PRELIMINARY ESSAY. S 



3dly. Moses, so far as he goes, countenances the opinion that the 

 earth's crust was formed from water, since he represents the whole earth 

 as covered with Water, and the "Spirit of God moving," or brooding, 

 " upon the waters." 



The Geologist concludes, that even the granite which forms the peaks 

 of the highest mountains, has been deposited from water, since it is full 

 of regular crystallizations*. 



The secondary strata are decidedly traced to a similar origin. 



4thly. While the Mosaic account leaves abundant room for the 

 presumption, that the earth may have been inhabited, at one or more 

 than one period, previously to the present order of things, it clearly 

 shews that whatever beings may have existed, they were either wholly, or 

 partly different, from those by which the earth is now tenanted. 



Moses declares that at the chaotic period, the earth was "void," that 

 is, according to Patrick, " having no beasts, or trees, or herbs, or any thing 

 else wherewith we noiv behold it adorned." 



Geology appears to establish the fact, that there must have been an 

 order, or orders of created beings in existence, previously to the present ; 

 and it shews, that this order, or these orders, must have been principally 

 different from that now on the earth -f. 



* This remark is inferred, from what M. Cuvier says in the 7th chapter of his Essay on 

 the Theory of the Earth, but I am aware that it is open to objection : the crystalHzations 

 alluded to, might have taken place, after a state of igneous fusion. I cannot help noticino- 

 here, that while Moses leads us to infer, that the great agent in the earth's last grand revo*^ 

 lution, was water, the New Testament tells us, that the great agent in the earth's next 

 revolution, will he fire. 



Wliether toater, or fire, had been instrumental in operating any former revolutions, it was 

 not the object of the Writers of the Old, or New Testament, to inform us. The observations 

 of the Geologist would lead us to suppose, that each might have been in action, at different 

 periods; and the Bible supports this supposition, — but, let it be especially observed, that it is 

 not committed in the support of it, any farther than as regards the earth's last, and its now 

 approaching revolutions. 



-f- Those fossil animals which are satisfactorily identified with the present species, and 

 which are found in situations where it is impossible to account for their appearance, from the 

 action of any of those existing causes, which are now operating in the production of strata, 

 may generally be carried back to the time of the deluge. 



The solitary instance of man in a fossil state, which is preserved in the British Museum, 

 was obtained from a very recent formation on the island of Antigua : (see' page 254 of Jame- 

 son's Cuvier, where it is questioned whether the man was not a Carib.) Cuvier decidedlv 



