{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_28248/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_28248","id":"gutenberg_28248","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28248","summary":null,"tags":["Bible and geology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Science - Earth/Agricultural/Farming","Creation","Religion and science"],"text":"E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Greg Bergquist, and the\nProject Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team\n(https://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n file which includes the original illustrations.\n See 28248-h.htm or 28248-h.zip:\n (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/2/4/28248/28248-h/28248-h.htm)\n or\n (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/8/2/4/28248/28248-h.zip)\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n The punctuation and spelling from the original text have been\n faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographical errors have\n been corrected.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;\n\nOr,\n\nGeology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed.\n\nby\n\nHUGH MILLER\n\n * * * * *\n\nWORKS BY HUGH MILLER,\n\n PUBLISHED BY\n\n GOULD AND LINCOLN,\n\n 59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.\n\n\n I.\n\n THE OLD RED SANDSTONE;\n OR, NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD.\n\n Illustrated with Plates and Geological Sections. 12mo, cloth. Price\n $1.00.\n\n \"It is withal one of the most beautiful specimens of English\n composition to be found, conveying information on a most difficult\n and profound science, in a style at once novel, pleasing and\n elegant.\"--DR. SPRAGUE, ALBANY SPECTATOR.\n\n\n II.\n\n MY FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE.\n\n With a fine Engraving of the Author. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.00.\n\n A thrillingly interesting and instructive book of travels;\n presenting the most perfectly life-like views of England and its\n People to be found in the language.\n\n\n III.\n\n THE FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR;\n OR, THE ASTEROLEPIS OF STROMNESS.\n\n With numerous Illustrations. With a Memoir of the Author, by Louis\n Agassiz. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.00.\n\n Dr. Buckland said HE WOULD GIVE HIS LEFT HAND TO POSSESS SUCH\n POWERS OF DESCRIPTION AS THIS MAN.\n\n\n IV.\n\n MY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS;\n OR, THE STORY OF MY EDUCATION.\n\n AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.\n\n With a full length Portrait of the Author. 12mo, cloth. Price $1.25.\n\n This is a personal narrative of a deeply interesting and\n instructive character, concerning one of the most remarkable men of\n the age. It should be read and studied by every young man in the\n land.\n\n\n V.\n\n TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;\n\n OR, GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES,\n NATURAL AND REVEALED.\n\n \"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.\"--JOB.\n\n With numerous elegant Illustrations. One volume, royal 12mo. Price $1.25.\n\n This is the largest and most comprehensive geological work of this\n distinguished author. It exhibits the profound learning, the\n felicitous style, and the scientific perception, which characterize\n his former works, while it embraces the latest results of\n geological discovery. But the great charm of the book lies in those\n passages of glowing eloquence, in which, having spread out his\n facts, the author proceeds to make deductions from them of the most\n striking and exciting character.\n\n * * * * *\n\n--> The above works may be had in sets of uniform size and style of\nbinding.\n\n\nVALUABLE WORKS.\n\nKNOWLEDGE IS POWER: A VIEW OF THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF MODERN SOCIETY,\nand the Result of Labor, Capital, and Skill. By CHARLES KNIGHT. American\nedition, with Additions, by DAVID A. WELLS, Editor of \"Annual of\nScientific Discovery,\" &c. With numerous Illustrations. 12mo, cloth.\n$1.25.\n\n This work is eminently entitled to be ranked in that class, styled,\n \"BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE.\" The author is one of the most popular\n writers of the day. \"Knowledge is Power\" treats of those things\n Which \"come home to the business and bosoms\" of every man. It is\n remarkable for its fullness and variety of information, and for the\n felicity and force with which the author applies his facts to his\n reasoning. The facts and illustrations are drawn from almost every\n branch of skilful industry. It is a work which the mechanic and\n artizan of every description will be sure to read with a RELISH.\n\n This is a work of rare merit, and touches many strings of\n importance with which society is linked together. No work we have\n ever seen is better calculated to inspire and awaken inventive\n genius in man than this. Almost every department of human labor is\n represented, and it contains a large fund of useful information,\n condensed in a volume, every chapter of which is worth the cost of\n the book. It would be an act of manifest injustice to the community\n for any editor to feel an indifference about commending this volume\n to a reading public.--N.Y. CH. HERALD.\n\n The style is admirable, and the book itself is as full of\n information as an egg is of meat.--JOURNAL.\n\n As teachers we know no better remuneration, than for them FIRST to\n buy this book and diligently read it themselves; SECOND, to teach\n to their pupils the principles of industrial organization which it\n contains, and of the facts by which it is illustrated. It is one of\n the merits of this book that its facts will interest youthful minds\n and be retained to blossom hereafter into theories of which they\n are now incapable. THIRD, endeavor to have a copy procured for the\n district library, that the parents may read it, and the teachers\n reap fruit in the present generation.--N.Y. TEACHER.\n\n Contains a great amount of information, accompanied with numerous\n illustrations, rendering it a compendious history of the subjects\n upon which it treats.--N.Y. COURIER AND INQUIRER.\n\n We commend the work as one of real value and profitable\n reading.--ROCHESTER AMERICAN.\n\n This work is a rich repository of valuable information on various\n subjects, having a bearing on the industrial end social interests\n of a community.--PURITAN RECORDER.\n\n\nMY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS; OR, THE STORY OF MY EDUCATION. BY HUGH\nMILLER, author of \"Old Red Sandstone,\" \"Footprints of the Creator,\" \"My\nFirst Impressions of England,\" etc. 12mo, cloth. $1.25.\n\n \"This autobiography is quite worthy of the renowned author. His\n first attempts at literature, and his career until he stood forth\n an acknowledged power among the philosophers and ecclesiastical\n leaders of his native land, are given without egotism, with a power\n and vivacity which are equally truthful and\n delightsome.\"--PRESBYTERIAN.\n\n \"Hugh Miller is one of the most remarkable men of the age. Having\n risen from the humble walks of life, and from the employment of a\n stone-cutter, to the highest rank among scientific men, everything\n relating to his history possesses an interest which belongs to that\n of few living men. There is much even in his school-boy days which\n points to the man as he now is. The book has all the ease and\n graphic power which in characteristic of his writings.\"--NEW YORK\n OBSERVER.\n\n \"This volume is a book for the ten thousand. It is embellished with\n an admirable likeness of Hugh Miller, the stone mason--his coat off\n and his sleeves rolled up--with the implements of labor in\n hand--his form erect, and his eye bright and piercing. The\n biography of such a man will interest every reader. It is a living\n thing--teaching a lesson of self-culture of immense\n value.\"--PHILADELPHIA CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.\n\n \"It is a portion of autobiography exquisitely told. He is a living\n proof that a single man may contain within himself something more\n than all the books in the world, some unuttered word, if he will\n look within and read. This is one of the best books we have had of\n late, and must have a hearty welcome and a large circulation in\n America.\"--LONDON CORRESP. N.Y. TRIBUNE.\n\n \"It is a work of rare interest; at times having the fascination of\n a romance, and again suggesting the profoundest views of education\n and of science. The ex-mason holds a graphic pen; a quiet humor\n runs through his pages; he tells a story well, and some of his\n pictures of home life might almost be classed with Wilson's.\"--NEW\n YORK INDEPENDENT.\n\n \"This autobiography is THE book for poor boys, and others who are\n struggling with poverty and limited advantages; and perhaps it is\n not too much to predict that in a few years it will become one of\n the poor man's classics, filling a space on his scanty shelf next\n to the Autobiography of Franklin.\"--NEW ENGLAND FARMER.\n\n \"Lovers of the romantic should not neglect the book, as it contains\n a narrative of tender passion and happily reciprocated affection,\n which will be read with subdued emotion and unfailing\n interest.\"--BOSTON TRAVELLER.\n\n * * * * *\n\n[Illustration: SPHENOPTERIS AFFINIS.\n\nA Fern of the Lower Coal Measures.\n\n(_Restored._)]\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS;\n\nOr,\n\nGeology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed.\n\nby\n\nHUGH MILLER,\n\nAuthor of \"The Old Red Sandstone,\" \"Footprints of the\nCreator,\" Etc., Etc.\n\nWith Memorials of the Death and Character of the Author.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field.\"--JOB.\n\n\nBoston:\nGould and Lincoln,\n59 Washington Street.\nNew York: Sheldon, Blakeman & Co.\nCincinnati: George S. Blanchard.\n1857.\n\nEntered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by GOULD AND\nLINCOLN, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of\nMassachusetts.\n\nElectro-Stereotyped\nby Geo. J. Stiles,\n23 Congress St., Boston.\n\n\n\n\n TO\n\n JAMES MILLER, ESQ., F.R.S.E.\n\n PROFESSOR OF SURGERY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.\n\nMY DEAR SIR,\n\nThis volume is chiefly taken up in answering, to the best of its\nauthor's knowledge and ability, the various questions which the old\ntheology of Scotland has been asking for the last few years of the\nnewest of the sciences. Will you pardon me the liberty I take in\ndedicating it to you? In compliance with the peculiar demand of the\ntime, that what a man knows of science or of art he should freely\ncommunicate to his neighbors, we took the field nearly together as\npopular lecturers, and have at least so far resembled each other in our\nmeasure of success, that the same class of censors have been severe upon\nboth. For while you have been condemned as a physiologist for asserting\nthat the human framework, when fairly wrought during the week, is\ngreatly the better for the rest of the Sabbath, I have been described by\nthe same pen as one of the wretched class of persons who teach that\ngeology, rightly understood, does not conflict with revelation. Besides,\nI owe it to your kindness that, when set aside by the indisposition\nwhich renders it doubtful whether I shall ever again address a popular\naudience, you enabled me creditably to fulfil one of my engagements by\nreading for me in public two of the following discourses, and by doing\nthem an amount of justice on that occasion which could never have been\ndone them by their author. Further, your kind attentions and advice\nduring the crisis of my illness were certainly every way suited to\nremind me of those so gratefully acknowledged by the wit of the last\ncentury, when he bethought him of\n\n \"kind Arbuthnot's aid,\n Who knew his art, but not his trade.\"\n\nAnd so, though the old style of dedication has been long out of fashion,\nI avail myself of the opportunity it affords me of expressing my entire\nconcurrence in your physiological views, my heartfelt gratitude for your\ngood services and friendship, and my sincere respect for the\ndisinterested part you have taken in the important work of elevating and\ninforming your humbler countryfolk,--while at the same time maintaining\nprofessionally, with Simpson and with Goodsir, the reputation of that\nschool of anatomy and medicine for which the Scottish capital has been\nlong so famous.\n\n I am,\n\n MY DEAR SIR,\n\n With sincere respect and regard,\n\n Yours affectionately,\n\n HUGH MILLER.\n\n\n\n\nTO THE READER.\n\n\nOf the twelve following Lectures, four (the First, Second, Fifth, and\nSixth) were delivered before the members of the Edinburgh Philosophical\nInstitution (1852 and 1855). One (the Third) was read at Exeter Hall\nbefore the Young Men's Christian Association (1854), and the substance\nof two of the others (the Eleventh and Twelfth) at Glasgow, before the\nGeological Section of the British Association (1855). Of the five\nothers,--written mainly to complete and impart a character of unity to\nthe volume of which they form a part,--only three (the Fourth, Seventh,\nand Eighth) were addressed viva voce to popular audiences. The Third\nLecture was published both in this country and America, and translated\ninto some of the Continental languages. The rest now appear in print for\nthe first time. Though their writer has had certainly no reason to\ncomplain of the measure of favor with which the read or spoken ones have\nbeen received, they are perhaps all better adapted for perusal in the\ncloset than for delivery in the public hall or lecture-room; while the\ntwo concluding Lectures are mayhap suited to interest only geologists\nwho, having already acquainted themselves with the generally ascertained\nfacts of their science, are curious to cultivate a further knowledge\nwith such new facts as in the course of discovery are from time to time\nadded to the common fund. In such of the following Lectures as deal with\nbut the established geologic phenomena, and owe whatever little merit\nthey may possess to the inferences drawn from these, or on the\nconclusions based upon them, most of the figured illustrations, though\nnot all, will be recognized as familiar: in the two concluding Lectures,\non the contrary, they will be found to be almost entirely new. They are\ncontributions, representative of the patient gleanings of years, to the\ngeologic records of Scotland; and exhibit, in a more or less perfect\nstate, no inconsiderable portion of all the forms yet detected in the\nrocks of her earlier Palaeozoic and Secondary floras.