450 ON THE GEOLOGICAL RELATIONS 



transportations as imaginary, I cannot avoid continuing 

 the examination of them as derived from this case, 

 especially as that record is ranked as a cause in 

 geology. 



Driven from one point to another since the time of 

 Tertullian, as geological knowledge increased, those 

 arguments have always sought refuge in the most 

 recent unexplained appearance ; and these caves are 

 apparently the last hold of those who seem to forget 

 that the truth of the Sacred Writings does not rest on 

 physical proofs. The anxiety which is thus shown, 

 to prove any of those records in this manner, is not a 

 very politic mode of evincing confidence or faith in 

 them : and if the arguments are worthless, the effect 

 is evil, since, to have rested a proof on that which is 

 not one, is to produce disbelief or douht. 



But, believing that record in its exact and literal 

 sense, it is impossible to see in what manner it can be 

 related to these appearances. In former hands, the 

 remains in the exterior alluvia have proved nothing 

 as to this record ; it is not easy to see how the caves 

 can prove more ; and, unfortunately for the supporters 

 of this hypothesis, they seem to prove less, in as far 

 as the extinct animals are said to be antediluvian ones, 

 since the caves contain existing, and therefore post- 

 diluvian animals, and man among the rest, while his 

 remains are said to be invariably recent. To admit 

 what could not be denied, and still to maintain the 

 hypothesis, is a species of philosophy which cannot 

 well be discussed. If the one kind are postdiluvian, 

 why are they not all of one period? But it is almost 

 impossible to understand how these facts are brought 

 to bear on this theory. The record says that all 

 animals were preserved for the renovation of the earth 

 after the deluge; and if any did arrive, why not all, or 



