DISCOVERIES WITH SACRED HISTORY. 13 
ture of the earth, then almost totally un- 
known ; the time was not then come w hen the 
knowledge of natural phenomena was suffici- 
ently advanced to admit of any profitable in- 
vestigation of this question ; but the discoveries 
of the last half century have been so extensive 
in this department of natural knowledge, that, 
whether we will or not, the subject is now forced 
upon our consideration, and can no longer es- 
cape discussion. The truth is, that all observers, 
however various may be their speculations, re- 
specting the secondary causes by which geolo- 
gical phenomena have been brought about, are 
now agreed in admitting the lapse of very long 
periods of time to have been an essential condi- 
tion to the production of these phenomena. 
It may therefore be proper, in this part of our 
enquiry, to consider how far the brief account of 
creation, contained in the Mosaic narrative, can 
be shown to accord with those natural phe- 
nomena, which will come under consideration 
in the course of the present essay. Indeed 
some examination of this question seems in- 
dispensable at the very threshold of an inves- 
tigation, the subject matter of which will be 
derived from a series of events, for the most part, 
long antecedent to the creation of the human 
species. I trust it may be shown, not only that 
there is no inconsistency between our interpreta- 
tion of the phenomena of nature and of the Mo- 
