34 On Bowlders and Rolled Stones, 



that the diminution may just equal the filh'ng up, and this 

 may remain a permanent fact Does not this arise clearly 

 from the arrangement of infinite wisdom? What has be- 

 come of the water? There may be as you justly ob-^ 

 serve, (Review of Dr Hayden's book ) for ought we 

 know, room enough in the earth for caverns of requisite 

 dimensions from which the air or gas with which they were 

 originally filled has been gradually absorbed or expelled 

 a to which the waters as gradually retired. There 

 would be nothing unnatural or extraordinary in this suppo- 

 sition ; the least perfect organized being is a greater wonder. 

 The waters appear to have been the great agent to prepare 

 the earth for the reception of man. It would therefore 

 seem necessary that they should retire slowly in order to 

 efiei t the benevolent purposes of Infinite Goodness. 



Possibly the process may hereafter be reversed; the wa- 

 ters may be drawn out to assist in preserving, or in continuing 

 the earth in its present limits during the will of the Creator, 

 but if we cannot show what has become of the water, we can 

 show where it has been, and what it has effected. But it is 

 said the Scriptures mean to contradict the idea of the wa- 

 ters having covered theEarth for a long time — I think not, — 

 *' In the beginning, &tc.'' — that undoubtedly is going far 

 back, and that "the t^arthwas without form," meaning no 

 doubt without that form designed it by the Creator for the 

 reception of man — still later " God said let the waters un- 

 der the heavens be gathered together unto one place and 

 let the dry land appear.'' In God's works we see only 

 wisdom and goodness, omnipotence, works unseen by man 

 and animated nature generally. Those probably were 

 the materials collected which have formed those immense 

 beds of mineral coal already so essential to man. Clay 

 and Lime, so necessary to the formation of a good and pro- 

 ductive soil, to the comfort and convenience of man, might 

 then have been produced. It is not easy to see by whr.t 

 agency except the gradual retiring of the ocean, the differ- 

 ent earths could have been so mixed and blended together 

 as to form a good soil. Every hill and mountain within 

 my knowledge is covered with an alluvial or diluvial de- 

 posit In this country, the rocks, chiefly granite, have been 

 ground to dust, making of itself, in the fine powder to which 

 it is reduced, a warm and genial soil for this cold climate: 



