PREFACE. Vll 



mined, and of important information being 

 yielded on points which, at present, are the 

 subjects of controversy. 



The student, already delighted with the con- 

 templation of surrounding creation, will be here- 

 by led into another field of observation, where 

 he will perceive decided traces of the vast 

 changes which this planet has sustained ; and 

 will see the remains of those beings with which 

 it was inhabited previous to the creation of 

 man. Circumstances will be observed, appa- 

 rently contradictory to the Mosaic account, but 

 which, it is presumed, serve to establish it as 

 the revealed history of creation. 



The discordance appears to be removed by 

 the assumption of indefinite periods for the days 

 of creation: an interpretation adopted by many 

 learned and pious men, and which derives con- 

 firmation from innumerable circumstances agree- 

 ing with the important fact of certain fossils 

 being found to be peculiar to particular strata ; 

 and especially from the remains of widely dif- 



