46 GEOLOGY OF THE LOTHIANS. 



In contemplating these interesting relations of rocks, the 

 mind cannot but be led to consider the great age of the 

 world ; for such eruptions took place long before the creation 

 of man, and, in all probability, long before that of those ani- 

 mals which stand high in the scale of being. He who is igno- 

 rant of Geology, and of the splendid results at which, by 

 the study of the mineral and fossil bodies of our globe, we 

 arrive, considers the days of creation which are enumerated 

 in the Mosaic record, as indicating the time which elapsed 

 from the period when God first called the world out of no- 

 thing, to that when, his work being completed, he shewed 

 the greatness of his power by calling Man into being. But 

 he who is acquainted with the legible characters engraven 

 on the rocks of our continents, and the various proofs which 

 allow us to believe that Omnipotence willed that, to bring 

 the world to a state fitted for Man, it should, before his 

 appearance, exist for a long series of ages, can, with retro- 

 spective soul, look to the existence of beings which enjoyed 

 life, long before the creation of his species ; he can contem- 

 plate the state of the world when the higher animals existed 

 not, and watch the hand of Deity in the progressive act 

 of creation. Happily for science, the days have gone by 

 when geological speculation was trammelled by the too lite- 

 ral interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis. The lay- 

 man who dares to discover that the world was not created in 

 six of our days, now fears not the brand of atheism, nor 

 is in danger of being considered one who doubts the divine 

 origin of the Scriptures, by any but those for whose opinion 

 he need little care. The churchman, skilled in the original 

 of the Pentateuch, tells him that there is no overstretching 

 of the language, though an undefined period of years be 

 considered as having elapsed between " The beginning," in 

 which " God created the heaven and the earth, 11 and the 



