Notice of the Wonders of Geology. 13 



unity of purpose ; all bearing the impress of the same Almighty 

 hand. The creation of man, and the establishment of the exist- 

 ing order of things — which we are taught both by revelation and 

 by natural records took place but a few thousand years ago — are 

 events beyond the speculations of philosophy. 



" It follows, from what has been advanced, that both animate 

 and inanimate nature, linked together by indissoluble lies of mu- 

 tual adaptation, have been governed by the same mechanical, 

 chemical, and vital laws, from the earliest geological periods to 

 the present time ; and that the absence of the fossil remains of 

 whole orders of animals in the remotest periods, although, per- 

 haps, in some measure attributable to the feeble development of 

 those types of being, may have been also dependent on the ob- 

 literation of their remains in the igneous rocks by high tempera- 

 ture : at the same time we must not forget, that we are examin- 

 ing ancient ocean beds, and may not yet have explored those parts 

 of their vast abysses in which the spoils of the land are concealed. 

 I need not add, that the assumption of successive creations of 

 new forms of being, adapted to the varying physical conditions 

 of the earth is only modified, not weakened, by this argument. 



" What, then, is the result of our inquiry into the ancient state 

 of oiu' globe ? — That, so far as our present knowledge extends, 

 all the changes produced by mechanical, chemical, or vital agen- 

 cy, whether on the surface or in the interior of the earth, have 

 been taking place from the earliest periods revealed by geological 

 research ; and, as like causes must produce like effects, will con- 

 tinue to take place so long as the present material system shall 

 endure. Thus deposits now in progress may subside to the inner 

 regions of the earth, and by exposure to long continued igneous 

 action, all traces of sedimentary origin may be destroyed ; and at 

 some distant period, the metamorphosed masses may appear on 

 the surface in the form of peaks of granite, bearing with them 

 the accuQiulated spoils of numberless ages. I cannot, therefore, 

 concur in the opinion of those, who imagine that in the granite 

 we see the primeval solid framework of the globe — a consolida- 

 ted crust formed on the surface of a cooling planet, and subse- 

 quently broken up by changes in the temperature of the earth. 

 To me it appears that the only legitimate inference in the present 

 state of our knowledge, is that the solid materials of our globe, 

 at a certain depth, become so entirely changed, as to afford no 



