FAIRHOLME ON GEOLOGY. 



217 



always found in the cells. It resists the action of water, but dissolves 

 in spirits of wine. This solution is not precipitated by water like that 

 of the resins. All the coloured matter of leaves, flowers, and fruits, 

 are contained in the cells, as well as in the acid, astringent, saline, 

 &c, juices. In short, we there find the farina which forms the seed, 

 and the mucilage which sometimes forms little seeds, and sometimes 

 small crystals, and sometimes is already fluid. Chemical anatomy has 

 shown me remarkable varieties in the mucilage of plants. 



MR. FAIRHOLME ON SCRIPTURE GEOLOGY*. 



At a period like the present, when many of the disciples of modern 

 geology either boldly disclaim all belief in the Mosaical account of the 

 creation, or consider it, at best, as a mere allegory ; and when others, 

 with a less daring, but not less dangerous scepticism, admit, with 

 Moses, the broad, self-evident truth, that God did, at some time, and 

 in some manner and form, call this world into being by his own imme- 

 diate act, but deny that the time and mode are explicitly detailed in 

 the sacred record he has bequeathed us ; when both allow, that since 

 the first creation it has obviously undergone a violent revolution, but 

 contend that the history of the deluge is insufficient to account for it ; 

 and when a third party, professing its belief in the Mosaical history, 

 tampers with its details, or distorts them to any meaning that may 

 best suit some favourite hypothesis, extending days into ages, mul- 

 tiplying revolutions, and, in short, giving the sacred text any inter- 

 pretation rather than the literal and true one ; at such a period we 

 hail the appearance of the work before us with unfeigned satisfaction. 

 To relieve the mind of the anxious and sincere inquirer after truth 

 from perplexity ; to disengage it from error concerning the important 

 subject of which it treats ; and to demonstrate the essential connexion 

 between scriptural and physical evidence, when we endeavour to explain 

 the causes of the present state of the crust of the earth, by the sensible 



* A General View of the Geology of Scripture, in which the unerring Truth 

 of the inspired Narrative of the early Events in the World is exhibited and 

 distinctly proved by the corroborative Testimony of physical Facts on every Part of 

 the Earth's Surface. By G. Fairholme, Esq. 8vo. London, 1833. 



