Ch. III.] 



LAZZABO MORO'S THEORY 



55 











. 



I 







Hool 



former' < crisis of nature : ' but Generelli defended his position 

 by showing how numerous were the accounts of eruptions 

 and earthqu^es, of new islands, and of elevations and sub- 

 sidences of land, and yet how much greater a number of like 

 events must have been unattested and unrecorded during the 

 last six thousand years. 



an authority to prove that the mineral masses containing 

 shells bore, upon the whole, but a small proportion to those 



rocks y 



says tli 



emams 



mo 



exist, in the beginning. 



mountain 



and continents, by the action of rivers and torrents, and 

 concludes with these eloquent and original observations :— 

 < Is it possible that this waste should have continued for 

 six thousand, and perhaps a greater i 



should remain so great, unless their 



umber 



that 



mountains 



ruins have been repaired ? Is it credible that the Author 

 of Nature should have founded the world upon such laws, 

 as that the dry land should for ever be growing smaller, 

 and at last become wholly submerged beneath the waters ? 

 T« it firadihlfl that, amid so many created things, the moun- 



tains alone should daily dimin 



in number and bulk, 



without there being any repair of their losses ? This would 

 be contrary to that order of Providence which is seen to 



Wherefore 



reign in all other things in the universe. 



it just to conclude, that the same cause which, in the be- 



ginnin 



time 



to the present day continued to produce others, in order to 



om time to time 



in different places, or are rent asunder, or in other way 

 suffer disintegration. If this be admitted, we can easily 

 understand why there should now be found upon many 



-A. > v I _ ^™v 



re at a numhei 



marine 



mountains so 



animals/ 



In the above extract, I have not merely enumerated the 

 opinions and facts which are confirmed by recent observa- 

 tion, suppressing all that has since proved to be erroneou 



a 



