INSTITUTES OF MENU. 



15 



fragments of shells. In the Arundel papers, there is mention of an 

 inundation of sand, in the twelfth century which covered a great part 

 of the coast near St. Ives : it is also known by oral tradition, that 

 whole farms have been overwhelmed at a period not very remote ; 

 and at this very day, upon the shifting of the sands by high winds, 

 the tops of houses may occasionally be seen. In several parts of 

 the coast, this sand is seen passing into the state of compact rock, 

 very difficult to break ; and it is even used for building-stone. En- 

 tire shells of land snails and fragments of slate occasionally occur in 

 it.* When I was in the county I examined numerous specimens of 

 the rock with a lens, and compared them with a specimen of the 

 Gaudaloupe sandstone that I had with me, and they appeared close- 

 ly to resemble each other. Dr. Paris, in an interesting paper read 

 to the Geological Society of Cornwall, ascribes the consolidation of 

 the sandstone to the infiltration of water containing iron, from the de- 

 composing slate-rocks in the vicinity. Instances of the consolida- 

 tion of beds of loose sand are common on the coast of Sicily. It 

 cannot therefore excite surprise, that in a volcanic island like Guad- 

 aloupe, subject to violent convulsions from earthquakes, inundations, 

 and impetuous hurricanes, human bodies should occasionally be dis- 

 covered, that have been enveloped in driving sands, which have be- 

 come subsequently indurated. The situation of this skeleton near 

 the sea-shore, the state of the bones, and the nature of the stone in 

 which they are imbedded, take away the probability of their high 

 antiquity. 



In the Institutes of Menu, which according to Sir William Jones 

 are nearly as ancient as the writings of Moses, the account of the 

 six days of creation so closely resembles that given in Genesis,f that 

 it is scarcely possible to doubt its being derived from the same pa- 

 triarchal communication. There is, however, a particular definition 

 given of the word day as applied to the creation, and it is expressly 

 stated to be a period of several thousand years. If this interpreta- 

 tion be admitted, it will remove the difficulty that some have felt in 

 reconciling the epochs of creation with the six days mentioned by 

 Moses. The six days in which Creative Energy renovated the globe 

 and called into existence different classes of animals, will imply six 

 successive epochs of indefinite duration. The absence of human 

 bones in stratified rocks or in undisturbed beds of gravel or clay, in- 

 dicates tiiat man, the most perfect of terrestrial beings, was not crea- 



* See Guide to Mount's Bay and the Land's End. 



t The discoveries in astronomy which proved the diurnal and annual motions 

 of the earth, were for some time warml}^ opposed as being at variance wdth the 

 motion of the sun and moon, and the motionless stability of the earth which the 

 sacred writings describe. We should not, however, admire the judgment of the 

 writer, who in the present day should publish a scriptural astronomy, in opposi- 

 iton to the Copernican system. The sacred writers describe nntural objects as 

 they appear to the senses, and do not teach systems of philosophy. 



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