84 THE EARTH. 



groundwork of Deism, for it had been asserted by many that 

 man (and indeed all other creatures) had risen to his 

 present state by slow developments, and no proof to the 

 contrary had ever been given. But geology has shown that 

 at a certain era man was created, that (as is stated in 

 Scripture) he was the last of Grod's works, and that neither 

 before that time had he existed in an undeveloped form, nor 

 since has he altered one jot from his original configuration ; 

 and the same may be said of all other creatures, whatever 

 may be pretended to the contrary, for from the sculptures 

 brought from the ruins of Nineveh (at least 3000 years old) , 



FIG. 35. SCUI/PTUEE FROM NINEVEH. 



there appears the same external form (fig. 35), both of man 

 and what animals are there depicted, and his and their habits 

 were described by the very earliest writers to be then as now. 

 But with respect to the form of the earth's surface it is 

 otherwise, there being a slow but continuous change. 

 Those parts of the land exposed to the tides and action of 

 the waves, are washed aw r ay, and the rivers are constantly 

 bringing down soil to deposit it at their mouths, forming 



