28 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. I. 



defend himself against imputations of this kind, and it is 

 deeply to be regretted, that there still exists in the minds 

 of many well-meaning persons a prejudice against the study 

 of Geology, from a mistaken apprehension, lest it should 

 weaken our belief in the revealed word of God ; for they 

 assume that the results of geological inquiries, and the 

 Mosaic account of the creation of the world, are utterly at 

 variance with each other. But, convinced as I am that 

 there never can be any collision between the doctrines of 

 the purest piety and those of sound philosophy, and that 

 prejudices have been created and perpetuated by authors, 

 who, falsely styling themselves geologists, have mixed up 

 their own vague and erroneous notions with the history of 

 the earth as given by the inspired writer — attempting, with 

 the presumption of ignorance, to account for that which 

 lies beyond the reach of human investigation, and to 

 explain it by evidence equally misapprehended and mis- 

 applied — I would most unequivocally assert, that a just 

 view of the nature and limits of geological science warrants 

 no such reproach. Abandoning all attempts to explain the 

 inexplicable, or to reconcile the irreconcilable, it confines 

 itself to its legitimate purpose of accumulating and inves- 

 tigating facts, of pointing out analogies, and indicating the 

 inferences to which they lead ; " this is far different from 

 the presumption which would fain prove the truth of Scrip- 

 ture by physical evidence, or the weakness that would found 

 a system of natural philosophy on the inspired record." 



Nothing is more unwarrantable than attempts to identify 

 theories in science with particular interpretations of the 

 sacred text ; and the caution of Lord Bacon, uttered a 

 century and a half before geology even had a name, cannot 

 be too often repeated. " Let no man," said he, u upon a 

 weak conceit of sobriety, or an ill-applied moderation, think 

 or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well 

 studied in the book of God's word, or the book of God's 



