394 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 



to shew that such cities once existed ; and that they were probably 

 overthrown by the eruption of the year 79 of the Christian era, 

 which gave occasion for the interesting letter of the younger Pliny, 

 describing the death of his uncle, while observing the volcanic storm 

 which proved fatal to him. In such cases, the coincidences of his- 

 torical and other writings and the gleanings of tradition are indeed 

 valuable and gratifying, and are of great utility in fixing not only 

 the order, but the time of ihe events ; but, the nature of the catas- 

 trophe, which buried the devoted cities, is perfectly intelligible from 

 the appearances themselves, and needs no historiqal confirmation. 

 No man ever imagined that Herculaneum and Pompeii, were created 

 where we now find their ruins ; no one hazards the conjecture that 

 they are a lusus naturae, but all unite in giving an explanation consis- 

 tent, alike, with geology, history and common sense. 



Application of the Evidence. 



In the same manner then, we reason respecting the physial phe- 

 nomena of our planet. 



It is full of crystals and crystallized rocks ; it is replete with the en- 

 tombed remains of animals and vegetables, from entire trees to lichens, 

 fuci and ferns — from coal beds to mere impressions of plants ; it is 

 stored with animals from the minutest shell fish to gigantic reptiles ; 

 it is chequered with fragments, from fine sand to enormous blocks of 

 stone ; it exhibits in the materials of its solid strata, every degree of 

 attrition, from the slightest abrasion of a sharp edge or angle, to the 

 perfect rounding which produces globes and spheroidal forms of ex- 

 quisite finish: it abounds with dislocations and fractures; with in- 

 jections and fillings up of fissures with foreign rocky matter ; with 

 elevations and depressions of strata, in every position, from horizon- 

 tal to vertical ; it is covered with the wreck and ruins of its upper 

 surface ; and finally, its ancient fires, sometimes for variable periods, 

 dormant and relenting, have never been extinguished, but still strug- 

 gle for an exit, through its two hundred volcanic mouths. The pres- 

 ent crust is only the result of the conflicting energies of physical for-- 

 ces, governed by fixed laws ; its changes began, from the dawn of the 

 creation, and they will not cease till its materials and its physical laws 

 are annihilated. 



Instances, 



They are innumerable, and are every where at hand ; every sys- 

 tem of geology unfolds them; our author's preceding volume is rich in 



