82 SELECTED ESSAYS FROM LAY SERMONS 



now restricted to the extreme north, paddled about where 

 birds had twittered among the topmost twigs of the fir- 

 trees. How long this state of things endured we know not, 

 but at length it came to an end. The upheaved glacial 

 mud hardened into the soil of modern Norfolk. Forests 

 grew once more, the wolf and the beaver replaced the rein- 

 deer and the elephant; and at length what we call the his- 

 tory 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. 

 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 vastlv older than 

 Adam himself. The Book of Genesis informs us that 

 Adam, immediately upon his creation, and before the 

 appearance of Eve, was placed in the Gard'en 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 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 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 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. 