\n\nIt will be seen that I adopt, in my Third and Fourth Lectures, that\nscheme of reconciliation between the Geologic and Mosaic Records which\naccepts the six days of creation as vastly extended periods; and I have\nbeen reminded by a somewhat captious critic that I once held a very\ndifferent view, and twitted with what he terms inconsistency. I\ncertainly did once believe with Chalmers and with Buckland that the six\ndays were simply natural days of twenty-four hours each,--that they had\ncompressed the entire work of the existing creation,--and that the\nlatest of the geologic ages was separated by a great chaotic gap from\nour own. My labors at the time as a practical geologist had been very\nmuch restricted to the Palaeozoic and Secondary rocks, more especially\nto the Old Red and Carboniferous Systems of the one division, and the\nOolitic System of the other; and the long extinct organisms which I\nfound in them certainly did not conflict with the view of Chalmers. All\nI found necessary at the time to the work of reconciliation was some\nscheme that would permit me to assign to the earth a high antiquity, and\nto regard it as the scene of many succeeding creations. During the last\nnine years, however, I have spent a few weeks every autumn in exploring\nthe later formations, and acquainting myself with their peculiar\norganisms. I have traced them upwards from the raised beaches and old\ncoast lines of the human period, to the brick clays, Clyde beds, and\ndrift and boulder deposits of the Pleistocene era, and again from these,\nwith the help of museums and collections, up through the mammaliferous\ncrag of England, to its Red and its Coral crags. And the conclusion at\nwhich I have been compelled to arrive is, that for many long ages ere\nman was ushered into being, not a few of his humbler contemporaries of\nthe fields and woods enjoyed life in their present haunts, and that for\nthousands of years anterior to even their appearance, many of the\nexisting molluscs lived in our seas. That day during which the present\ncreation came into being, and in which God, when he had made \"the beast\nof the earth after his kind, and the cattle after their kind,\" at length\nterminated the work by moulding a creature in his own image, to whom he\ngave dominion over them all, was not a brief period of a few hours'\nduration, but extended over mayhap millenniums of centuries. No blank\nchaotic gap of death and darkness separated the creation to which man\nbelongs from that of the old extinct elephant, hippopotamus, and hyaena;\nfor familiar animals such as the red deer, the roe, the fox, the wild\ncat, and the badger, lived throughout the period which connected their\ntimes with our own; and so I have been compelled to hold, that the days\nof creation were not natural, but prophetic days, and stretched far back\ninto the bygone eternity. After in some degree committing myself to the\nother side, I have yielded to evidence which I found it impossible to\nresist; and such in this matter has been my inconsistency,--an\ninconsistency of which the world has furnished examples in all the\nsciences, and will, I trust, in its onward progress, continue to furnish\nmany more.\n\nEDINBURGH, DECEMBER, 1856.\n\n[The last proofs of this preface were despatched by the Author to his\nprinter only the day before that melancholy termination of his life, the\ndetails of which will be found in the \"MEMORIALS\" following.--AM.\nPUBLISHERS.]\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n PAGE\n MEMORIALS OF THE DEATH AND CHARACTER OF HUGH MILLER, 7\n\n LECTURE FIRST.\n\n THE PALAEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS, 33\n\n LECTURE SECOND.\n\n THE PALAEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS, 86\n\n LECTURE THIRD.\n\n THE TWO RECORDS, MOSAIC AND GEOLOGICAL, 141\n\n LECTURE FOURTH.\n\n THE MOSAIC VISION OF CREATION, 179\n\n LECTURE FIFTH.\n\n GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES. PART I. 211\n\n LECTURE SIXTH.\n\n GEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES. PART II. 237\n\n LECTURE SEVENTH.\n\n THE NOACHIAN DELUGE. PART I. 283\n\n LECTURE EIGHTH.\n\n THE NOACHIAN DELUGE. PART II. 320\n\n LECTURE NINTH.\n\n THE DISCOVERABLE AND THE REVEALED, 362\n\n LECTURE TENTH.\n\n THE GEOLOGY OF THE ANTI-GEOLOGISTS, 392\n\n LECTURE ELEVENTH.\n\n ON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. PART I. 429\n\n LECTURE TWELFTH.\n\n ON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND. PART II. 463\n\n\n\n\nList of Illustrations\n\n PAGE\n\n A Restoration of Sphenopteris affinis (_Frontispiece_)\n\n 1. The Genealogy of Plants, 40\n\n 2. Cyclopteris Hibernicus, 42\n\n 3. Conifer of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 43\n\n 4. The Genealogy of Animals, 45\n\n 5. Oldhamia antiqua (_oldest known Zoophyte_), 48\n\n 6. Palaeochorda minor, 49\n\n 7. Lycopodium clavatum, 51\n\n 8. Equisetum fluviatile, 51\n\n 9. Osmunda regalis (_Royal Fern_), 52\n\n 10. Pinus sylvestris (_Scotch Fir_), 53\n\n 11. Calamite? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 55\n\n 12. Lycopodite? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 55\n\n 13. Fern? of the Lower Old Red Sandstone, 56\n\n 14-19. Ferns of the Coal Measures, 58\n\n 20. Altingia excelsa (_Norfolk Island Pine_), 59\n\n 21. East Indian Fern (_Asophila perrotetiana_), 60\n\n 22. Section of Stem, of Tree-Fern (_Cyathea_), 60\n\n 23-25. Lepidodendron Sternbergii, 62\n\n 26. Calamites Mougeotii, 63\n\n 27. Sphenophyllum dentatum, 63\n\n 28. Sigillaria reniformis, 64\n\n 29. Sigillaria reniformis (_nat. size_), 65\n\n 30. Sigillaria pachyderma, 66\n\n 31. Stigmaria ficoides, 67\n\n 32. Favularia tessellata, 68\n\n 33. Lepidodendron obovatum, 68\n\n 34. Cycas revoluta, 69\n\n 35. Zamia pungens, 69\n\n 36. Zamia Feneonis, 69\n\n 37. Mantellia nidiformis, 70\n\n 38. Equisetum columnare, 71\n\n 39. Carpolithes conica, 72\n\n 40. Carpolithes Bucklandii, 72\n\n 41. Acer trilobatum, 73\n\n 42. Ulmus Bronnii (_leaf of a tree allied to the Elm_), 74\n\n 43. Palmacites Lamanonis (_a Palm of the Miocene of Aix_), 75\n\n 44. Cyclophthalmus Bucklandii (_a Fossil Scorpion of the Coal\n Measures of Bohemia_), 81\n\n 45. Fossil Dragon-Fly, 83\n\n 46. Cyathaxonia Dalmani, 88\n\n 47. Glyptocrinus decadactylus, 88\n\n 48. Calymene Blumenbachii, 89\n\n 49. Orthisina Verneuili, 89\n\n 50. Lituites cornu-arietis, 89\n\n 51. Lingula Lowisii, 89\n\n 52. Fort Jackson Shark (_Cestracion Philippi_), 91\n\n 53. The Genealogy of Fishes, 93\n\n 54. Amblypterus macropterus (_a Ganoid of the Carboniferous\n System_), 94\n\n 55. Lebias cephalotes (_Cycloids of Aix_), 94\n\n 56. Platax altissimus (_a Ctenoid of Monte Bolca_), 95\n\n 57. Pterichthys oblongus, 98\n\n 58. Pleuracanthus laevissimus, 100\n\n 59. Carcharias productus (_Cutting Tooth_), 101\n\n 60. Placodus gigas (_Crushing Teeth_), 101\n\n 61. Vespertilio Parisiensis (_a Bat of the Eocene_), 106\n\n 62. Ichthyosaurus communis, 106\n\n 63. Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, 108\n\n 64. Pterodactylus crassirostris, 108\n\n 65. Chelonia Benstedi, 109\n\n 66. Palaeophis Toliapicus (_Ophidian of the Eocene_), 110\n\n 67. Bird-tracks of the Connecticut, 113\n\n 68. Fossil Footprint, 114\n\n 69. Thylacotherium Prevosti, 117\n\n 70. Anoplotherium commune, 120\n\n 71. Animals of the Paris Basin, 121\n\n 72. Dinotherium giganteum, 122\n\n 73. Elephas primigenius (_Great British Elephant_), 127\n\n 74. Trogontherium Cuvieri (_Gigantic Beaver_), 128\n\n 75. Ursus spelaeus (_Cave Bear_), 128\n\n 76. Hyaeena Spelaea (_Cave Hyaena_), 129\n\n 77. Asaphus caudatus, 134\n\n 78. Orthoceras laterale, 134\n\n 79. Spirigerina reticularis, 134\n\n 80. Ammonites margaritatus, 134\n\n 81. Ammonites bisulcatus, 134\n\n 82. Belemnitella mucronata, 134\n\n 83. Belemnites sulcatus, 134\n\n 84. Murex alveolatus, 135\n\n 85. Astarte Omalli, 135\n\n 86. Balanus crassus, 136\n\n 87. Astarte arctica, 152\n\n 88. Tellina proxima, 152\n\n 89. Norwegian Spruce (_Abies excelsa_), 153\n\n 90. Lepidodendron Sternbergii, 164\n\n 91. Calamites cannaeformis, 165\n\n 92. Megatherium Cuvieri, 167\n\n 93. Skull of Dinotherium giganteum 168\n\n 94. Ammonites Humphriesianus, 242\n\n 95. Encrinites moniliformis, 243\n\n 96. Cupressocrinus crassius, 243\n\n 97. Pentacrinus fasciculosus, 245\n\n 98. Chamfered and Imbricated Scales, 246\n\n 99. Scale of Holoptychius giganteus, 247\n\n 100. Section of Scale of Holoptychius, 248\n\n 101. Sigillaria Groeseri, 255\n\n 102-104. Whorled Shells of the Old Red Sandstone, 256\n\n 105. Murchisonia bigranulosa, 258\n\n 106. Conularia ornata, 258\n\n 107. Calico pattern (_Manchester_), 259\n\n 108. Smithia Pengellyi, 259\n\n 109. Apamaeean Medal, 298\n\n 110. Old Mexican Picture, 299\n\n 111. Megaceros Hibernicus (_Irish Elk_), 331\n\n 112. Mylodon robustus, 346\n\n 113. Glyptodon clavipes, 346\n\n 114. The Geography of Cosmas, 376\n\n 115. The Heavens and Earth of Cosmas, 377\n\n 116. Nummulites laevigata (_Pharaoh's Beans_), 421\n\n 117. Silurian Organism, Graptolite, etc., 431\n\n 118. Fucoid, 433\n\n 119. Fucoids, 434\n\n 120. Plant resembling Lycopodium clavatum, 437\n\n 121. Parka decipiens, 449\n\n 122. Fossil Fern (_probably_), 450\n\n 123. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 450\n\n 124. Cyclopterus Hibernicus, 458\n\n 125. New and peculiar Fern from Airdrie coal field, 464\n\n 126. Stigmaria, 465\n\n 127. The same, magnified, 465\n\n 128. Stigmaria, 466\n\n 129. Sphenopteris bifida, 470\n\n 130. Conifers? 475\n\n 131. Conifer Twigs, 476\n\n 132. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 478\n\n 133. Zamia, 479\n\n 134. Zamia, 480\n\n 135. Zamia of the Lias, 481\n\n 136. Zamia of the Oolite, 481\n\n 137. Zamia resembling Z. lanceolata, 482\n\n 138. Fossil Cone, 483\n\n 139. Fossil Cone, 484\n\n 140. Helmsdale Fossil Plants, 485\n\n 141. Fossil Ferns in Helmsdale Deposits, 486\n\n 142. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 488\n\n 143. Pecopteris obtusifolia, 489\n\n 144. Apparent Fern (_new_), 490\n\n 145. Pachypteris, 490\n\n 146. Phlebopteris, 491\n\n 147. Unnamed Fossil Plant, 492\n\n 148. Pentagon, illustrative of Fern allies, 493\n\n 149. Imbricated Stem, 494\n\n 150. Fossil Plant (_Helmsdale_), 495\n\n 151. Dicotyledonous Leaf of the Oolite, 496\n\n 152. Fern, 497\n\n MEMORIALS\n\n OF\n\n HUGH MILLER.\n\n Unknown he came. He went a Mystery--\n A mighty vessel foundered in the calm,\n Her freight half-given to the world. To die\n He longed, nor feared to meet the great \"I AM.\"\n Fret not. God's mystery is solved to him.\n He quarried Truth all rough-hewn from the earth,\n And chiselled it into a perfect gem--\n A rounded Absolute. Twain at a birth--\n Science with a celestial halo crowned,\n And Heavenly Truth--God's Works by His Word illumed--\n These twain he viewed in holiest concord bound.\n Reason outsoared itself. His mind consumed\n By its volcanic fire, and frantic driven,\n He dreamed himself in hell and woke in heaven.\n\nEDINBURGH, December, 1856.\n\n\n\n\nMEMORIALS\n\nOF THE\n\nDEATH AND CHARACTER OF HUGH MILLER,\n\nWITH AN\n\nACCOUNT OF HIS FUNERAL OBSEQUIES.\n\n\nNear the end of last autumn the American publishers of Hugh Miller's\nworks received from him, through his Edinburgh publishers, the offer of\na new work from his pen. The offer was accepted and a contract was at\nonce closed. Soon the advance sheets began to come; and as successive\nportions were received and perused, it became more and more evident that\nthe work was destined not only to extend his fame, but to establish for\nhim new and special claims to the admiration and gratitude of mankind.\nIn the midst of these anticipations, and ere more than half the sheets\nhad been received, the publishers and the public here were startled by\nthe news that Mr. Miller had come to a violent death. The paragraph\nconveying the intelligence was such as to leave the mind in a state of\npainful suspense. But the next steamer from Europe brought full details\nof the lamentable event. It appeared that in a momentary fit of mental\naberration he had died by his own hand, on the night of December 23d,\n1856. The cause was over much brain-work. He had been long and\nincessantly engaged in preparing the present work for the press, when,\njust as he had given the last touches to the eloquent, the immortal\nrecord, reason abandoned her throne, and in the brief interregnum, that\ngreat light of science was quenched forever.\n\nThe event caused universal lamentation throughout the British Isles. It\nwas treated as a public calamity. The British press, from the _London\nTimes_ to the remotest provincial newspaper, gave expression to the\ngeneral sorrow in strains of unwonted eloquence; and in so doing\nrecounted his great services to the cause of science, and paid homage to\nhis genius.