394 On the Mosaic account of the Creation. 



It is here clearly apparent that the writers evident desire 

 to overthrow the theories of the mineral goelogists, and his 

 anxiety to establish his own view with regard to the change 

 of places between land and sea, have somewhat unguardedly 

 hurried him into a misapplication of the inspired exclamation 

 of Lamech at the birth of Noah. From the passages already 

 quoted it will be seen, that Mr. Penn very erroneously 

 considers the curse which was pronounced upon the earth 

 at the fall of our first parents, to have been fulfilled by the 

 destructive visitation of the deluge ; and he calls to our minds 

 that the curse was pronounced not upon man, but upon the 

 earth on rnan^s account ; and he farther quotes from Scripture 

 as a proof of the soundness of his views, that " that which is 

 cursed of God shall be cut off." 



This evidently well-intentioned writer, from totally mistak- 

 ing the true period assigned by the sacred historian to the 

 first revolution, has necessarily been betrayed into farther 

 errors; and he passes over, with but a slight allusion to it, 

 the fact that the curse pronounced upon the earth immedi- 

 ately began to operate, by rendering it less fruitful and 

 productive than it had hitherto been, as is shewn in the words 

 of the Almighty, recorded in the 17th verse of the 3d chapter 

 of Genesis, namely, " Because thou hast hearkened unto the 

 voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I com- 

 manded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the 

 ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the 

 days of thy life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth 

 to thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field ; in the 

 sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto 

 the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art 

 and unto dust shalt thou return." 



The effects of this dreadful curse were at once felt, and the 

 earth which had hitherto yielded her riches to man without 

 toil and labour, now became unfruitful unless tilled and culti- 

 vated. This curse was the cause of the first great revolution 



