204 BEVIEWS — THE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS. 



in the very nature of the questions touched upon. The main argu- 

 ments however, the broad views of enlightened science as distin- 

 guished from bigoted empiricism on the one hand, and from skepti- 

 cism on the other, are sustained by his close and varied reasoning, to 

 their full. Were it not that the book must necessarily fall sooner 

 or later into the hands of our readers, we should much regret our 

 inability from want of space, to transcribe a few of the 

 glowing pages belonging to this portion of its contents. In the 

 lecture, more especially, entitled "The Mosaic Vision of Creation," 

 we have a sketch of exceeding beauty, portraying the eventful and 

 stupendous changes of the great geological days, on the supposition 

 that these were revealed to Moses in a series of visions. This idea how- 

 ever does not originate with Hugh Miller, as some of his biographers 

 seem to infer. It has been brought prominently forward of late 

 years by various authors,- more particularly by the German Theolo- 

 gians. As our author observes, the visions of Milton's Adam when 

 by the agency of the Archangel Michael the future was unveiled 

 before him, may have given rise to this beautiful and by no means 

 improbable conception. " Before the eye of the seer," says Profes- 

 sor Kurtz, of Dorpat, " scene after scene may have been unfolded, 

 until at length, in the seven of them, the course of creation in its 

 main momenta was fully represented." The vivid portraiture in the 

 work before us of these wondrous phases in the ancient history of 

 our world, is too long for quotation ; and hence, as a final extract, all 

 that our limited space will allow us to indulge in, we give the follow- 

 ing eloquent passage from another lecture : 



" Such, so far as the geologist lias yet been able to read the records of his 

 science, has been the course of creation, from the first beginnings of vitality upon 

 our planet, until the appearance of man. And very wonderful, surely, has that 

 course been ! How strange a procession ! Never yet on Egyptian obelisk or 

 Assyrian frieze, — where long lines of figures seem stalking across the granite, each 

 charged with symbol and mystery, — have our Layards or Rawlinsons seen aught 

 so extraordinary as that long procession of Being which, starting out of the blank 

 depths of the by -gone Eternity, is still defiling across the stage, and of which we 

 ourselves form some of the passing figures. Who shall dclare the profound mean- 

 ings with which these geologic hieroglyphics are charged, or indicate the ultimate 

 goal at which the long procession it destined to arrive ? 



The readings already given, the conclusions already deduced, are as variouB as 

 the hopes and fears, the habits of thought, and the cast of intellect, of the several 

 interpreters who have set themselves, — some, alas ! with but little preparation and 

 very imperfect knowledge, — to declare in their order the details of this marvel- 

 lous, dream-like vision, and, with the dream, " the interpretation thereof." One 

 class of interpreters may well remind us of the dim-eyed old man, — the genius of 

 unbelief so poetically described by Coleridge, — who, sitting in his cold and dreary 