\n\nSome of the articles which the event thus called forth have seemed to\nthe American publishers worthy of preservation, from the authentic facts\nwhich they embody, the judgments which they express, and the literary\nexcellence by which they are marked. They have therefore determined to\nprint them in connection with this work as permanent Memorials of its\ndistinguished and lamented author.\n\nThe first piece appeared in the _Edinburgh Witness_ of December 27th,\n1856,--the paper of which Mr. Miller had been the editor from its\nestablishment in 1840. It presents an authentic account of the\ncircumstances attending his death, and is understood to be from the pen\nof the REV. WILLIAM HANNA, L.L.D., the son-in-law and biographer of Dr.\nChalmers, and sometime editor of the _North British Review_.\n\n In the belief that nothing touching the character and memory of\n such a man can be regarded with other than the deepest interest,\n the friends of Mr. Hugh Miller have thought it due at once to his\n great name and to the cause of truth, to lay fully before the\n public a statement of the most mournful circumstances under which\n he has departed from this life. For some months past his\n over-tasked intellect had given evidence of disorder. He became the\n prey of false or exaggerated alarms. He fancied--if, indeed, it was\n a fancy--that occasionally, and for brief intervals, his faculties\n quite failed him,--that his mind broke down. He was engaged at this\n time with a treatise on the \"Testimony of the Rocks,\" upon which he\n was putting out all his strength,--working at his top-most pitch of\n intensity. That volume will in a few weeks be in the hands of many\n of our readers; and while they peruse it with the saddened\n impression that his intellect and genius poured out their latest\n treasures in its composition, they will search through it in vain\n for the slightest evidence of feebleness or decaying power. Rather\n let us anticipate the general verdict that will be pronounced upon\n it, and speak of it as one of the ablest of all his writings. But\n he wrought at it too eagerly. Hours after midnight the light was\n seen to glimmer through the window of that room which within the\n same eventful week was to witness the close of the volume, and the\n close of the writer's life. This over-working of the brain began to\n tell upon his mental health. He had always been somewhat moodily\n apprehensive of being attacked by footpads, and had carried loaded\n firearms about his person. Latterly, having occasion sometimes to\n return to Portobello from Edinburgh at unseasonable hours, he had\n furnished himself with a revolver. But now, to all his old fears as\n to attacks upon his person, there was added an exciting and\n over-mastering impression that his house, and especially that\n Museum, the fruit of so much care, which was contained in a\n separate outer building, were exposed to the assault of burglars.\n He read all the recent stories of house robberies. He believed that\n one night, lately, an actual attempt to break in upon his Museum\n had been made. Visions of ticket-of-leave men, prowling about his\n premises, haunted him by day and by night. The revolver, which lay\n nightly near him, was not enough; a broad-bladed dagger was kept\n beside it; whilst behind him, at his bed head, a claymore stood\n ready at hand. A week or so ago, a new and more aggravated feature\n of cerebral disorder showed itself in sudden and singular\n sensations in his head. They came only after lengthened intervals.\n They did not last long, but were intensely violent. The terrible\n idea that his brain was deeply and hopelessly diseased,--that his\n mind was on the verge of ruin,--took hold of him, and stood out\n before his eye in all that appalling magnitude in which such an\n imagination as his alone could picture it. It was mostly at night\n that these wild paroxysms of the brain visited him; but up till\n last Monday he had spoken of them to no one. A friend who had a\n long conversation with him on the Thursday of last week, never\n enjoyed an interview more, or remembers him in a more genial mood.\n On the Saturday forenoon another friend from Edinburgh found him in\n the same happy frame. As was his wont when with an old friend with\n whom he felt particularly at ease, he read or recited some favorite\n passages, repeating, on this occasion, with great emphasis, that\n noble prayer of John Knox,[1] which, he told his friend, it had\n been his frequent custom to repeat privately during the days of the\n Disruption. On the forenoon of Sunday last he worshipped in the\n Free Church at Portobello; and in the evening read a little work\n which had been put into his hands, penning that brief notice of it\n which will be read with melancholy interest as his last\n contribution to this journal. About ten o'clock on Monday morning\n he took what with him was an altogether unusual step. He called on\n Dr. Balfour, in Portobello, to consult him as to his state of\n health. \"On my asking,\" says Dr. Balfour, in a communication with\n which we have been favored, \"what was the matter with him, he\n replied, 'My brain is giving way. I cannot put two thoughts\n together to-day. I have had a dreadful night of it; I cannot face\n another such. I was impressed with the idea that my Museum was\n attacked by robbers, and that I had got up, put on my clothes, and\n gone out with a loaded pistol to shoot them. Immediately after that\n I became unconscious. How long that continued, I cannot say; but\n when I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over, and quite\n confused in my brain. On rising I felt as if a stiletto was\n suddenly, and as quickly as an electric shock, passed through my\n brain from front to back, and left a burning sensation on the top\n of the brain just below the bone. So thoroughly convinced was I\n that I must have been out through the night, that I examined my\n trousers to see if they were wet or covered with mud, but could\n find none.' He further said,--'I may state that I was somewhat\n similarly affected through the night twice last week, and I\n examined my trousers in the morning to see if I had been out. Still\n the terrible sensations were not nearly so bad as they were last\n night; and I may further inform you, that towards the end of last\n week, while passing through the Exchange in Edinburgh, I was seized\n with such a giddiness that I staggered, and would, I think, have\n fallen, had I not gone into an entry, where I leaned against the\n wall, and became quite unconscious for some seconds.'\" Dr. Balfour\n stated his opinion of the case; told him that he was over-working\n his brain, and agreed to call on him on the following day to make a\n fuller examination. Meanwhile the quick eye of affection had\n noticed that there was something wrong, and on Monday forenoon Mrs.\n Miller came up to Edinburgh to express her anxiety to Professor\n Miller, and request that he would see her husband. \"I arranged,\"\n says Professor Miller, \"to meet Dr. Balfour at Shrub Mount (Mr.\n Hugh Miller's house), on the afternoon of next day. We met\n accordingly at half-past three on Tuesday. He was a little annoyed\n at Mrs. Miller's having given me the trouble, as he called it, but\n received me quite in his ordinary kind, friendly manner. We\n examined his chest and found that unusually well; but soon we\n discovered that it was head symptoms that made him uneasy. He\n acknowledged having been, night after night, up till very late in\n the morning, working hard and continuously at his new book,\n 'which,' with much satisfaction, he said, 'I have finished this\n day.' He was sensible that his head had suffered in consequence, as\n evidenced in two ways: first, occasionally he felt as if a very\n fine poignard had been suddenly passed through and through his\n brain. The pain was intense, and momentarily followed by confusion\n and giddiness, and the sense of being 'very drunk,'--unable to\n stand or walk. He thought that a period of unconsciousness must\n have followed this,--a kind of swoon,--but he had never fallen.\n Second, what annoyed him most, however, was a kind of nightmare,\n which for some nights past had rendered sleep most miserable. It\n was no dream, he said; he saw no distinct vision, and could\n remember nothing of what had passed accurately. It was a sense of\n vague and yet intense horror, with a conviction of being abroad in\n the night wind, and dragged through places as if by some invisible\n power. 'Last night,' he said, 'I felt as if I had been ridden by a\n witch for fifty miles, and rose far more wearied in mind and body\n than when I lay down.' So strong was his conviction of having been\n out, that he had difficulty in persuading himself to the contrary,\n by carefully examining his clothes in the morning, to see if they\n were not wet or dirty; and he looked inquiringly and anxiously to\n his wife, asking if she was sure he had not been out last night,\n and walking in this disturbed trance or dream. His pulse was quiet,\n but tongue foul. The head was not hot, but he could not say it was\n free from pain. But I need not enter into professional details.\n Suffice it to say that we came to the conclusion that he was\n suffering from an over-worked mind, disordering his digestive\n organs, enervating his whole frame, and threatening serious head\n affection. We told him this, and enjoined absolute discontinuance\n of work, bed at eleven, light supper (he had all his life made that\n a principal meal), thinning the hair of the head, a warm\n sponging-bath at bed time, &c. To all our commands he readily\n promised obedience, not forgetting the discontinuance of neck\n rubbing, to which he had unfortunately been prevailed to submit\n some days before. For fully an hour we talked together on these and\n other subjects, and I left him with no apprehension of impending\n evil, and little doubting but that a short time of rest and regimen\n would restore him to his wonted vigor.\" It was a cheerful hour that\n thus was passed, and his wife and family partook of the hopeful\n feeling with which his kind friend, Professor Miller, had parted\n with him. It was now near the dinner hour, and the servant entered\n the room to spread the table. She found Mr. Miller in the room\n alone. Another of the paroxysms was on him. His face was such a\n picture of horror that she shrunk in terror from the sight. He\n flung himself on the sofa, and buried his head, as if in agony,\n upon the cushion. Again, however, the vision flitted by, and left\n him in perfect health. The evening was spent quietly with his\n family. During tea he employed himself in reading aloud Cowper's\n \"Castaway,\" the Sonnet on Mary Unwin, and one of his more playful\n pieces, for the special pleasure of his children. Having corrected\n some proofs of the forthcoming volume, he went up stairs to his\n study. At the appointed hour he had taken the bath, but\n unfortunately his natural and peculiar repugnance to physic had\n induced him to leave untaken the medicine that had been prescribed.\n He had retired into his sleeping-room,--a small apartment opening\n out of his study, and which, for some time past, in consideration\n of the delicate state of his wife's health, and the irregularity of\n his own hours of study, he occupied at night alone,--and lain\n sometime upon the bed. The horrible trance, more horrible than\n ever, must have returned. All that can now be known of what\n followed is to be gathered from the facts, that next morning his\n body, half dressed, was found lying lifeless on the floor, the feet\n upon the study rug, the chest pierced with the ball of the revolver\n pistol, which was found lying in the bath that stood close by.[2]\n The deadly bullet had perforated the left lung, grazed the heart,\n cut through the pulmonary artery at its root, and lodged in the\n rib in the right side. Death must have been instantaneous. The\n servant by whom the body was first discovered, acting with singular\n discretion, gave no alarm, but went instantly in search of the\n doctor and minister; and on the latter the melancholy duty was\n devolved of breaking the fearful intelligence to that now\n broken-hearted widow, over whose bitter Borrow it becomes us to\n draw the veil. The body was lifted and laid upon the bed. We saw it\n there a few hours afterwards. The head lay back sideways on the\n pillow. There was the massive brow, the firm-set, manly features,\n we had so often looked upon admiringly, just as we had lately seen\n them,--no touch nor trace upon them of disease,--nothing but that\n overspread pallor of death to distinguish them from what they had\n been. But the expression of that countenance in death will live in\n our memory forever. Death by gunshot wounds is said to leave no\n trace of suffering behind; and never was there a face of the dead\n freer from all shadow of pain, or grief, or conflict, than that of\n our dear departed friend. And as we bent over it, and remembered\n the troubled look it sometimes had in life, and thought what must\n have been the sublimely terrific expression that it wore at the\n moment when the fatal deed was done, we could not help thinking\n that it lay there to tell us, in that expression of unruffled,\n majestic repose that sat upon every feature, what we so assuredly\n believe, that the spirit had passed through a terrible tornado, in\n which reason had been broken down; but that it had made the great\n passage in safety, and stood looking back to us, in humble,\n grateful triumph, from the other side.