SILLIMAN'S INTRODUCTION. 23 



the astonishing tmths which they unfold have been brought to 

 light by human research. 



While, as already remarked, the science of astronomy is, in fact, 

 inconsistent with the apparent movements in the heavens, and, 

 therefore, with the literal and popular phraseology of the Scriptures, 

 which allude to physical things as they appear to the uninstructed 

 mind, and not as they are in reality, — geology presents not even 

 this discrepancy, but, on the contrary, a substantial agreement in 

 its facts with the Scriptures. The latter describe a physical crea- 

 tion of mineral matter, and a successive creation of plants and 

 animals, ending with man ; while geology, by irrefragable demon- 

 strations, which nothing but a study of the earth could afford, 

 proves this history to be true. 



The Scriptures describe a universal deluge ; and geology shows 

 that every part of the earth is marked by the effect of such visita- 

 tions, occurring at one time, or at many times ; — a repetition of 

 local deluges, or a general one, would produce similar results ; and 

 although it may be impossible to distinguish between the accumu- 

 lated effects of local overflows, and a general diluvial devastation, 

 the surface of the earth is everywhere strewn with diluvial debris. 

 The Scriptures declare that there was a beginning, and geology 

 proves that there was a time when neither plants, nor animals, nor 

 man existed ; but both the Scriptures and geology are silent as to 

 the period when the fiat of the Creator first called our earth and 

 the planetary systems into being. It was, doubtless, in very 

 remote antiquity, but the commencement is known only to Him 

 who has neither "beginning of years, nor ending of days." 



Thus the consistency of geology with the early Scripture history, 

 is susceptible of a perfect and triumphant defence, but it is not to be 

 found in the refinements of exegesis, nor in the forced solution of 

 a general deluge, which is entirely unsatisfactory, and, indeed, 

 impossible, as a cause of the regular formations of the earth, 

 immensely varied as they are, and exuberant in the relics of many 

 successive races of the animals and vegetables of past ages. But 

 this consistency is found in the regular induction from facts, in 

 the just understanding of time, and in its extension back beyond 

 the creation of man, so far as to embrace the innumerable events 

 that have certainly happened in the material world. 



To this conclusion the religious mind is fast approaching, and 



