the formation of the atmosphere. A consummation, which, by the line of argument we have adopted, namely, proving the necessity of aerated blood for the motions of animals, is shown to be absolutely indispensable before the higher tribes of animals could, according to our ideas of divine wisdom and goodness, have been willed into existence; and such being so clearly the case, it seems evident, that the announcement on the part of the inspired historian, of those races having been willed into existence at the period recorded by him, implies that he was fully acquainted with all the previous phases through which the earth, in its creation, had passed; and amongst the rest, the protracted stage of non-rotation so indispensable for the generation and exhalation of the elements of the ethereal fluid, and also for that of the principal ponderable bases of the atmosphere.

We scarcely know whether this be a proper time to press upon the reader's attention an abiding conception which has been generated in our own mind, from the studies requisite to elicit the foregoing evidences; we shall, therefore, merely allude to it at present, in the hope that the future advancement of scientific research may either confirm or entirely disprove its reality; we mean, that according to the laws which it pleased the Creator to impress upon the works of his own hand, it became necessary, before any beings, possessing the power of locomotion by atmospheric air, could be willed into existence, the pervading but opposing forces of attraction and expansion should travel in parallel lines, passing through and coming from the same central orb of each planetary system; that previous thereto, or so long as those forces travelled in directions oblique to each other, there could have been no aeriation of the blood by respiration, no motion of the heart, no play of the respiratory organs, and consequently no voluntary motion. We do not mean to attempt any proof on so hypothetical an assumption as this at present is, but we do consider it to be a presumptive corroboration, that the concentration of the expansive principle, light, should have taken place around the central orb, the original centre of attraction of our system, before any beings dependant on respiration for

the aeriation of their blood and the animal force necessary to produce locomotion, were willed into existence.

We have premised that this is a mere fore-stretch of thought; but reverting to points thoroughly wrought out and elaborately established during the course of our work, we may terminate this closing part of our discourse with the following assertions:

That before the material light could overcome the inertia of the world, and cause the rotation of the earth around its axis, it was necessary that it should have been girded round, as it were, by layer after layer of stratified masses of mineral material, arranged according to a preconcerted order of superposition; and, that although, during innumerable ages, the submarine surface of this non-rotating sphere was extensively encrusted, not only by widely spreading masses of vegetation, but also by groups of living beings, diligently and submissively working out the designs of the omnipotent Creator, "God over all blessed for ever;" yet not one of the latter of these was possessed of either perfect gills or perfect lungs-in fine, that there was not a single material being endowed with the faculty of free and full locomotion within the whole range of the solar economy, until after the spheres had been caused to revolve around their axes, the atmosphere had been formed, and the light had been concentrated around the sun in the centre of the planetary system.

CONCLUSION.

PART I.

FROM THE BEGINNING" TO THE TERMINATION OF THE GEOLOGICAL

EVIDENCES.

The nature of the investigations which have so long engaged our attention confers peculiar importance on the concluding portion of this work, in which we shall endeavour to give a clear, concise, and continuous summary of what has been written: the more needful, as from the peculiarity of the subject, we have frequently been obliged to assume positions until, by undeniable evidences, others had been established which, in turn, should prove the soundness of those assumptions upon which we had been constrained, temporarily, to depend. The adoption of this method of procedure-in itself by no means desirable-having been rendered unavoidable, not only from there being no individual point standing out in relief, and thereby denoting itself to be the first link in the almost interminable chain, which might have been taken up separately and proved by itself, but because it likewise fell to our lot, to prove to the inhabitants of a world, accustomed to its diurnal rotation, that there was a long but indefinite period during which the revolving pedestal they tread on, though wheeled, as now, through space, had no movement around its axis; and that its protorotation caused the variety of hills and dales, continents and oceans, which now diversify its surface.

In the midst of doubt, as to the order of sequence which might enable us most effectually to explain these startling truths, we determined to follow, as closely as possible, that

which was offered for our guidance in the Divine Record; too happy, indeed, when in such perplexity, to have so unerring a guide to lead us through the embarrassments and difficulties of our undertaking. At the same time we laid it down as a fundamental rule, to avoid generalities, and to go into detail in bringing forward the scientific evidences which support our several positions along the whole line of argument.

Adhering to these two leading principles, and refraining from going back beyond a period debarred from finite creatures, but faithfully receiving what stands so clearly recorded, that there was a "beginning," when it pleased God to create the materials of "the heaven and the earth;" and believing, on the same authority, that the waters then covered them, for, "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," we considered there was a mineral crust at the bottom of these waters; while presupposing a non-rotating condition of our sphere, submerged, as it was, in the primeval ocean, and revolving in that state around the unillumined sun, by the equipoise of the same divellent forces which still govern its orbital motion-we assumed, in accordance with what we considered to be the implied meaning of the Scriptural Record, that the material crust at the bottom of the primeval waters, was tenanted by innumerable tribes of living creatures without the faculty of locomotion in its full signification, "the immovable creature that hath life," which were not willed into existence during the Mosaic week. The speciality of this command having led us to believe, that there was a design of limitation in it, and that the line was drawn where atmospheric air is indispensable to accelerate motion, our next care therefore was, to substantiate this fundamental position of all our future argument. It need not be thought surprising, therefore, if to this we dedicated a larger portion of our work, and have gone more into detail on this point than in most of the others.

That not a removable doubt might rankle in the mind to cloud the conviction, we defined the whole animal kingdom, according to the Cuvierian classification; and eliminating from it, by order after order, and by species after species, all those which live and move, in the full meaning of these terms, we showed, without attempting to trace the precise line of sepa

ration, that there still remained a considerable residue which enjoy all the animal functions save that of free locomotion, accelerated at will by the assistance of atmospheric air. Consequently, that they could not have been comprehended in the creation of animals on the fifth and sixth days of the Mosaic week; and must, therefore, have existed previously. We next made it evident, that all such animal organisms are inhabitants of the water, and showed their adaptation, by the specific gravity of their shelly coverings and other concomitant circumstances, for being the tenants of the bottom of the ocean, and also their independency of atmospheric air.

The several lists of fossilized animal remains, discovered in the successive stratified formations, were then adduced, and a careful comparison having been instituted between them and the several classes of animals, obtained by the differential method which we adopted; the result was a close analogy between our a priori conclusions and the actual discoveries of geologists. By this we were enabled to apply the fact of their pre-existence, in explanation of the design which the Creator had in thus early willing them into being.

This we effected by showing, that their defective respiratory organs, on a par with their restricted faculty of locomotion, and the physiological development and functions of their internal structure, together with their method of depositing carbonate of lime, evidently manifested that plenary motion was denied them, in order, that while each was intent in encrusting itself with a coating of enduring calcareous material, their energies should be dedicated to the exudation of carbonic acid through the corium, which, in combination with calcium, unitedly assisted to form those vast calcareous stratified masses, which enter everywhere so conspicuously into the structure of the external shell of the great globe itself: that they were thus destined to leave indelible marks of having once existed in the strata, to demonstrate to all futurity, that the whole surface of the now rotating sphere was once submerged in the primitive waters-no other conditions of materialism, nor no other of its forms being accordant with the doctrine, that the seas, of our day, did at one time simultaneously overflow every part of the surface of the earth.