\n\n On looking round the room in which the body had been discovered, a\n folio sheet of paper was seen lying on the table. On the centre of\n the page the following lines were written,--the last which that pen\n was ever to trace:--\n\n \"DEAREST LYDIA,--My brain burns. I _must_ have _walked_; and a\n fearful dream rises upon me. I cannot bear the horrible thought.\n God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me. Dearest\n Lydia, dear children, farewell. My brain burns as the recollection\n grows. My dear, dear wife, farewell.\"\n\n HUGH MILLER.\n\n What a legacy of love to a broken-hearted family! and to us, and\n all who loved him, how pleasing to observe, that in that\n bewildering hour, when the horror of that great darkness came down\n upon that noble spirit, and some hideous, shapeless phantom\n overpowered it, and took from it even the capacity to discern the\n right from the wrong, humility, and faith, and affection, still\n kept their hold;--amid the ruins of the intellect, that tender\n heart remaining still unbroken! These last lines remain as the\n surest evidence of the mysterious power that laid his spirit\n prostrate, and of the noble elements of which that spirit was\n composed,--humble, and reverent, and loving to the last.\n\n Yesterday, at the request of friends, and under the authority of\n the Procurator-Fiscal, a _post mortem_ examination of the body took\n place. We subjoin the result:--\n\n \"EDINBURGH, December 26, 1856.\n\n \"We hereby certify, on soul and conscience, that we have this day\n examined the body of Mr. Hugh Miller, at Shrub Mount, Portobello.\n\n \"The cause of death we found to be a pistol-shot through the left\n side of the chest; and this, we are satisfied, was inflicted by his\n own hand.\n\n \"From the diseased appearances found in the brain, taken in\n connection with the history of the case, we have no doubt that the\n act was suicidal under the impulse of insanity.\"\n\n JAMES MILLER, W.T. GAIRDNER,\n A.H. BALFOUR, A.M. EDWARDS.\n\n We must ask to be excused from attempting any analysis of Mr.\n Miller's character and genius, or any estimate of the distinguished\n services he has rendered to literature, science, and the Christian\n faith. His loss is too heavy a one,--his removal has come upon us\n too suddenly and too awfully for mind or hand to be steady enough\n for such a task. The voice of the public press has already told\n what a place he had won for himself in the admiration and affection\n of his countrymen; and for the delicate and tender way in which the\n manner of his departure has universally been alluded to, were we\n permitted to speak in the name of Mr. Miller's friends, we should\n express our deepest gratitude. It is a beautiful and worthy tribute\n that his brother journalists have rendered to the memory of one who\n was a laborer along with them in elevating the talent and tone of\n our newspaper literature.\n\n As Free Churchmen, however, it would be unpardonable were we to\n omit all reference, at such a time as this, to what he did on\n behalf of the church of his adoption. Dr. Chalmers did not err\n when, self-oblivious, he spake of Mr. Miller, as he so often did,\n as the greatest Scotchman alive after Sir Walter Scott's death, and\n as the man who had done more than all others to defend and make\n popular throughout the country the non-intrusion cause. We know\n well what the mutual love and veneration was of those two great men\n for one another whilst living; and now that both are gone,--and\n hereafter we believe still more so than even now,--their two names\n will be intertwined in the grateful and admiring remembrance of the\n ministers and members of the Free Church. It was die high honor of\n the writer of these hurried lines to record the part taken by his\n venerated relative in that great ecclesiastical struggle which\n terminated in the Disruption. At that lime it was matter to him of\n great regret that, as his office was that of the biographer, and\n not of the historian, there did not occur those natural\n opportunities of speaking of the part taken by Mr. Miller in that\n struggle, of which he gladly would have availed himself. And he\n almost wishes now that he had violated what appeared to him to be\n his duty, in order to create such an opportunity. He feels as if in\n this he had done some injustice to the dead,--an injustice which it\n would gratify him beyond measure if he could now in any way repair,\n by expressing it as his own judgment, and the judgment of the vast\n body of his Church, that, next to the writings and actings of Dr.\n Chalmers, the leading articles of Mr. Miller in this journal did\n more than anything else to give the Free Church the place it holds\n in the affections of so many of our fellow-countrymen.\n\n But Mr. Miller was far more than a Free Churchman, and did for the\n Christianity of his country and the world a far higher service than\n any which in that simple character and office was rendered by him.\n There was nothing in him of the spirit and temper of the sectarian.\n He breathed too broad an atmosphere to live and move within such\n narrow bounds. In the heat of the conflict there may have been too\n much occasionally of the partisan; and in the pleasure that the\n sweep and stroke of his intellectual tomahawk gave to him who\n wielded it, he may have forgotten at times the pain inflicted where\n it fell; but let his writings before and after the Disruption be\n now consulted, and it will be found that it was mainly because of\n his firm belief, whether right or wrong, that the interests of\n vital godliness were wrapped up in it, that he took his stand, and\n played his conspicuous part, in the ecclesiastical conflict. It is\n well known that for some time past,--for reasons to which it would\n be altogether unseasonable to allude,--he has ceased to take any\n active part in ecclesiastical affairs. He had retired even, in a\n great measure, from the field of general literature, to devote\n himself to the study of Geology. His past labors in this\n department,--enough to give him a high and honored place among its\n most distinguished cultivators,--he looked upon but as his training\n for the great life-work he had marked out for himself,--the full\n investigation and illustration of the Geology of Scotland. He had\n large materials already collected for this work; and it was his\n intention, after completing that volume which has happily been left\n in so finished a state, to set himself to their arrangement. The\n friends of science in many lands will mourn over the incompleted\n project which, however ably it may hereafter be accomplished by\n another, it were vain to hope shall ever be so accomplished as it\n should have been by one who united in himself the power of accurate\n observation, of logical deduction, of broad generalization, and of\n pictorial and poetic representation. But the friends of\n Christianity cannot regret, that since it was the mysterious decree\n of Heaven that he should prematurely fall,--his work as a pure\n Geologist not half done,--he should have been led aside by the\n publication of the Vestiges of Creation to that track of\n semi-theological, semi-scientific research to which his later\n studies and later writings have been devoted. That, as it now seems\n to us, was the great work which it was given him on earth to\n do,--to illustrate the perfect harmony of all that science tells us\n of the physical structure and history of our globe, with all that\n the Bible tells of the creation and government of this earth by and\n through Christ Jesus our Lord. The establishment and exhibition of\n that harmony was a task to which is it too much to say that there\n was no man living so competent as he? We leave it to the future to\n declare how much he has done by his writings to fulfil that task;\n but mourning, as we now can only do, over his sad and melancholy\n death,--to that very death, with all the tragic circumstances that\n surround it, we would point as the closing sacrifice offered on the\n altar of our faith. His very intellect, his reason,--God's most\n precious gift,--a gift dearer than life,--perished in the great\n endeavor to harmonize the works and word of the Eternal. A most\n inscrutable event, that such an intellect should have been suffered\n to go to wreck through too eager a prosecution of such a work. But\n amid the mystery, which we cannot penetrate, our love, and our\n veneration, and our gratitude, toward that so highly gifted and\n truly Christian man shall only grow the deeper because of the cloud\n and the whirlwind in which he has been borne off from our side.\n\n On the 31st of December, two days after the obsequies had been\n performed, Dr. Hanna resumed the subject in the following elevated\n strain:\n\n We have still but little heart to dilate on any political or\n literary topic. Our thoughts can dwell on but one thrice melancholy\n event. Need we name that event? Alas, no! It had occurred but a few\n hours when the tidings of it struck our city with stunning,\n stupefying, and deeply saddening blow. It has already thrilled our\n whole land; and is on its way, through a hundred channels, to the\n west, to the east, and to the south, carrying with it mourning and\n lamentation throughout the vast area which is covered by the\n language in which Hugh Miller wrote. Writing, as it were, amid the\n deep shadows of the funeral chamber, and brought in a manner into\n the very presence of the dead, we are made strongly to feel, and we\n daresay our readers to a large extent will feel, too, the\n nothingness of those discussions which usually occupy and engross\n men. The weightiest matter that ever occupied the wisdom of cabinet\n or the pen of journalist appears verily but fleeting and\n transitory, when brought thus into prominent contrast with the\n awful realities of human existence and destiny; and it is only when\n reflection shows us that these matters are yet parts of a grand\n Providential scheme, embracing man's happiness now, and entering\n deeply into the question of his future and eternal well-being, that\n we can see in them that amount of significance and importance which\n they really possess.\n\n From the firmament of British literature and science a great light\n has departed. But yesterday we rejoiced in its beams, and now it\n has set all suddenly and forever; and to us there remains but the\n melancholy task of bewailing its departure, and tracing very\n hastily and imperfectly its track. The intellectual powers of Hugh\n Miller had certainly not declined. He was marked to the very last\n by that wonderful robustness of mind which had characterized him\n all through life. His sense was as manly, his judgment as sound and\n comprehensive, his penetration as discriminating and deep, his\n imagination as vigorous and bold, and his taste as pure and trusty,\n as they had ever been. The whole of his great powers were found\n working together up to the last week of his earthly career, with\n their usually calm, noiseless strength, and finely balanced and\n exquisitely toned harmony. We have evidence of this fact under his\n own hand in recent numbers of the _Witness_. His last two articles\n were, the one on Russia, and the other on our modern poets. The\n former,--that on the resources of the Russian empire,--is\n characterized by the same wide range of thinking, the same skill in\n analysis, and the same power of grouping and arranging details, and\n making them to throw light on some great principle, which usually\n marked and notified his hand when employed on such subjects. The\n latter,--that on the poets,--is rich and genial as usual,\n betokening a full and unclouded recollection of all his early\n reading in that department of our literature, abounding in the\n finest touches of pathos and beauty, and redolent with a most\n generous sympathy with kindred genius. It is not inconsistent with\n what we have now stated, and it is the fact, that latterly the\n inroads of disease, which had entrenched itself deeply in a\n constitution originally strong, and which kept steadily advancing\n upon the vital powers, had come so near the seat of the mind, that\n for short intervals the noble spirit was sadly beclouded, and its\n moral and intellectual action momentarily suspended. But, apart\n from this, there seemed ground to believe that there was yet before\n Mr. Miller much honorable and noble labor. The strong man, after\n all his tasks, appeared to be still strong. His powers were\n mellowing into richness and calm, matured strength; his conceptions\n of great principles were growing yet wider; his store of facts,\n literary as well as scientific, was accumulating with every busy\n and laborious year that passed over him; and there did seem ground\n to expect from his pen, unrivalled among his contemporaries in its\n exquisite purity and calm power, many a deep thoughted article, and\n many a profoundly reasoned and richly illustrated volume. We looked\n to him for the solution of many a dark question in science; and we\n certainly hoped, from that fine union of science and theology which\n dwelt in him above all men, for a yet fuller and more complete\n adjustment of the two great records of Creation,--that of the\n Rocks, and that of Moses. But alas! all these hopes have suddenly\n failed us. It seemed right otherwise to the Great Disposer of all.\n He has said to his faithful servant, \"Enough.