GEOLOGY. 315 



of aquatic creatures ; and, consequently, to that of those lowest 

 ranks of animal life, testaceous worms, corals and other zoophytes, 

 whose relics are alone to be traced in the second class of rocks or 

 transition formations, and still more freely in the third or horizon- 

 tal formations ; these being the only animals as yet created, since 

 the air, and the water, and the utmost peaks of the loftiest moun- 

 tains, were the only part as yet inhabitable. It tells us, stiU continu- 

 ing the same grand and exquisite climax, that towards the close of 

 this period, the mass of waters having sufficiently retired into the 

 deep bed appointed for them, the sixth and concluding period was 

 devoted to the formation of terrestrial animals ; and, last of alj, as 

 the masterpiece of the whole, to that of man himself. 



Such is the beautiful, but literal progression of the creation, ac- 

 cording to the Mosaic account, as must be perceived by every one 

 who will carefully peruse it for himself. 



Thus, in progressive order, uprose the stupendous system of the 

 world : the bright host of morning stars shouted together on its 

 birth-day ; and the eternal Creator looked down with complacency 

 on the finished fabric, and ' saw that it was good.' 



Before we notice the changes induced on the earth by the deluge, 

 it is proper to meet the objection made by some geologists against 

 the Mosaic history, derived from the marble tablets, which, in ma- 

 ny instances exhibit broken shells, and fossil-teeth, evidently worn 

 with mastication. To this it is replied, First, that testaceous mar- 

 bles are never found at any great distance from the present level of 

 the sea. Secondly, that from the creation to the deluge, the sea, as 

 now, would make war on promontories, and deposit her erosions on 

 calmer shores. Thirdly, that the shells so covered in places where 

 the under strata were disposed to promote the formation of mar- 

 bles, by the ascension of the. marmorous fluid, would unite, with the 

 matter so laid on, and concrete into the beauteous masses in which 

 they are now found. Consequently, the noble author of The Beau- 

 ties of Christianity seems injudicious, in the ascription of a mutilat- 

 ed and imperfect work to the all-perfect Being. * The very day,' 

 Jie says, ' that the ocean poured forth his first waves, he doubtless 

 laved rocks already worn by billows, shores strewed with fragment!- 

 of shell-fish, roaring gtilphs and naked cliffs, which protected tl 

 sinking coasts against the ravages of the waters.' 



In other places the turbid deposits of the sea, containing salts, 

 magnesia, and marine acid, holding a considerable quantity of min- 

 erals in a state of solution, would, attracted by the combining and 

 concreting essence of the under strata, repeat all the other forma- 

 tions of primitive nature, though in smaller masses. To these must 

 be added the lava, which in other places was rolled on the vallies 

 by volcanoes, and the bursting of mountains, where the sea had a 

 rapid access to their latent fires. These considerations, respecting 

 the state of the antediluvian earth, may assist the lovers of nature 

 to account for the formation of many alluvial rocks and strata, which 

 we cannot with confidence say were formed since the deluge, of 



