32 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



"The History of British Birds/' "The History of the 

 Nests and Eggs of British Birds/' and "The History 

 of British Butterflies" were all partly before the 

 public between 1850 and 1854, in which latter year 

 he left Nafferton for Nunburnholme. The author- 

 ship of these works added considerably to his cor- 

 respondence. 



It must not be supposed that his literary activities 

 were confined to one groove. They embraced widely 

 divergent topics. In 1850 he published an essay 

 on " The Eternal Duration of the Earth/' in which he 

 endeavoured to show by Scriptural arguments that 

 the world we inhabit will not be annihilated by fire, 

 although subjected to its action for the purpose of 

 purification and renovation. He held that the work 

 of fire might be a counter-effect of the action of 

 water at the Flood on the whole surface of the globe. 

 Many of the arguments brought forward were not 

 new, but the whole was carefully worked out. The 

 essay, or the substance of it, had, previously to publi- 

 cation, been read before the Malton Clerical Society. 

 Another essay, also read before the same Society, and 

 published in 1850, was that on " Baptismal Regenera- 

 tion," extending to thirty-one pages. It would take 

 too much space to give even a sketch of its sub- 

 ject-matter here, but that regeneration accompanies 

 baptism according to the teaching of the Church of 

 England he found it impossible to deny. In this 

 year also he published another dissertation on 

 "Scientific Nomenclature," which had been pre- 

 viously communicated to the British Association (of 