\"\n\n Let us look back upon that work. We by no means aim at giving a\n calm, well weighed, and deeply pondered estimate of it, but only\n such a glance as the circumstances permit and require. His great\n and special work was his advocacy of the principles of the Free\n Church. Mr. Miller was _par excellence_ the popular expounder and\n defender of these principles, whether in their embryotic state in\n the Non-Intrusion party, or as embodied in the fully developed and\n completely emancipated Free Protesting Church of Scotland. For this\n service, in connection with which he would have best liked to be\n remembered, as he best deserved it, he had unconsciously been\n undergoing a course of preparation even when a boy. He himself has\n told us with what eagerness he devoured, at that period of life,\n the legendary histories of Wallace and Bruce; and the occupation\n had its use. It gave him a capacity for admiring what was great\n though perilous in exploit, and for truly and largely sympathizing\n with what was patriotic and self-sacrificing in character; and so\n it created a groundwork for his own future thinking and acting. The\n admiration he then bore to these earliest of our \"Scottish\n Worthies,\" who vindicated on Bannockburn, and kindred fields,\n Scotland's right to be an independent and free country, he\n afterwards transferred to our later \"Worthies,\" whom he revered as\n greater still. Not that he ever lost his admiration of the former,\n or ceased to value the incalculable services they rendered to the\n Scottish nation; but that he regarded Knox and Melville as men\n occupying a yet higher platform,--as gifted with a yet deeper\n insight into their country's wants,--as, in short, carrying forward\n and consummating the glorious task which Wallace and Bruce had but\n begun. He saw that unless our reformers had come after our heroes,\n planting schools, founding colleges, and, above all, imparting to\n their countrymen a scriptural and rational faith, in vain had Bruce\n unsheathed his sword,--in vain had Wallace laid down his life.\n Wallace and Bruce had created an independent country; Knox and\n Melville had created an independent people. They were the creators\n of the Scottish nation,--the real enfranchisers of our people; and\n it was this that taught Mr. Miller to venerate these men so\n profoundly, and that made him in his inmost soul a devoted\n follower, and to the utmost extent of his great faculties a\n defender, of their cause. He was a soldier from love,--pure,\n heroic, chivalrous devotion soaring infinitely above the partisan.\n He saw that the Church of Scotland was the creator of the rights\n and privileges of the people of Scotland,--that she was the grand\n palladium of the country's liberties,--that while she stood an\n independent and free institution, the people stood an independent\n and free nation,--and that bonds to her meant slavery to them.\n Therefore did he gird on the sword when he saw peril gathering\n around her. The privileges,--the entire standing of the common\n people, as given them by the Reformation,--he saw to be in danger:\n he was \"one of themselves;\" and he felt and fought as if almost the\n quarrel had been a personal one, and the question at issue his own\n liberty or slavery. How richly equipped and nobly armed he came\n into the field, we need not here state. What fulness yet precision\n of ecclesiastical lore,--what strength and conclusiveness of\n argument,--what flashes of humor, wit, and sarcasm,--and in what a\n luminous yet profoundly philosophical light did he set the great\n principles involved in the controversy, making them patent in the\n very cottages of our land, and so fixing them in the understandings\n of the very humblest of our people, that they never afterwards\n could be either misunderstood or forgotten! It was thus that the\n way was prepared for the great result of the 18th of May, 1843.\n\n Of Mr. Miller, as a man of science and a public journalist, we\n cannot speak at present at any length. In him the love of science\n was deeply seated and early developed. The first arena on which he\n appeared--obscure and humble as it was--afforded him special\n opportunities of initiating himself into what to him was then, and\n continued ever afterwards to be, a most fascinating study. The\n study of geology was eagerly prosecuted amid the multifarious\n duties, and during the brief pauses, of a busy life. Several\n original discoveries rewarded his patient and laborious\n investigations. He succeeded at length in placing his name in the\n first rank of British scientific thinkers and writers. His works\n are characterized by a fine union of strict science, classic\n diction, and enchanting description, which rises not unfrequently\n into the loftiest vein of poetry. The fruits of his researches were\n ever made to bear upon the defence and elucidation of the Oracles\n of Truth. Our common Christianity owes much to his pen. Viewing him\n as a journalist, Mr. Miller not only excelled in article\n writing,--the most difficult of all kinds of composition,--but, as\n will be generally admitted, he has introduced a new era into\n newspaper writing. If the moral tone of our newspaper press is\n higher now than it was twenty-five years ago, we have Mr. Miller in\n large degree to thank for it; and to him, too, is to be traced that\n purer style and more philosophic spirit which begins to be\n discernible in the columns of our public journals.\n\n But the character in which his personal friends will deplore him\n most, and will most frequently recall his memory, will be that of\n the man. How meek and gentle he was!--how unpretending and modest,\n even as a very child!--how true and steady in friendship!--how wise\n and playful his mirth!--how ripened and chastened his wisdom!--how\n ready to counsel!--how willing to oblige!--how generous and large\n his sympathies! No little jealousies, no fretful envyings, had he!\n Even in opposition, how noble and manly was he: if a powerful, he\n was a fair and open antagonist; and whatever hard blows were\n dealt, they were dealt in his own journal. We have seen him in\n various moods and in all circumstances; but never did we hear him\n utter an unkind or disparaging word of man. He was, too, a sincere\n and humble Christian; and the lively faith which he cherished in\n the adorable Redeemer and his all-efficacious sacrifice, bore\n abundantly its good fruits in a life including no ordinary variety\n of condition and trial, and running on to such term as to make\n abundantly manifest what manner of man he was.\n\nThe article which follows is from the _Edinburgh News_. It is evidently\nfrom the pen of one who was intimately acquainted with Hugh Miller, and\nis worthy of attention, not only for its eloquent and discriminating\nnotices of his works, but also for its statements respecting his great\ndesigns, never, alas, to be accomplished.\n\n It is not many months since we chronicled the death of the greatest\n of living Scotsmen, and the prince of modern philosophers--Sir\n William Hamilton. These last few days have bereft us of another of\n our countrymen not less illustrious, and known all over the world\n as one of the princes of geology. We cannot well estimate the loss\n which society sustains in the death of Mr. Miller. He occupied a\n foremost place among us, and there is none on whom his mantle can\n fall. In the world of letters his name takes high rank, for\n undoubtedly he was one of the ablest writers in our literature. Who\n can have read without delight his manly, vigorous language, soaring\n sometimes into the highest eloquence, anon plunging into the depths\n of metaphysical argument, or grappling with the dry technicalities\n of science, yet ever rolling along with the same easy, onward flow?\n His style has all the charm of Goldsmith's sweetness, with the\n infusion of a rich vigor that gives it an air of great originality.\n He is one of the few writers who have successfully conjoined the\n graces of literature with the formal details of science, and whose\n works are perused for their literary excellences, independently\n altogether of their scientific merit. His writings will ever be\n regarded among the classics of the English language. For obvious\n reasons we pass over his editorial labors. It is on the republic of\n science that his death will fall most heavily. There can be little\n doubt that he has done more to popularize his favorite department\n than any other writer. Of all geological works, his enjoy, perhaps,\n the widest circulation--not in this country, merely, but all over\n the world, and especially in the United States. His reputation,\n however, does not rest solely on his standing as an exponent of\n science to the people; he was himself an original and accurate\n observer. When the infant science of geology was battling for\n existence against the opposing phalanx of united Christendom, Hugh\n Miller, then a mere lad, was quietly working as a stone-mason in\n the north of Scotland, and employing his leisure time among the\n fossil fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, and the ammonites and the\n belemnites of the Lias, that abound in the neighborhood of\n Cromarty. As years rolled slowly away, he continued his\n observations, and when at length, in 1841, the results were given\n to the world in his well known \"Old Red Sandstone,\" every one was\n charmed with the novelty and beauty of the style, and his\n reputation as a writer was at once established. Men of science,\n however, though acknowledging the graphic and elegant diction of\n his descriptions, had some doubts as to their truthfulness. Indeed,\n by some geologists they were cast aside as fanciful, and other\n restorations of the Old Red fishes were proposed and adopted. Those\n who are acquainted with Old Red ichthyolites, or who have had the\n pleasure of examining the exquisite series in Mr. Miller's\n collection, may well smile at the absurdity of the restorations\n that were adopted. Yet some of these found their way into a work of\n no little popularity,--Mantell's \"Medals of Creation.\" It is\n sufficient to state that the drawings there given bear no\n resemblance to anything in the heavens above or on the earth\n beneath, or in the waters under the earth, nor to any fossil\n organism that has ever been discovered. At length the progress of\n investigation led to the discarding of these monstrosities, and\n Miller's restorations were returned to, as, after all, the true\n ones. \"The Old Red Sandstone\" formed an era in the history of\n fossil geology. That formation had hitherto been regarded as well\n nigh barren of organic remains; but Mr. Miller demonstrated that it\n contains at least three successive stages, each characterized by a\n suite of uncouth and hitherto unknown fishes. A few years later he\n published his \"Footprints of the Creator.\" This is undoubtedly his\n _chef-d'oeuvre_, exhibiting, as it does, the full powers of his\n massive intellect and his poetic imagination. As a piece of\n scientific investigation and research, it is of a very high order;\n as a reply to the crudities of the development theory, it is\n unanswerable; and as a contribution to our physico-theological\n literature, it ranks, with Chalmers' \"Astronomical Lectures,\" among\n the finest in this or any other language. Some of the ideas are as\n profound as they are original, opening up a new field of thought,\n which it was doubtless the intention of the deceased himself to\n cultivate. His published works, however, contain but a fraction, of\n the labors of his lifetime. For many years past he has been, one of\n the most energetic members of the Royal Physical Society, at whose\n meetings he from time to time made known the progress of his\n researches. Were these papers collected, they would form several\n goodly volumes. But their author studiously refrained from\n publishing them, save occasionally in the columns of the _Witness_\n newspaper. It was his intention that they should each form a part\n of the great work of his life, to which for many years his leisure\n moments had been devoted. His design was to combine the results of\n all his labors among the different rock formations of Scotland into\n one grand picture of the geological history of our country. For\n this end he had explored a large part of the Scottish counties,\n anxious that his statements should rest as far as possible upon the\n authority of his own personal investigations. His knowledge of the\n geology of the country was thus far more extensive than was\n generally supposed. We may refer particularly to that branch of it\n on which he bestowed the unremitted attention of his closing\n years,--the palaeontological history of the glacial beds,--that\n strange and as yet almost unknown period that ushered in the\n existing creation. He studied it minutely along the shores of the\n Moray Firth, on the east coast of Scotland, along the shores of\n Fife and the Lothians, and on the coast of Ayrshire and the Firth\n of Clyde. This last summer he made a tour through the centre of the\n island, and obtained boreal shells at Buchlyvie in\n Stirlingshire,--the _omphalos_ of Scotland. The importance of this\n discovery, in connection with those he had previously made in\n following out the same chain of evidence, can only be appreciated\n by those who have paid some attention to geology. We may state\n briefly that it proves the central area of Scotland to have been\n submerged beneath an icy sea, and icebergs to have grated along\n over what is now the busy valley of the Forth and Clyde, while the\n waters were tenanted by shells at present found only in the\n Northern Ocean. A large part of his work is written, though it is\n to be feared that much knowledge, amassed in the course of its\n preparation, has perished with him. In particular, there were whole\n sections of his Museum understood only by himself. Every little\n fragment had its story, and contributed its quota of evidence to\n the truth of his descriptions. There is, perhaps, but another mind\n in Britain,--that of Sir Philip Egerton,--that can catch up the\n thread, and read off, though with difficulty, the meaning of those\n carefully arranged fragments. Yet, even with such aid, much must\n long, if not forever, remain dark and obscure. The work on which he\n was more immediately engaged at the time of his death was partly\n theological, partly scientific. It was to embrace the substance of\n some lectures lately delivered, and a paper read last year before\n the British Association at Glasgow on the fossil plants collected\n by himself from the Oolite and Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. It\n was likewise to contain the figures of some thirty or forty\n hitherto undescribed species of vegetables. We hope that, as it was\n all but ready for publication, it may yet be given to the world.