392 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISfQRY. 



to the Operation of physical laws, which laws also affected, more or 

 less, the fate of the various races of plants and animals that were suc- 

 cessively called into existence. But, there is no reason to believe 

 that any part of the crust of the earth, reaching even to a fathom- 

 less depth, is now in the condition in which it was originally made ; 

 every portion has been worked over and brought into new forms, 

 and these changes have arisen from the action of those physical laws 

 which the Creator established^ and which are as truly his work, as 

 the materials upon which they operate. The amount of time is the 

 only difficulty, and this will vanish before an enlarged and reasonable 

 view of the whole subject, taken both in its geological and historical 

 bearings. 



Nature of the evidence. 



The evidence is the same which is readily admitted as satisfactory 

 in the case of historical antiquities. 



Roman coins, weapons, personal ornaments, utensils, baths, roads, 

 camps and military walls, and defences of various kinds, have been 

 frequently discovered in Britain. They are ascertained to be Roman, 

 by their resemblance to, or identity with, the acknowledged produc- 

 tions of that remarkable people, as still existing in Italy and the ad- 

 jacent countries, the ancient seat of their dominion. Had Julius Ce- 

 sar and the other Roman historians and writers been silent as to the 

 Roman invasion of Britain, and as to the Roman dominion, which, 

 for more than four centuries, existed in that island ; still, could any 

 one, acquainted with the facts, hesitate to believe, that the Romans had 

 not only visited Britain, but also remained there, as conquerors and 

 masters, for a great length of time. Had all historical knowledge of 

 the Romans been lost, would not the antiquary who examined the 

 relics named above, and who also extended his observations to other 

 countries where similar things were found, with perhaps the addition 

 of splendid aqueducts, and temples, and amphitheatres, all evidently 

 originating from one and the same people, would he not, without hesi- 

 tation, pronounce them to have been highly civilized, warlike and 

 powerful; and would he hesitate to assign to them a considerably 

 high antiquity. 



At this moment, the barrows or sepulchral mounds, some of them 

 of stupendous size, which are so frequent in some parts of England, 

 and in various parts of Europe and Asia, besides similar structures in 

 North America, with the stupendous forts, which, in Ohio and Ken- 

 tucky, and other western states^ amaze and confound the observer* 



