NOMOS. 169 



It is not impossible, then, to find some reason for 

 believing that the land was raised out of the water at 

 the creation, and after the deluge by the same action 

 which we now see at work in the tides of the sea and 

 in the metamorphoses of comets, and thus the majesty 

 of physical law becomes more clearly manifested in 

 the light which is reflected from the pages 

 of revelation. All this is not impossible* 

 but it may be objected that this view does 

 not make any provision for those numerous 



revolutions whose histories are supposed t the ? re - 



i vious view 

 to be written upon the crust of the earth, for, once 



T, *, MI i , ji i i i raised, there 



It is quite possible that the land may have could be no 



been raised in this manner, but once raised, 



and it appears to be no longer possible that 



there should be any marked changes in and sea 



PIT i outamira- 



the relative position or land and water so cuious change 

 long as the axis of the earth retained the 2U portions 

 same relative position to the sun and moon, and earth. 

 It seems, indeed, as if nothing less than a 

 miraculous shifting of the axis could produce a 

 general or even important revolution in the earth, 

 and as if, without a miracle, stability, and not revolu- 

 tion, must be the result of law. How, then, are we 

 to surmount this difficulty ? Are we to suppose that 

 the earth was the seat of these revolutions in pre- 

 adamite periods, and that the Noachian deluge was 

 only one of many miraculous interferences with the 

 quiet course of the earth's history ? 



This is a question which is left to the decision of 

 science, for undoubtedly the letter of Scripture may 