\n\n The name of Hugh Miller will ever stand forth as synonymous with\n all that is honest and manly; as the impersonation of moral courage\n and indomitable energy; as the true ideal of a self-educated man.\n From the humblest sphere of life, and from the toils of a\n stone-mason's apprentice, without means, without friends, without\n other than the most rudimentary education, he rose, by his own\n unaided and unwearied exertions, to fill one of the brightest pages\n in the annals of our country. And when, in future years, an example\n is sought of unconquerable perseverance, of fearless integrity, and\n of earnest, ceaseless activity, the voice of universal approbation\n shall proclaim--\"_the stone-mason of Cromurty_.\" We have spoken of\n this mournful event only as a public calamity; yet, to those who\n were personally acquainted with the departed, it is invested with\n no ordinary sadness. Long, long shall they remember the playful\n fancy, the rich humor, the warm, genial heart of their friend. His\n simple, open frankness endeared him to every one, though his\n retiring disposition prevented him from making many intimate\n friendships. To those who enjoyed this higher privilege, his death\n must have caused the most poignant regret. Yet what can even their\n sorrow be to that of the relatives of the departed? We lament the\n death of one who was alike an honor to his profession, to\n literature, to science, and to his country,--one of the most loved\n and cherished of friends. Let us not forget to mingle our sympathy\n and our sorrow with that deeper grief that mourns the loss of a\n husband and a father.\n\nAs coming from a different quarter, and presenting a somewhat different\nview, the following, from the _London Literary Gazette_, should have a\nplace here.\n\n Hugh Miller was born at Cromarty in 1805. In his early life he\n worked as a laborer in the Sandstone quarries in his native\n district, and afterwards as a stone-mason in different parts of\n Scotland. In a work published in 1854, \"My Schools and\n Schoolmasters, or the story of my Education,\" Mr. Miller gives a\n most interesting account of his early history, and of the training\n and self-culture by which he rose to honorable rank in literature\n and science. Notwithstanding the unpretending statements of this\n narrative, and the disavowal of any other elements of success than\n are within ordinary reach, every reader of that book feels that\n homage is due to a genius original and rare, as well as to natural\n talents diligently and judiciously cultivated. While professedly\n written for the benefit of the working classes of his own country,\n there are few who may not derive pleasant and profitable lessons\n from this most remarkable piece of autobiography. After being\n engaged in manual labor for about fifteen years, Mr. Miller was for\n some time manager of a bank that was established in his native\n town. While in this position, a pamphlet that he published, on the\n ecclesiastical controversies which then distracted Scotland,\n attracted the attention of the leaders of the party who now form\n the Free Church, and they invited him to be editor of the _Witness_\n newspaper, then about to be established for the advocacy of their\n principles. Mr. Miller had already published a volume of \"Legendary\n Tales of Cromarty,\" of which the late Baron Hume, nephew of the\n historian, himself a man of much judgment and taste, said it was\n \"written in an English style, which he had begun to regard as one\n of the lost arts.\" The ability displayed by Mr. Miller as editor of\n the _Witness_, and the influence exerted by him on ecclesiastical\n and educational events in Scotland, are well known. Mr. Miller did\n not confine his newspaper to topics of local or passing interest.\n In its columns he made public his geological observations and\n researches; and most of his works originally appeared in the form\n of articles in that newspaper. It was in 1840, the year at which\n the autobiographical memoir closes, that the name of Hugh Miller\n first became widely known beyond his own country.\n\n At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of\n Science at Glasgow that year, Sir Roderick, then Mr. Murchison,\n gave an account of the striking discoveries recently made in the\n Old Red Sandstone of Scotland. M. Agassiz, who was present, pointed\n out the peculiarities and the importance of these discoveries; and\n it was on this occasion that he proposed to associate the name of\n Mr. Miller with them, by the wonderful fossil, the _Pterichthys\n Milleri_, specimens of which were then under the notice of the\n section. Dr. Buckland, following M. Agassiz, said that \"he had\n never been so much astonished in his life by the powers of any man\n as he had been by the geological descriptions of Mr. Miller. He\n described these objects with a felicity which made him ashamed of\n the comparative meagreness and poverty of his own descriptions in\n the 'Bridgewater Treatise,' which had cost him hours and days of\n labor. He (Dr. Buckland) _would give his left hand to possess such\n powers of description as this man_; and if it pleased Providence to\n spare his useful life, he, if any one, would certainly render the\n science attractive and popular, and do equal service to theology\n and geology.\" At the meetings of the Association, the language of\n panegyric and of mutual compliment is not unfrequent, and does not\n signify much; but these were spontaneous tributes of praise to one\n comparatively unknown. The publication of the volume on the \"Old\n Red Sandstone,\" with the details of the author's discoveries and\n researches, more than justified all the anticipations that had been\n formed. It was received with highest approbation, not by men of\n science alone, for the interest of its facts, but by men of\n letters, for the beauty of its style. Sir Roderick Murchison, in\n his address to the Geological Society that year, \"hailed the\n accession to their science of such a writer,\" and said that \"his\n work is, to a beginner, worth a thousand didactic treatises.\" The\n _Edinburgh Review_ spoke of the book being \"as admirable for the\n clearness of its descriptions, and the sweetness of its\n composition, as for the purity and gracefulness that pervade it.\"\n The impression made by such a testimony was the more marked, that\n the reviewer spoke of the writer as a fellow countryman,\n \"meritorious and self-taught.\"\n\n In 1847 appeared \"First Impressions of England and its People,\" the\n result of a tour made during the previous year. Some parts of this\n book, especially the account of the pilgrimages to\n Stratford-on-Avon, and the Leasowes, and Olney, and other places\n memorable for their literary associations, are as fine pieces of\n descriptive writing as the English language possesses. This magic\n of style characterized all his works, whether those of a more\n popular kind, or his scientific treatises, such as the \"Old Red\n Sandstone,\" and \"Footprints of the Creator,\" a volume suggested by\n the \"Vestiges of Creation,\" and subversive of the fallacies of that\n superficial and plausible book. Not one of the authors of our day\n has approached Hugh Miller as a master of English composition, for\n the equal of which we must go back to the times of Addison, Hume,\n and Goldsmith. Other living writers have now a wider celebrity, but\n they owe it much to the peculiarities of their style or the\n popularity of their topics. Mr. Miller has taken subjects of\n science, too often rendered dry and repulsive, and has thrown over\n them an air of attractive romance. His writings on literature,\n history, and politics, are known to comparatively few, from having\n appeared in the columns of a local newspaper. A judicious selection\n from his miscellaneous articles in the _Witness_ would widely\n extend his fame, and secure for him a place, in classic English\n literature, as high as he held during his life as a periodical\n writer and as a scientific geologist.\n\n The personal appearance of Mr. Miller, or \"Old Red,\" as he was\n familiarly named by his scientific friends, will not be forgotten\n by any who have seen him. A head of great massiveness, magnified by\n an abundant profusion of sub-Celtic hair, was set on a body of\n muscular compactness, but which in later years felt the undermining\n influence of a life of unusual physical and mental toil. Generally\n wrapped in a bulky plaid, and with a garb ready for any work, he\n had the appearance of a shepherd from the Rosshire hills rather\n than an author and a man of science. In conversation or in\n lecturing, the man of original genius and cultivated mind at once\n shone out, and his abundant information and philosophical acuteness\n were only less remarkable than his amiable disposition, his\n generous spirit, and his consistent, humble piety. Literature and\n science have lost in him one of their brightest ornaments, and\n Scotland one of its greatest men.\n\n * * * * *\n\nOn the Sabbath following Mr. Miller's death, sermons referring to the\nevent were preached in many of the churches in Edinburgh. Some of these\nwere reported in the newspapers, among which may be mentioned those by\nthe Rev. Drs. Hanna, Guthrie, Hetherington, Begg, and Tweedie.\n\nOn Monday, December the 29th, the Funeral Obsequies were performed. The\nfollowing account of the imposing ceremonial is from the _Edinburgh\nWitness_.\n\n\n FUNERAL OF MR. HUGH MILLER.\n\n The mortal remains of this truly great man were consigned to the\n grave on Monday, amid the most marked demonstrations of sorrow on\n the part of the entire community.\n\n The private company, numbering about sixty individuals, met at\n Shrub Mount, the residence of the deceased at Portobello, about a\n quarter to one in the afternoon. Amongst those present were the\n Lord Provost of Edinburgh; A.M. Dunlop, Esq., M.P.; A. Black, Esq.,\n M.P.; Professors Simpson, Balfour, and Fraser; Rev. Principal\n Cunningham; Professor James Buchanan; Rev. Drs. Guthrie, Candlish,\n Hanna, Bruce, Begg, Hetherington, and Wylie; Rev. Messrs. M'Kenzie\n of Dunfermline, Cameron and Hunter of Nagpoor; Maurice Lothian,\n Esq.; Geo. Dalziell, Esq., W.S.; W. Wood, Esq.; R. Paul, Esq.;\n Francis Russell, Esq., advocate; M. Torrance, Esq.; Dr. Russell;\n Dr. Geo. Bell; J.F. Macfarlan, Esq.; Archibald Gibson, Esq.; and\n Councillor Johnston. The devotional exercises were conducted by Dr.\n Guthrie, who was deeply affected during the prayer, and whose\n feelings at times threatened to overcome him.\n\n Thirteen two-horse mourning coaches were here in waiting to convey\n the company to the place of sepulture in the Grange Cemetery,\n preceded by the hearse, which had four horses.\n\n The melancholy event, as might have been expected, cast a gloom\n over the whole of Portobello; and the Provost and Magistrates,\n anticipating the general feeling of the inhabitants, to whom Mr.\n Miller had endeared himself by his genius and the modesty of his\n demeanor, and also by the readiness which he ever displayed to\n contribute to their intellectual elevation, by taking part in\n several courses of popular lectures in the town, recommended the\n closing of the different shops,--a request which was at once\n readily complied with. Another striking proof of the general desire\n to pay the last tribute of respect to the remains of the deceased,\n was furnished by the circumstance that upwards of one hundred\n gentlemen, many of whom had, so recently as the previous Tuesday,\n listened to the reading of one of the ablest of his lectures, by\n the Rev. Mr. Wight, the Congregational minister, met at half-past\n twelve in the Free Church, in order to accompany the funeral,\n either on foot or in carriages, to the burial place,--a distance of\n about four miles. After a short, impressive religious service,\n conducted by the Rev. Mr. Philip and the Rev. Mr. Wight, they\n proceeded to join the private company, who had by this time taken\n their places in the mourning carriages, on their way to Edinburgh.\n\n On reaching the General Post-Office, in Waterloo Place, the ranks\n of the funeral procession were largely augmented, there being here\n as many as from twenty to thirty private carriages in waiting,\n filled with the leading citizens, and a large body of the\n inhabitants, of all ranks, classes, and denominations, drawn up in\n line three or four abreast.\n\n The Kirk-Session of Free St. John's, of which Mr. Miller was an\n office-bearer, headed by the Rev. Dr. Guthrie and the Rev. Dr.