Sect. IV.] Gsdlogjj, 237 



de Luc, Saussure, and Dolomieu, arc names consc 

 crated to immortality *.'* 



" So numerous, indeed," sajs the same respect- 

 able writer> " have been the more modern geolo- 

 gical researches, that, since the ol)scuration or ob- 

 literation of the primitive traditions, strano^e as it 

 may appear, no period has occurred so favourable 

 to the illustration of the original state of the globe, 

 as the present, though so far removed from it. At 

 no period has its surface been traversed in so many 

 different directions, or its shape and extent, under 

 its ditTerent modifications of earth and water, been 

 so nearly ascertained, and the relative density of 

 the whole so accurately determined ; its solid con- 

 stituent parts so exactly distinguished ; their mutual 

 relation, both as to position and composition, so 

 clearly traced, or pursued to such considerable 

 depths ', as within these last twentj^-five years. 

 Neither have the testimonies that relate to it been 

 ever so critically examined and carefully weighed, 

 nor, consequently, so well understood, as within 

 the latter half of the past century j." 



DiiTiculties have been lately removed \vjiich 

 VI' ere once supposed, by some, to militate strongly 

 against the possibility/ of a general Ddluge. Eai'jy 

 geologists, for want of accurate information, sujj- 

 posed that all the w^aters of the globe were not 

 sufficient to cover the whole earth to sucli a depth 



* Geological Easays. rnft-ice. Jt is j curious fact, that, while 

 some of these celebrated inquirers embraced geological principle* 

 unfriendly to reveiation, they have all brought to liglit liicts, and 

 given viev/s of the subject, whicli remarkably coiifuiti the sacred 

 history. 



t Geological Jissay^, pp. 3, 4. 



