438 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 



the bodily powers, the inception and growth of the animal and vegeta- 

 ble races, the seasons, seed time and harvest, science and arts, wealth, 

 civilization, national power and character, and a thousand things more, 

 evince, that progression is stamped upon every thing, and that nothing 

 reaches its perfection by a single leap. 



The gradual preparation of this planet for its ultimate destination, 

 presents therefore no anomaly, and need not excite our surprise. 



It is of no importance to us, whether our home was in a course of 

 preparation, during days or ages, for the moral dispensations of God 

 to man could not begin until his creation. 



The abyss of waters which existed at an early unknown period, be- 

 fore the time of the final arrangement of the surface, which preceded 

 the creation of man, and continued, we may suppose, for an unlimited 

 time, is just such a state of things, in coincidence with the operation 

 of internal fire, as is demanded for the formation of the central rocks, 

 and for their elevation, as far as facts may justify us in supposing that 

 it took place so early. 



The supposition now before us is equally consistent with both the 

 igneous and the aqueous theory of the earth; and indeed it would be 

 impossible to account for the appearance of things, without the con- 

 joined agency of internal fire, and of an incumbent ocean ; the latter 

 repressing the expansive and explosive power of the former, causing 

 its heat greatly to accumulate, even to the fusion of the most refrac- 

 tory materials ; preventing the escape of gaseous matter, as, for in- 

 stance, of carbonic acid gas from the limestones, and by its pressure 

 and slow cooling, from the small conducting power of water, pre- 

 venting melted rocks from assuming the appearance of volcanic cin- 

 ders, slags, scoriae, and other inflated masses. 



The incumbent ocean is therefore indispensable to the correct de- 

 ductions of the theoretical geologist, even if he believe in the igne- 

 ous origin of the primitive rocks : still more, if he attribute these 

 rocks to dissolving agencies. 



With these views, then, the historical record happily agrees, and 

 geology has no quarrel with the sacred history. 



During the period when this dark abyss of waters prevailed, the 

 earth was without form, and void, or better, as Hebricians say — "the 

 earth was invisible and unfurnished we may presume that then 

 the early operations of geological formation and arrangement began, 

 by producing the fundamental rocks, and thus providing materials 

 for all the derivative strata, which, in the course of their consolida- 

 tion, were destined to embosom such an endless diversity of extra- 

 neous contents. 



