%0 6 
Dr Fleming on the Geological Deluge. 
second place in the estimation of these geologists. Here, again, 
the details of Revelation were so deficient as to lead some to sup- 
pose that our copy of the Book of Genesis was more abridged 
than the one possessed by the ancient Jews. — (Kirwan’s Geol 
Es. 48.). The surface of the Earth was hastily looked at for 
proofs of the effects of this catastrophe ; and again the imagina- 
tion supplied that which observation could not yield. Burnet 
brought the waters from below, through the broken crust with 
which he fancied they had been covered during the antediluvian 
period, and with the fragments of this crust he formed the moun- 
tains. Woodward suspended, for a time, all cohesion among the 
particles of earth, and reduced the globe to a soft paste ; while 
Whiston, not inferior in fancy to any of his predecessors, called 
a comet to his auk 
While philosophers were thus claiming the attention of the 
public in favour of their efforts to reconcile geology with revela- 
tion, they were powerfully assisted by individuals of another de- 
scription. The 44 Place of Descent” where the 44 Ark” rested, 
had long been regarded as determined ; remains of the timber 
had been preserved ; and many pieces of the bitumen, with 
which it was calked, had been carried off to be employed as 
amulets for averting mischief. The skeletons of the antediluvian 
inhabitants were eagerly sought after; and the Continent of Eu- 
rope seemed to furnish the expected, documents even the 
grinders and thigh-bones of the antediluvian giants were disin- 
terred from those graves which for so many ages they had oc- 
cupied. 
As science advanced, these theories of the deluge appeared in 
their true light ; as unsupported by the statements in Scripture, 
and as inconsistent with the phenomena of nature. The skele- 
ton of the antediluvian man became that of an acknowledged 
reptile ; while the grinders and thigh-bones of the giants were 
admitted to belong to elephants. The geologist beheld his 
theories vanish like a dream, and the admirer of revelation felt 
(though very unnecessarily) as if a pillar of his faith had be- 
come a broken reed. Geology, by these premature attempts at 
generalization, fell into discredit as a science among philoso- 
phers, and by the Christian it was viewed with suspicion. 
The former had witnessed opinions and assertions substituted 
for facts ; and the latter had reaped the fruits of misplaced con- 
