Prof. Necker on the History and Pf'ogress of Geology. 
I shall scarcely dwell upon the long period with which the re- 
view ought to commenccj as it presents but the history of the 
wanderings of intellect, and hardly affords any result worthy of 
being preserved. All the nations of antiquity, however, have 
had their cosmogonies, which, associating themselves with their 
mythological systems, connected the first origin of things with the 
history and the greatest interests of the human race. The Jews, 
and this is a very remarkable fact, were the only nation of an- 
tiquity, which, on certain particular points of the history of the 
earth, have possessed ideas, the accuracy of which has been de- 
monstrated by the most recent observations of the most improved 
geology. 
The order of succession of organised beings at the surface of 
the globe, which, in Sacred History, corresponds with the order 
of their creation, and the comparative recentness of the human 
race, are indications of a supernatural light thrown in the midst 
of the profound obscurity and absolute ignorance of the people 
of primeval times. And the sublime picture of the successive 
development of organisation upon the Earth, had already existed 
inscribed at the head of our Sacred Books, many ages before 
the diligent and scrupulous investigations of geologists and na- 
turalists had attained to the demonstration of its counter proof iti 
the bosom of the solid strata of the rocks and mountains. 
To search in the writings of the Hebrew Lawgiver for other 
data regarding the origin of the world, than those which attri- 
bute creation to its true and eternal Author ; to hope to find 
documents respecting the difierent revolutions which our globe 
had undergone before the last catastrophe which has left the 
surface in its present state, and has rendered it susceptible of be- 
coming the abode of man ; to wish to discover in a bqok devot- 
ed to man, considered as a moral being, to his duties, and the 
knowledge of his sublime destination, statements in respect to 
the physical sciences, — all this may have originated from a re- 
spectable source, and from sentiments which cannot be too much 
praised ; but experience has apprised us, that those who, with 
the purest intentions, have become interpreters of the Sacred 
Text, in order to find, and have found in it, the confirmation of 
their own systematic views, have misunderstood its true object, 
and have benefited neither religion nor science. On the other 