\n Hanna, who left the carriage at the Post-Office, occupied the front\n of the procession, immediately followed by the Royal Physical\n Society, of which the lamented deceased was a leading member, the\n _employes_ in the _Witness_ office, and a large body of the general\n public. A still more numerous body of the citizens, as well as of\n parties from Glasgow, Liverpool, Stirling, Bridge of Allan, and\n other parts of the country, drew up in the rear of the long line of\n carriages, while the sides of the streets were also lined with\n mourners, who accompanied the procession to the Cemetery. Besides\n the large concourse of people who here joined the procession, the\n whole front of the Register Office and the corners of the North\n Bridge were densely occupied by some thousands of spectators; and\n it may be safely said, that no event since the death of Dr.\n Chalmers has caused such deep-felt sorrow and regret in Edinburgh.\n The numbers present in the funeral _cortege_ must have amounted to\n from one to two thousand; indeed, one paper states that \"at one\n time there could not have been many less than four thousand people\n in the procession;\" whilst another journal says, that although the\n inclemency of the weather, the day being one of the dreariest of\n the season, \"kept back many who would otherwise have swelled the\n line of mourners, even with this drawback, it has been informed\n that the attendance was even greater than on the occasion of the\n funeral of Dr. Chalmers in 1847.\"\n\n After a short delay, caused by these accessions to the procession,\n the whole moved up the North Bridge. It was gratifying to observe\n that nearly all the shops on the North and South Bridges, and in\n Nicolson and Clerk streets, along which the _cortege_ passed, were\n closed; and along the whole route many a saddened countenance and\n tearful eye could be seen, all testifying to the deep respect\n entertained for him whose manly form had so often traversed these\n same streets.\n\n On reaching the entrance of the Grange Cemetery, the coffin was\n removed from the hearse, and borne shoulder high to the tomb,\n followed by the pall-bearers and the general company. The ground\n selected for the burial-place is the westmost space but one on the\n northern side of the Cemetery, and in a line with the graves of Dr.\n Chalmers, Sir Andrew Agnew, and Sheriff Speirs, with which it is in\n close proximity. As many of our readers are aware, the situation is\n one of surpassing scenic beauty, and was described by the\n deceased's own matchless pen but a few years ago, on the occasion\n of the burial of Chalmers; and certainly in the grave of Hugh\n Miller a new feature of attraction has been added to the spot.\n\n The pall-bearers were Mr. Miller's oldest son,--a boy about\n fourteen years of age,--who was accompanied by his younger brother,\n six or seven years old; Mr. A. Williamson, his half-brother and\n nearest kinsman; Mr. Fairly, his partner in business; Rev. Dr.\n Guthrie, Rev. Dr. Hanna, Mr. Dunlop, M.P., Mr. R. Paul, and\n Principal Cunningham.\n\n The mournful ceremony was now near its close. As the heavy, dull\n sound, caused by the fall of the damp earth upon the coffin, fell\n upon the ear, a sad and painful sensation crept over the frame,\n increased as this was by the wintry aspect of the day and the heavy\n leaden sky, which, like a pall, was spread over the face of nature,\n in striking harmony with the solemnity of the scene. A few minutes\n more, and all was over; and the vast company, uncovered, paid the\n closing mark of respect to the ashes of the mighty dead. A touching\n scene occurred at the close of all. After the whole of the company\n had retired, a laboring man, clad in humble habiliments, seized\n hold of a handful of ivy or laurel leaves, and gently strewed them\n upon the grave, while the tearful eye eloquently spoke of the\n strength of his feelings.\n\nSo passed away one of whom Dr. Chalmers made the remark that \"since\nScott's death he was the greatest Scotchman that was left.\" \"The space\nhis name occupied in the literary and scientific world,\" says another,\n\"could hardly have been conjectured, but for the blank he leaves behind\nhim now that he has left it. Other men may have extended the domain of\nscience wider; but no man has done more to extend the circle of its\nvotaries by the magic of his style and the life-like power of his\ndescriptions; nor has any man done more to keep together the claims, too\noften made to appear divergent, of Science and Religion, and to blend\nthem into one intelligent and reasonable service. It was worth while to\nhave lived to effect this, even at the cost of the clouds which saddened\nand darkened the close. But\n\n ----'glory without end\n Scatters the clouds away; and on that name attend\n The thanks and praises of all time.'\"\n\n\n\n\nA PRAYER\n\nBY JOHN KNOX,\n\n MADE AT THE FIRST ASSEMBLIE OF THE CONGREGATION, WHEN THE\n CONFESSION OF OUR FAITHE AND WHOLE ORDERS OF THE CHURCH WAS THERE\n RED AND APPROVED.[3]\n\n\nO Lord God Almightie, and Father moste mcrcifull, there is none lyke\nthee in heaven nor in earthe, which workest all thinges for the glorie\nof thy name and the comfort of thyne elect. Thou dydst once make man\nruler over all thy creatures, and placed hym in the garden of all\npleasures; but how soone, alas, dyd he in his felicitie forget thy\ngoodness? Thy people Israel also, in their wealth dyd evermore runne\nastray, abusinge thy manifold mercies; lyke as all fleshe contynually\nrageth when it hath gotten libertie and external prosperitie. But such\nis thy wisdome adjoyned to thy mercies, deare Father, that thou sekest\nall means possible to brynge thy chyldren to the sure sense and lyvely\nfeelinge of thy fatherly favour. And therefore when prosperitie wyll not\nserve, then sendest thow adversitie, graciously correctinge all thy\nchyldren whome thou receyvest into thy howshold. Wherfore we, wretched\nand miserable synners, render unto thee most humble and hartie thankes,\nthat yt hath pleased thee to call us home to thy folde by thy Fatherly\ncorrection at this present, wheras in our prosperitie and libertie we\ndyd neglect thy graces offered unto us. For the which negligence, and\nmany other grevous synnes whereof we now accuse our selves before thee,\nthow mightest moste justly have gyven us up to reprobate mynds and\ninduration of our hartes, as thow haste done others. But such is thy\ngoodnes, O Lord, that thou semest to forget alt our offences, and haste\ncalled us of thy good pleasure from all idolatries into this Citie most\nChristianlye refourmed, to professe thy name, and to suffer some crosse\namongest thy people for thy truth and Gospell's sake; and so to be thy\nwytnesses with thy Prophets and Apostles, yea, with thy dearely beloved\nSonne Jesus Christ our head, to whome thow dost begynne here to fashion\nus lyke, that in his glorie we may also be lyke hym when he shall\nappear. O Lord God, what are we upon whome thowe shuldest shewe this\ngreat mercye? O moste lovynge Lord, forgyve us our unthankfulnes, and\nall our synnes, for Jesus Christ's sake. O heavenly Father, increase thy\nHoly Spirit in us, to teache our heartes to cry Abba, deare Father! to\nassure us of our eternal election in Christ; to revele thy wyll more and\nmore towards us; to confirme us so in thy trewthe, that we may lyve and\ndye therein; and that by the power of the same Spirit we may boldlely\ngyve an accompts of our faith to all men with humblenes and mekenes,\nthat whereas they backbyte and slaunder us as evyll doers, they may be\nashamed and once stopp their mowthes, seinge our good conversation in\nChrist Iesu, for whose sake we beseche thee, O Lord God, to guide,\ngoverne, and prosper this our enterprise in assemblinge our bretherne,\nto prayse thy holie name. And not only to be here present with us thy\nchildren according to thy promesse, but also mercifullie to assist thy\nlike persecuted people, our Bretherne, gathered in all other places,\nthat they and we, consentinge together in one spirite and truethe, may\n(all worldly respectes set a part) seke thy onely honor and glorie in\nall our and their Assemblies.\n\n SO BE IT.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TESTIMONY OF THE ROCKS.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FIRST.\n\nTHE PALAEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS.\n\n\nPalaeontology, or the science of ancient organisms, deals, as its\nsubject, with all the plants and animals of all the geologic periods. It\nbears nearly the same sort of relation to the _physical_ history of the\npast, that biography does to the civil and political history of the\npast. For just as a complete biographic system would include every name\nknown to the historian, a complete palaeontologic system would include\nevery fossil known to the geologist. It enumerates and describes all the\norganic existences of all the extinct creations,--all the existences,\ntoo, of the present creation that occur in the fossil or semi-fossil\nform; and, thus coextensive in space with the earth's surface,--nay,\ngreatly more than coextensive with the earth's surface,--for in the vast\nhieroglyphic record which our globe composes, page lies beneath page,\nand inscription covers over inscription,--coextensive, too, in time,\nwith every period in the terrestrial history since being first began\nupon our planet,--it presents to the student a theme so vast and\nmultifarious, that it might seem but the result, on his part, of a\nproper modesty, conscious of the limited range of his powers, and of\nthe brief and fleeting term of his life, were he to despair of being\never able effectually to grapple with it. \"But,\" to borrow from one of\nthe most ingenious of our Scottish metaphysicians, \"in this, as in other\ninstances in which nature has given us difficulties with which to cope,\nshe has not left us to be wholly overcome.\" \"If,\" says Dr. Thomas Brown,\nin his remarks on the classifying principle,--\"if she has placed us in a\nlabyrinth, she has at the same time furnished us with a clue which may\nguide us, not, indeed, through all its dark and intricate windings, but\nthrough those broad paths which conduct us into day. The single power by\nwhich we discover resemblance or relation in general, is a sufficient\naid to us in the perplexity or confusion of our first attempts at\narrangement. It begins by converting thousands, and more than thousands,\ninto one; and, reducing in the same manner the numbers thus formed, it\narrives at last at the few distinctive characters of those great\ncomprehensive tribes on which it ceases to operate, because there is\nnothing left to oppress the memory or the understanding.\"\n\nBut, is this all? Can the Palaeontologist but say that that classifying\nprinciple, which in every other department of science yields such\nassistance to the memory, is also of use in his, or but urge that it\nenables him to sort and arrange his facts; and that, by converting one\nidea into the type and exemplar of many resembling ones, it imparts to\nhim an ability of carrying not inadequate conceptions of the mighty\nwhole in his mind? If this were all, you might well ask, Why obtrude\nupon us, in connection with your special science, a common\nsemi-metaphysical idea, equally applicable to all the sciences,--in\nespecial, for example, to that botany which is the science of existing\nplants, and to that zoology which is the science of existing animals?\nNay, I reply, but it is not all. I refer to this classifying principle\nbecause, while it exists in relation to all other sciences as a\nprinciple--to use the words of the metaphysician just quoted--\"given to\nus by nature,\"--as a principle of _the mind within_,--it exists in\nPalaeontological science as a principle of nature itself,--as a principle\npalpably _external to the mind_. It is a marvellous fact, whose full\nmeaning we can as yet but imperfectly comprehend, that myriads of ages\nere there existed a human mind, well nigh the same principles of\nclassification now developed by man's intellect in our better treatises\nof zoology and botany, were developed on this earth by the successive\ngeologic periods; and that the by-past productions of our planet, animal\nand vegetable, were chronologically arranged in its history, according\nto the same laws of thought which impart regularity and order to the\nworks of the later naturalist and phytologists.\n\nI need scarce say how slow and interrupted in both provinces the course\nof arrangement has been, or how often succeeding writers have had to\nundo what their predecessors had done, only to have their own\nclassifications set aside by _their_ successors in turn. At length,\nhowever, when the work appears to be well nigh completed, a new science\nhas arisen, which presents us with a very wonderful means of testing it.\nCowley, in his too eulogistic ode to Hobbes,--smit by the singular\ningenuity of the philosophic infidel, and unable to look through his\nsophisms to the consequences which they involved,--could say, in\naddressing him, that\n\n \"only God could know\n Whether the fair idea he did show\n Agreed entirely with God's own or no.\"\n\nAnd he then not very wisely added,--\n\n \"This, I dare boldly tell,\n 'T is so like truth, 't will serve our turn as well.