we are unable to say ; for, as Lyell points out, “ heat hastens the 
decomposition ot leaves and trees, whether in the atmosphere or 
in the water, and we know too little of the sigillaria and other 
peculiar forms of the carboniferous period to be able to speculate 
with confidence on the kind of climate they may have required.”* 
77. But this we do know, that all these magnificent coal- 
fields, extending more or less through the geological periods, 
must have been designed by a wise and provident Creator • 
not for the creatures which existed on earth after their first 
ormation, but solely for the use of that being made in His 
image and after His likeness in the person of Man. And herein 
consists one of the many enormous gulfs between Man and 
Least, which some philosophers are vainly doing their utmost 
in the present day to minify as much as possible, in order to 
adopt the wildest hypothesis that was ever conceived in the 
human brain, of seeking to show man's pedigree from an 
ascidian tadpole and an Old World monkey; for it is well known 
and admitted by all savans that those animals which have 
approached nearest the human in the way of reason or instinct, 
have never had the slightest conception of the meaning of those 
vast coal-fields which the Creator has provided so beneficially 
for the use of man.f 
78. This will lead us to the consideration of the declaration 
of Moses respecting the existence of Light. “ And God said. 
Let there be light, and there was light.” It may be fairly 
assumed that in the whole range of literature from the beginning 
of time nothing has ever equalled this sublime speech respecting 
the creation of that to which the Creator likens Himself; for 
“ God is Light,” as St. John taught, and, as St. Paul declares, 
“ dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto ” ; since it 
argues uncontrollable authority and omnific power. And it 
Lyell's Elements of Geology, c. xxv. p. 501. 
t> ‘ uiecc l°^ e . told of the late George Stephenson once asking Dr. 
Auckland, on seeing a train rush by, “ What propels those carriages ? ” 
Steam, was the natural reply. “But how is steam produced ?” retorted 
btephenson. The man of theory and science, knowing it would be useless to 
say, Because water boils,” was discreetly silent, when the self-taught and 
practical engineer made this memorable reply “ It is light bottled up in 
the earth for tens of thousands of years.” A most original idea. Like a 
Hash of lightning it illuminated an entire field of science. For coal, as is well 
kuown, is the formation of decayed vegetable matter, which would inevitably 
perish, were it not for the absorption of light, by which its vitality has been 
retained in another shape as countless ages have rolled by. Light absorbed 
by plants and vegetables is necessary for the condensation of carbon during 
the process of their growth, and now after being buried for so vast a period 
in fields of coal, that long-hidden light is again brought forth and made to 
work, as in the produce of steam, for the use of man f 
