principal facts in the natural history of the earth, or, on the other, have exercised arbitrary power upon the sacred books, in despite of the fair methods of interpretation by which alone we are warranted to treat ancient writings.

When we are compelled, by the force of conviction, to make observations of this kind, it is proper to shew that we do not stand alone. I consider it to be an advantage for aiding the mind in the pursuit of truth, and therefore to be eminently my duty, to adduce a small number of citations from Christian Philosophers, whose knowledge on these subjects is the hard-earned fruit of fair labour in toiling over hundreds of miles of rocky mountains, and of close study for the rigid scrutiny of results.

I shall first take a few paragraphs from a most diligent and laborious investigator, and a devout Christian. A regard to brevity will oblige me to select detached passages; but they will represent, without perversion or exaggeration, the meaning and design of the continuous pages. Certain English authors are those referred to, but their names need not be introduced.

The hypothesis of those writers have been "defended with no small ability of a certain kind, and with the most dogmatic assurance. -They were compelled to pay so much deference to the advanced state of science at the present time, as to knock off some of the Hutchinsonian protuberances; yet they have not gone into the core of the system, to make any reformation there. Their works are distinguished by great positiveness of opinion. Where the ablest Geologists wait for further light,

they cut the knot at once.—— -The relative importance of facts is often presented by them in such a manner, as to betray at once their want of practical acquaintance with the subject.These works are distinguished by very great severity and intolerance towards the leading Geologists of the last half century. A powerful attempt has been made to exhibit the 'Mosaical and Mineral Geologies' (to borrow the unfair phraseology which figures in one of their titles,) as at variance in their fundamental principles; so that the one or the other must be abandoned: and, in doing this, they have sadly misapprehended the views of Geologists. Because the latter have imputed the changes in the earth's condition to secondary causes, they are charged with Atheism." One of them "says, 'It is manifest that the Mineral Geology, considered as a science, can do as well without God, though in a question concerning the origin of the earth, as Lucretius did.' Now, such a sweeping charge would never have been made had" the writer "not entirely misunderstood the Geologists; or had he been practically familiar with the structure of the earth's crust: for they have referred to second causes those changes, which no man thoroughly acquainted with them would regard as miraculous, any more than he would the existence of such a city as London or Paris. And they have had no idea of doing without God, because they suppose the world to have had an earlier origin than" the censurer "admits: for, at whatever period it began to exist, it would alike require infinite power and wisdom to create and arrange it. Geologists, with scarcely an exception, have decidedly and boldly opposed such views" as these imputations of atheism.

The course which" those opponents "have taken, will inevitably produce, among pious men, not familiar with science, a prejudice against it and a jealousy of its cultivation. How disastrous such a result would be, let the painful history of the past testify."-Further "these works are distinguished by the adoption of very extravagant theories, and very great distortion of Geological facts, as well as of the language of Scripture. None but a Geologist can know what absurdities must be received, and what distortions made of facts, before such opinions can be embraced. To the Geologist they

appear a thousand times more extravagant and opposed to facts, than any opinions that have been entertained by the cultivators of this science.--But these hypotheses require scarcely less perversion of the Sacred Records."—After giving an instance of this bold dealing with the Bible, the Professor adds, “This, in the matter of interpretation, is 'straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel '--We have no doubt that" these and similar writers " are sincerely desirous of vindicating Revelation from the attacks of scientific sceptics, and that this desire prompted them to write as they have done. But we cannot doubt that the effect of their works on [those] real Geologists who are sceptical, will be very unhappy. Such persons will see that these authors- -do not understand the subject about which they write; and they will see a spirit manifested which will not greatly exalt their ideas of the influence of Christianity."*

I next ask attention to a passage, conspicuous for the beauty of its language, and the justness of its reasoning, from one of the ornaments of the University of Cambridge, the Woodwardian Professor of Mineralogy and Geology.

