GEOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS. 
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tive discipline "of a science, which rids us 
of errors and prejudices derived from early 
habit and association, and implants in their 
stead more just and philosophical ideas of 
nature, and her Divine Author." — Pp. 83 — ■ 
85. 
This done, the writer proceeds to the most 
delicate portion of his task, that of proving 
from stubborn facts the extreme antiquity of 
the earth. Scripture tells us that in the 
beginning God made heaven and earth ; and 
the earth was without form, and void. Now, 
however, we may associate this with the period 
at which man, and all that appertained! to his 
use, were created in six days, there is nothing 
irreconcilable with the fact, that this globe, 
in some form or other, had then existed mil- 
lions of years ; and that the words, " in 
the beginning," referred back to an origin 
ages before the creation of man, or the cre- 
ation of any one animal destined for his 
especial use ; but it is better to quote Mr. 
Richardson : — 
"Antiquity of the Earth. — Thus while 
we are accustomed to regard our planet as 
coeval only with man, and as dating but from 
the five or six thousand years which science 
and revelation unite to prove as the era of his 
creation, Geology demonstrates the far superior 
antiquity of the planet assigned for his abode. 
The mere investigation into the crust of the 
earth, that is, of the part accessible to human 
observation, will convince us that the sub- 
stances of which it is composed, from their 
variety, extent, and order of succession, could 
only be the result of accumulation, continued 
through vast and incalculable cycles of time. 
We find that all the formations are aqueous 
and fossiliferous, with the exception of the 
granite,„and gneiss, and mica-schist systems ; 
though even these, according to the highly 
probable opinion of many geologists, were 
originally of like nature with the rest ; the 
absence of stratification in the one instance, 
and of organic remains in both, having been 
occasioned by the intense heat which has 
reduced them to their present crystalline con- 
dition. The vast series of the remaining 
formations, and possibly even these, are there- 
fore the mineralized beds of primeval oceans, 
with occasional but rare interpolations of 
fluviatile and lacustrine strata ; the deposits 
of seas, or of rivers, and lakes, bearing in their 
stratified arrangement, and the fossil relics of 
the animal forms which once inhabited their 
waters, incontestable proof of their sedimen- 
tary nature and origin. They are, it is well 
known, of immense extent and area, the 
marine formations rivalling in space and 
grandeur the vast Atlantic or Pacific ; while 
the fresh-water floods appear to have vied with 
the enormous lakes and inland seas of the 
American continent at the present day. These 
aqueous accumulations, subsequently to their 
deposition, have repeatedly undergone the 
action of disturbing causes ; the eruptive 
rocks have broken through the sedimentary 
deposits ; and volcanic ejections, terrestrial 
and submarine, have exploded from below, 
have pierced and shattered the superincumbent 
beds ; have forced and wedged their sheets of 
molten matter into the chasms of the strata 
they have divided ; or bursting to the top, 
have poured their waves, and spread their 
terraces over the surface of the whole. 
Periods of intense volcanic activity have 
been followed by others of repose, which have 
again been succeeded by revivals of former 
energy ; so that frequent alterations of this 
nature, of enormous extent and duration, 
have occurred, even in periods which are 
regarded as the most modern in the history 
of the earth. 
"In pursuing the natural and legitimate 
mode of interpreting the past by the present, 
and observing the effect of similar agencies in 
existing nature, we are forcibly impressed 
with the slowness of these operations at the 
present clay. Lakes are ascertained to shoal 
up, or deposit sediment, in the proportion of 
only a foot in a century ; and even oceanic 
deposits are known to be correspondingly 
tardy of accumulation. Hence we find that 
during the entire historic period, the physical 
geography of our globe, with the exception of 
local and minor modifications, has remained 
unaltered. The oceans, rivers, lakes and 
mountains recorded in Scripture, form the 
physical features of the same regions at the 
present day ; and arriving at a more modern 
period, and at localities lessaremote from our- 
selves, we find that the ocean which Caesar 
crossed, still separates the Briton from the 
Gaul ; that the same rivers water the capi- 
tals of the same countries of Europe ; while 
the same Vesuvius which overwhelmed Her- 
culaneum and Pompeii beneath its ejections, 
still threatens the surrounding districts ; 
and the same submarine volcanic agency, 
which, as we have mentioned, alarmed the 
Roman people, still continues in activity, 
and produces similar phenomena, at the 
present day. 
" When, therefore, reverting from the 
present to the past, we contemplate those 
operations which have formed or modified the 
crust of our globe, and observe their extent 
and grandeur ; when we find evidence, not of 
a single change, but of cycles of mutations ; 
of seas on seas : with alternations of dry land 
in the existence of forests, rivers, and lakes ; 
together with proofs of volcanic agency, with 
its long-continued intervals of action and 
repose ; and when we reflect that nothing is 
