451 



inhabitants of the earth is the fact, that not a single decided fossil relic of 

 man has been discovered. 



This last circumstance will be considered by many as contradictory of 

 the account of the Deluge, by which the earth, with man, was said to 

 have been destroyed; since in the remains of the deluged world mari 

 might be expected to be found in subterraneous situations. The fact, 

 however, is, that although no remains of man are found, the surface of 

 the earth, which is inhabited by man, displays, even at the present day, 

 manifest and decided marks of the mechanical agency of violent currents 

 of water. Nor is there a single stratum of all those which have been 

 mentioned which does not exhibit undeniable proofs of its having been 

 broken, and even dislocated, by some tremendous power, which has 

 acted with considerable violence on this planet, since the deposition of 

 the strata of even the latest formation. 



From the whole of this examination a pleasing, and perhaps unexpected 

 accordance appears between the order in which, according to the scriptural 

 account, creation was accomplished, and the order in which the fossil 

 remains of creation are found deposited in the superficial layers of the 

 earth. So close indeed is this agreement, that the Mosaic account is 

 thereby confirmed in every respect, except as to the age of the world, 

 and the distance of time between the completion of different parts of the 

 creation. These, in consequence of the literal acceptation of the word 

 day, in that account, are reckoned to be much less than what every 

 examination of the earth's structure authorizes their being supposed. If 

 we are constrained to receive this word as descriptive of that length of 

 time in which this planet now performs its diurnal revolution ; and are 

 to consider the words morning and evening, applied to a time when the 

 sun is said not to have been formed, as bearing the same meaning which 

 they now convey, it must be acknowledged that the stumbling-block is 

 immoveable. But if, on the other hand, the word day be admitted as 

 figuratively designating certain indefinite periods, in which particular 

 parts of the great work of creation were accomplished, no difficulty will 



