On a Piece of Chalk 95 



and at length what we call the history of England 

 dawned. 



Thus you have, within the limits of your own county, 

 proof that the chalk can justly claim a very much greater 

 antiquity than even the oldest physical traces of mankind. 5 

 But we may go further and demonstrate, by evidence 

 of the same authority as that which testifies to the 

 existence of the father of men, that the chalk is vastly 

 older than Adam himself. 



The Book of Genesis informs us that Adam, immedi- 10 

 ately upon his creation, and before the appearance of 

 Eve, was placed in the Garden of Eden. The problem 

 of the geographical position of Eden has greatly vexed the 

 spirits of the learned in such matters, but there is one 

 point respecting which, so far as I know, no commentator 15 

 has ever raised a doubt. This is, that of the four rivers 

 which are said to run out of it, Euphrates and Hiddekel 

 are identical with the rivers now known by the names of 

 Euphrates and Tigris. 



But the whole country in which these mighty rivers 20 

 take their origin, and through which they run, is composed 

 of rocks which are either of the same age as the chalk, or 

 of later date. So that the chalk must not only have been 

 formed, but, after its formation, the time required for 

 the deposit of these later rocks, and for their upheaval 25 

 into dry land, must have elapsed, before the smallest 

 brook which feeds the swift stream of " the great river, 

 the river of Babylon," began to flow. 



Thus, evidence which cannot be rebutted, and which 

 need not be strengthened, though if time permitted I 30 

 might indefinitely increase its quantity, compels you to 

 believe that the earth, from the time of the chalk to the 

 present day, has been the theater of a series of changes as 



