376 On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 



The second revolution, or Deluge, is too clearly marked, and 

 its consequence too obvious, to escape the notice of any one ; 

 but the historian enters into no details of the means by 

 which the first was effected, although he clearly points out 

 the effects of it. This difference in the seeming importance 

 of the two revolutions may have arisen from the fact, that 

 the first did not, like the second, involve the loss of life to 

 the human race, and therefore the record is content to point 

 it out merely by its effects, leaving us at liberty to infer the 

 causes. Or it may even be probable that Moses himself was 

 ignorant of the operations and means by which the facts he 

 recorded were produced, nor was it at all necessary for the 

 fulfilment of his task that he should be made acquainted 

 with more than the effects ; for his only object was to lead 

 his people, and through them other nations, to look to the 

 Almighty, as the universal and sole creator of all things, and 

 the dispenser of every blessing they enjoyed ; and moreover 

 se it should be borne in mind," as Professor Buckland has 

 well observed, " that the object of the Mosaic account was 

 not to state in what manner, but by whom the world was 

 made."* 



In insisting, however, upon the two Mosaic revolutions as 

 the only ones which our earth has experienced, it is merely 

 necessary to shew that they are the only general, or universal 

 convulsions which have occurred since the creation, and that 

 they have been expressly produced by the immediate and 

 supernatural exertion of the Creative Power for particular 

 purposes, namely, for the punishment of man's transgressions ; 

 but while insisting upon this, we must not deny the probabili- 

 ty that natural phenomena existed quite as much in those 

 days as they do now; that is to say, that mineral causes 

 would have produced volcanic outbursts and dislocations of 

 strata as frequently in the former ages of the earth as 

 at present. We may even venture to affirm, that they were 



* Bridgewater Treatises, p. 33. 



