On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 385 



actual destruction of the earthy but the suspension of its 

 proper functions, by which of course the animal and vegeta- 

 ble races would be destroyed. Nor can it reasonably be 

 objected to this view, that the secondary formations are found 

 to stand in direct opposition to it, and give evidence of a 

 change of place between land and sea ; for although undoubt- 

 edly many parts of our present earth have been reclaimed 

 from the bosom of the waters, this fact by no means warrants 

 the assumption, that the whole earth has been so derived ; 

 for we have testimony quite as conclusive in the existence 

 of the stratified beds of the diluvial formations, that the 

 tracts now occupied by them were portions of the ancient 

 or antediluvian earth ; so that we know that in three 

 quarters of the globe, namely, in Europe, Asia, and America, 

 large tracts of the antediluvian earth still constitute portions 

 of our present continents. 



Now as it here appears that the antediluvian dry land was 

 not very extensively distributed, but rather that it was of 

 limited extent, so we shall be fully justified in believing that 

 the secondary portions of the present earth are merely 

 additions, which have been derived from the sea and added to 

 the former dry land, in consequence of the farther retirement 

 of the waters, when the last revolution, or extra natural 

 convulsion, caused the subsidence of the diluvial ocean. 



No change therefore, such as that which is contended for 

 by the Mosaic geologist, has taken place ; and indeed as 

 observers in general are now rightly agreed that the animals 

 whose remains are found in the tertiary and diluvial strata 

 must have lived in or near the places where they are now 

 found buried, it is somewhat surprising that they should not 

 likewise have long since allowed that the localities occupied 

 by the last of them at least, constitute portions of that land 

 which they once inhabited. 



Again, another argument is suggested by the author's 

 account of the probable manner in which the bodies of the 



