498 Rough Notes on the controversy against Geologists, 



that tremendous and general convulsion, which shall over- 

 whelm and alter the surface of the globe at the consumma- 

 tion of the present order of things ; when, to gather strength 

 for that last outbreak, the subterranean forces have been 

 confined, and shall still be, for numerous ages beneath the 

 solid vault enclosing them, till, at length, overcoming its 

 cohesive power, they shall burst forth in a wide-spread, 

 rending, and explosive eruption. 



Such is an imperfect sketch of the hypothesis of succes- 

 sive creations, of successive destruction of them by igneous 

 or aqueous action on the earth's surface, and of the chief 

 argument by which such a view is supported. And this 

 supposition of eruptive or cataclysmic action at remote pe- 

 riods, by which the greater part of animated being on the 

 globe is destroyed, and is replaced by a new creation, con- 

 sequent upon the direct interference of the Creator, is not 

 merely not at variance with revelation, but is even supported 

 and confirmed by it, and confirms and supports it in its 

 turn. Ridicule has been attempted to be cast upon it by 

 its opponents, by seizing on some verbal expressions, as if it 

 were held that the world was supposed to be thus reduced 

 to " a wreck," " a ruin," "a chaos," down to the very cen- 

 tre. This indeed would be absurd and most improbable, 

 and contrary to evidence, contrary to fact. A cataclysm, 

 or an eruptive convulsion of the earth, does not, in a geo- 

 logical sense, infer such an extent of commovement. With 

 the exception of the submersion of one part of the earth's 

 surface, the upheaving of another, and the extrusion of a 

 comparatively limited extent of highly heated rocks in a 

 fused state from below, it may even consist with but slight 

 alterations upon the earth at its surface. It merely implies 

 such an amount of the joint effects of the actions of fire and 

 water as is sufficient to destroy organised being at the time, 

 with the probable exception of such shell fish, &c. as might 

 be sheltered from it in the recesses of the ocean, and so 