"A philosopher may smile at the fulminations of the Vatican against those who, with Copernicus, maintained the motion of the earth; but he ought to sigh, when he finds that the heart of man is no better than it was of old, and that his arrogance and folly are still the same.- -There are still found some who dare to affirm that the pursuits of natural science are hostile to religion. An assertion more false in itself, or more dishonourable to the cause of true religion, has not been conceived in the mind of man.

"The Bible instructs us, that man and other living things, have been placed but a few years upon the earth; and the

* Historical and Geological Deluges Compared; in the American Biblical Repository, vol. IX. passages from p. 108 to 114; 1837. By the Rev. Edward Hitchcock, LL.D. Prof. of Chemistry, &c. Amherst College, New England.

physical monuments of the world bear witness to the same truth. If the Astronomer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the sacred records; the Geologist, in like manner, proves (not by arguments from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of physical phenomena [presented to the plain cognizance of our senses,]) that there were former conditions of our planet, separated from each other by vast intervals of time, during which man, and the other creatures of his own date, had not been called into being. Periods such as these belong not, therefore, to the moral history of our race; and come within neither the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between the first creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval? On this question, scripture is silent: but that silence destroys not the meaning of those physical monuments of his power which God has put before our eyes, giving us, at the same time, faculties whereby we may interpret them and comprehend their meaning.

"In the present condition of our knowledge, a statement like this is surely enough to satisfy the reasonable scruples of a religious man. But let us, for a moment, suppose that there are some religious difficulties in the conclusions of Geology: how then are we to solve them?- -Not by shutting our eyes to facts, or denying the evidence of cur senses; but by patient investigation carried on in the sincere love of truth, and by learning to reject every consequence not warranted by direct physical evidence. Pursued in this spirit, Geology can neither lead to any false conclusions nor offend against any religious truth. And this is the spirit in which many men have of late years followed this delightful science; devoting the best labours of their lives to its cultivation; turning over the successive leaves of nature's book, and interpreting her language, which they know to be a physical revelation of God's will; patiently working their way through investigations requiring much toil of both mind and body; accepting hypotheses only as a means of connecting disjointed phenomena, and rejecting them when they become unfitted for that office, so as, in the end, to build only upon facts and true natural causes. All this they have done, and are still doing: so that, however unfinished may be

D

the fabric they have attempted to rear, its foundations are laid upon a rock.

"But there is another class of men, who pursue Geology by a nearer road and are guided by a different light. Well-intentioned they may be; but they have betrayed no small selfsufficiency, along with a shameful want of knowledge of the fundamental facts they presume to write about. Hence, they have dishonoured the literature of this country, by Mosaic Geology,' 'Scripture Geology,' and other works of cosmogony with kindred titles; wherein they have overlooked the aim and end of revelation, tortured the book of life out of its proper meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a collision between natural phenomena and the word of God.——They have committed the folly and the SIN, of dogmatizing on matters which they have not personally examined, and, at the utmost, know only at second-hand; of pretending to teach mankind on points where they themselves are uninstructed. Authors such as these ought to have first considered, that book-learning (in whatsoever degree they may be gifted with it,) is but a pitiful excuse for writing mischievous nonsense; and that, to a divine or a man of letters, ignorance of the laws of nature and of material phenomena is then only disgraceful, when he quits his own ground and pretends to teach philosophy.- -A Brahmin crushed with a stone the microscope that first shewed him living things among the vegetables of his daily food.

"It would indeed be a vain and idle task, to engage in controversy with this school of false philosophy; to waste our breath in the forms of exact reasoning unfitted to the comprehension of our antagonists; to draw our weapons in a combat where victory could give no honour.- -Their position is impregnable, while they remain within the fences of their ignorance.

Another eminent author, after largely discussing this class of subjects, Dr. Chalmers, says: "We conclude with adverting to the unanimity of Geo

* Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge; passages form p. 148 to 152; 1834.