plausible argument. The principal champions of the Plutonic 

 system, in later times, are Dr. Hutton, Professor Play fair, and Sir 

 James Hall ; names of high literary rank, but most powerfully op- 

 posed by the distinguished authorities of Werner, Saussure, Kirwan, 

 Cuvier, and Jameson, who are supported by the general voice of 

 scientific rnen. 



Of these theories, the Plutonic is perhaps best entitled to the praise 

 of boldness of conception and unlimited extent of view. It aspires, 

 in many of its modifications, not only to account for the present ap- 

 pearances of the earth, but for that of the universe ; and traces out 

 a scheme by which every planet, or system of planets, may be con- 

 tinued indefinitely, and perhaps forever, by a perpetual series of 

 restoration and balance. 



With ihis system the Neptunian forms a perfect contrast. It is 

 limited to the earth, and to the present appearances of the earth. 

 It resolves the genuine origin of tilings into the operation of water ; 

 and while it admits the existence of subterranean fires to a certain 

 extent, and that several of the phenomena that strike us most forci- 

 bly may be the result of such an agency, it peremptorily denies that 

 such an agency is the sole or universal cause of the existing state of 

 things, or that it could possibly be rendered competent to such an 

 effect. 



More especially should we feel disposed to adhere to this theory, 

 from its general coincidence with the geology of the Scriptures. 

 The Mosaic narrative, indeed, with bold and soaring pinions, takes 

 a comprehensive sweep through the vast range of the solar system, 

 if not through that of the universe; and in its history of the simul- 

 taneous origin of this system, touches chiefly upon geology, as the 

 part most interesting to ourselves; but so far as it enters upon this 

 doctrine, it is in sufficiently close accordance with the Neptunian 

 scheme, with the great volume of nature as now cursorily dipped 

 into. The narrative opens with a statement of three distinct facts, 

 each following the other in a regular series, in the origin of the vis- 

 ible world. First, an absolute creation, as opposed to a mere re- 

 modification of the heaven and the earth, which constituted the 

 earliest step in the crealive process. Secondly, the condition of the 

 earth when it was thus primarily brought into bein<*, which was 

 that of an amorphous or shapeless waste. And thirdly, a com- 

 mencing effort to reduce the unfashioned mass to a condition of 

 order arid harmony. ' In the beginning,' says the sacred historian, 



