NOMOS. 175 



They saw that these remains evinced a simpler type 

 of organisation the lower they descended in the 

 series of sedimentary rocks, and from this fact they 

 jumped to the conclusion that the higher animals 

 had sprung by progressive development from the 

 lower animals, a conclusion which implies the ex- 

 treme antiquity of the earth, for any time shorter 

 than eternity would barely suffice for the completion 

 of such changes. These views, however, have never 

 met with many advocates ; and geologists, for the 

 most part, are content to rest their belief in the high 

 antiquity of the earth, and in the frequent revolu- 

 tions of preadamite times, upon the existence of the 

 coal and lime strata. 



On the other hand, there is a writer of no mean 

 acquirements as a geologist, but whose writings are 

 little known, who revives the views which Dr Yo ung's 

 were entertained by Woodward in 1695, SjJjS, 

 and who asserts that the sedimentary rocks cosmogony. 

 of the present earth were all formed at the time of 

 the Noachian deluge. This is the late Dr. Young, of 

 Whitby.* 



What, then, can be the evidence which admits of 

 such different interpretations as this ? 



In commenting upon these opinions, it is evident 

 that we need not go back to the e ' nebu- 



1 he fire- 



lous theory," or have recourse to existing mist " theor y 



1-11 and the che ; 



chemical changes within the earth, to micai theory 

 account for the so-called "central fire;" 



for, as we have argued elsewhere, this phe- nl\ 



nomenon may be the natural consequence 



* Scriptural Geology, 1836. 



