Objections to Capt. Hutton's Theory. 611 



prove the supposed change of temperature, inasmuch as we find it 

 by no means a fact, that herbivora are more suited to a hot climate t 

 and carnivora to a cold one, but rather the contrary. 



III. Again, the verses in which our Lord curses the earth, and or- 

 dains that it shall bring forth thorns and thistles, and require the 

 sweat of man's brow to make it yield him sustenance, cannot assist 

 his argument of the reduction of temperature, for he cannot prove 

 that any reduction of temperature was at all necessary to produce 

 those effects/ Did we find that " thorns and thistles" and useless 

 weeds flourish only in a comparatively cold climate, or that the fer- 

 tility of our earth increases in proportion to increased average range 

 of the thermometer, then indeed there would be some ground for his 

 argument, but we know that such is not the case ; but that the 

 temperate zones and regions of the earth are the most fertile and 

 luxuriant in their vegetable gifts that are suited to man, and that we 

 find vast tracts of the hottest regions entirely barren and waste : more- 

 over, that " thorns and thistles" are found in the hottest tempera- 

 tures that any vegetation at all can exist in.* 



Now, had we warrant in the Bible for either one of the supposed 

 events, i. e. the reduction of temperature and the destruction of ani- 

 mals and plants, the other might possibly be taken for granted by 

 inference ; but in the absence of either being mentioned, we are 

 reduced to rest our belief in Captain Hutton's Theory on two hypo- 

 theses, each leaning on the other, and as far as the Bible is concern- 

 ed, destitute of any extraneous support ; and as in physics it is 

 manifest that any two bodies in such a dilemma must fall to the 

 ground, I fear Captain Hutton's argument is liable to the same fate. 



IV. The same objection of want of all positive record in the Bible 

 of the phenomena attending the first curse, as above noticed, may be 

 applied with equal force against the supposed further thermal reduc- 

 tion, and its destroying effects, which are described as attending the 

 second revolution, that is to say, the Flood, as described by Moses. 



* According to the calculations of Humboldt, the natural order of Composite 

 to which thistles belong, constitutes l-7th of the Phcenogamous plants of France, 

 Jth of Germany, l-15th of Lapland, in North America l-6th, within the Tropics Of 

 America \. — See Lindley's Natural System of Botany, order Compositse. 