\"\n\nWe now know, however, that no mere resemblance to truth will for any\nconsiderable length of time serve its turn. It is because the\nresemblances have, like those of Hobbes, been mere resemblances, that so\nmuch time and labor have had to be wasted by the pioneers of science in\ntheir removal; and, now that a wonderful opportunity has occurred of\ncomparing, in this matter of classification, the human with the Divine\nidea,--the idea embodied by the zoologists and botanists in their\nrespective systems, with the idea embodied by the Creator of all in\ngeologic history,--we cannot perhaps do better, in entering upon our\nsubject, than to glance briefly at the great features in which God's\norder of classification, as developed in Palaeontology, agrees with the\norder in which man has at length learned to range the living\nproductions, plant and animal, by which he is surrounded, and of which\nhe himself forms the most remarkable portion. In an age in which a class\nof writers not without their influence in the world of letters would\nfain repudiate every argument derived from _design_, and denounce all\nwho hold with Paley and Chalmers as anthropomorphists, that labor to\ncreate for themselves a god of their own type and form, it may be not\naltogether unprofitable to contemplate the wonderful parallelism which\nexists between the Divine and human systems of classification,\nand--remembering that the geologists who have discovered the one had no\nhand in assisting the naturalists and phytologists who framed the\nother--soberly to inquire whether we have not a new argument in the fact\nfor an identity in constitution and quality of the Divine and human\nminds,--not a mere fanciful identity, the result of a disposition on the\npart of man to imagine to himself a God bearing his own likeness, but an\nidentity real and actual, and the result of that creative act by which\nGod formed man in his own image.\n\nThe study of plants and animals seems to have been a favorite one with\nthoughtful men in every age of the world. According to the Psalmist,\nthese great \"works of the Lord are sought out of all them that have\npleasure therein.\" The Book of Job, probably the oldest writing in\nexistence, is full of vivid descriptions of the wild denizens of the\nflood and desert; and it is expressly recorded of the wise old king,\nthat he \"spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even\nunto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and also of beasts, and\nof fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.\" Solomon was a zoologist\nand botanist; and there is palpable classification in the manner in\nwhich his studies are described. It is a law of the human mind, as has\nbeen already said, that, wherever a large stock of facts are acquired,\nthe classifying principle steps in to arrange them. \"Even the rudest\nwanderer in the fields,\" says Dr. Brown, \"finds that the profusion of\nblossoms around him--in the greater number of which he is able himself\nto discover many striking resemblances--may be reduced to some order of\narrangement.\" But, for many centuries, this arranging faculty labored\nbut to little purpose. As specimens of the strange classification that\ncontinued to obtain down till comparatively modern times, let us select\nthat of two works which, from the literary celebrity of their authors,\nstill possess a classical standing in letters,--Cowley's \"Treatise on\nPlants,\" and Goldsmith's \"History of the Earth and Animated Nature.\" The\nplants we find arranged by the poet on the simple but very inadequate\nprinciple of size and show. Herbs are placed first, as lowest and least\nconspicuous in the scale; then flowers; and, finally, trees. Among the\nherbs, at least two of the ferns--the true maidenhair and the\nspleenwort--are assigned places among plants of such high standing as\nsage, mint, and rosemary: among the flowers, monocotyledons, such as the\niris, the tulip, and the lily, appear among dicotyledons, such as the\nrose, the violet, the sunflower, and the auricula: and among trees we\nfind the palms placed between the plum and the olive; and the yew, the\nfir, and the juniper, flanked on one side by the box and the holly, and\non the other by the oak. Such, in treating of plants, was the\nclassification adopted by one of the most learned of English poets in\nthe year 1657.\n\nNor was Goldsmith,-who wrote more than a century later, much more\nfortunate in dealing with the animal kingdom. Buffon had already\npublished his great work; and even he could bethink him of no better\nmode of dividing his animals than into wild and tame. And in Goldsmith,\nwho adopted, in treating of the mammals, a similar principle, we find\nthe fishes and molluscs placed, in advance of the sauroid, ophidian, and\nbatrachian reptiles,--the whale united in close relationship to the\nsharks and rays,--animals of the tortoise kind classed among animals of\nthe lobster kind, and both among shell fish, such as the snail, the\nnautilus, and the oyster. And yet Goldsmith was engaged on his work\nlittle more than eighty years ago. In fine, the true principles of\nclassification in the animal kingdom are of well nigh as recent\ndevelopment as geologic science itself, and not greatly more ancient in\neven the _vegetable_ kingdom. It would, of course, be wholly out of\nplace to attempt giving a minute history here of the progress of\narrangement in either department; but it can scarce be held that the\nnatural system of plants was other than very incomplete previous to\n1789, when Jussieu first enunciated his scheme of classification; nor\ndid it receive its later improvements until so late as 1846, when, after\nthe publication, in succession, of the schemes of De Candolle and\nEndlicher, Lindley communicated his finished system to the world. And\nthere certainly existed no even tolerably perfect system of zoology\nuntil 1816, when the \"Animal Kingdom\" of Cuvier appeared. Later\nnaturalists,--such as Agassiz, in his own special department, the\nhistory of fishes, and Professor Owen in the invertebrate\ndivisions,--have improved on the classification of even the great\nFrenchman; but for purposes of comparison between the scheme developed\nin geologic history and that at length elaborated by the human mind, the\nsystem of Cuvier will be found, for at least our present purpose,\nsufficiently complete. And in tracing through time the course of the\nvegetable kingdom, let us adopt, as our standard to measure it by, the\nsystem of Lindley.\n\nCommencing at the bottom of the scale, we find the Thallogens, or\nflowerless plants which lack proper stems and leaves,--a class which\nincludes all the algae. Next succeed the Acrogens, or flowerless plants\nthat possess both stems and leaves,--such as the ferns and their allies.\nNext, omitting an inconspicuous class, represented by but a few\nparasitical plants incapable of preservation as fossils, come the\nEndogens,--monocotyledonous flowering plants, that include the\npalms, the liliaceae, and several other families, all characterized\nby the parallel venation of their leaves. Next, omitting another\ninconspicuous tribe, there follows a very important class,--the\nGymnogens,--polycotyledonous trees, represented by the conifers; and\ncycadaceae. And, last of all, come the Dicotyledonous Exogens,--a class\nto which all our fruit, and what are known as our \"forest trees,\"\nbelong, with a vastly preponderating majority of the herbs and flowers\nthat impart fertility and beauty to our gardens and meadows. This last\nclass, though but one, now occupies much greater space in the vegetable\nkingdom than all the others united.\n\nSuch is the arrangement of Lindley, or rather an arrangement the slow\ngrowth of ages, to which this distinguished botanist has given the last\nfinishing touches. And let us now mark how closely it resembles the\ngeologic arrangement as developed in the successive stages of the\nearth's history.\n\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 1.[4]\n\n -+-------------------------\n | Thallogens.\n Silurian. |\n | Acrogens.\n -+-----+-------------------\n | | | Gymnogens.\n Old Red. | | |\n | | |\n -+-----+-----+-------------\n | | | | Monocotyledons.\n Carboniferous. | | | |\n | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-------\n Permian. | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-------\n Triassic. | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-------\n | | | | : Dicotyledons.\n Oolitic. | | | | :\n | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-\n | | | | |\n Cretaceous. | | | | |\n | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+- Dicotyledonous Trees.\n | | | | |\n Tertiary. | | | | |\n | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-\n Geologic [Thal. Ac. Gy. Mon. Dic.] arrangement.\n Lindley's [Thal. Ac. Mon. Gy. Dic.] arrangement.\n\nTHE GENEALOGY OF PLANTS.]\n\nThe most ancient period of whose organisms any trace remains in the\nrocks seems to have been, prevailingly at least, a period of\nThallogens. We must, of course, take into account the fact, that it has\nyielded no land plants, and that the sea is everywhere now, as of old,\nthe great habitat of the algae,--one of the four great orders into which\nthe Thallogens are divided. There appear no traces of a terrestrial\nvegetation until we reach the uppermost beds of the Upper Silurian\nSystem. But, account for the fact as we may, it is at least worthy of\nnotice, that, alike in the systems of our botanists and in the\nchronological arrangements of our geologists, the first or introductory\nclass which occurs in the ascending order is this humble Thallogenic\nclass. There is some trace in the Lower Silurians of Scotland of a\nvegetable structure which may have belonged to one of the humbler\nEndogens, of which, at least, a single genus, the _Zosteraceae,_ still\nexists in salt water; but the trace is faint and doubtful, and, even\nwere it established, it would form merely a solitary exception to the\ngeneral evidence that the first known period of vegetable existence was\na period of Thallogens. The terrestrial remains of the Upper Silurians\nof England, the oldest yet known, consist chiefly of spore-like bodies,\nwhich belonged, says Dr. Hooker, to Lycopodiaceae,--an order of the\nsecond or acrogenic class. And, in the second great geologic\nperiod,--that of the Old Red Sandstone,--we find this second class not\ninadequately represented. In its lowest fossiliferous beds we detect a\nLycopodite which not a little resembles one of the commonest of our club\nmosses,--_Lycopodium clavatum_,--with a minute fern and a large striated\nplant resembling a calamite, and evidently allied to an existing genus\nof Acrogens, the equisetaceae. In the Middle Old Red Sandstone there also\noccurs a small fern, with some trace of a larger; and one of its best\npreserved vegetable organisms is a lepidodendron,--an extinct ally of\nthe Lycopodiums; while in the upper beds of the system, especially as\ndeveloped in the south of Ireland, the noble fern known as _Cyclopteris\nHibernicus_ is very abundant. This fern has been detected also in the\nUpper Old Red of our own country, mingled with fragments of contemporary\ncalamites. With, however, these earliest plants of the land yet known,\nthere occurs a true wood, which belonged, as shown by its structure, to\na gymnospermous or polycotyledonous tree, and which we find associated\nwith remains of Coccosteus and Diplacanthus.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 2.\n\nCYCLOPTERIS HIBERNICUS.\n\n(Nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 3.\n\nCONIFER OF THE LOWER OLD RED SANDSTONE.\n\nCromarty.\n\n(Mag. forty diameters.)]\n\nAnd here let me remark, that the facts of Palaeontological science compel\nus to blend, in some degree, with the classification of our modern\nbotanists, that of the botanists of an earlier time. In a passage\nalready quoted, Solomon is said to have discoursed of plants, \"from the\ncedar tree that is in Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of the\nwall,\"--from the great tree to the minute herb; and Cowley rose, in his\nmetrical treatise, as has been shown, from descriptions of herbs and\nflowers to descriptions of fruit and forest trees. And as in every age\nin which there existed a terrestrial vegetation there seem to have been\n\"trees\" as certainly as \"herbs,\" the palaeontological botantist finds that\nhe has, in consequence, to range his classes, not in one series, but in\ntwo,--the Gymnogens, or cone-bearing trees, in a line nearly parallel\nwith the Acrogens, or flowerless, spore-bearing herbs. But the\narrangement is in no degree the less striking from the circumstance that\nit is ranged, not in one, but in two lines. It is, however, an untoward\narrangement for the purposes of the Lamarckian, whose peculiar\nhypothesis would imperatively demand, not a double, but a single column,\nin which the ferns and club mosses would stand far in advance, in point\nof time, of the Coniferae. In the Coal Measures, so remarkable for the\ngreat luxuriance of their flora, both the Gymnogens and Acrogens are\nlargely developed, with a very puzzling intermediate class, that, while\nthey attained to the size of trees, like the former, retained in a\nremarkable degree, as in the Lepidodendra and the Calamites, the\npeculiar features of the latter. And with these there appear, though\nmore sparingly, the Endogens,--monocotyledonous plants, represented by a\nfew palm-like trees (Palmacites), a few date-like fruits\n(Trigonocarpum), and a few grass-like herbs (Poacites). In the great\nSecondary division, the true dicotyledonous plants first appear; but, so\nfar as is yet known, no dicotyledonous wood. In the earlier formations\nof the division a degree of doubt attaches to even the few leaves of\nthis class hitherto detected; but in the Lower Cretaceous strata they\nbecome at once unequivocal in their character, and comparatively\nabundant, both as individuals and species; and in the Tertiary deposits\nthey greatly outnumber all the humbler classes, and appear not only as\nherbs, but also as great trees. Not, however, until shortly before the\nintroduction of man do some of their highest orders, such as the\nRosaceae, come upon the scene, as plants of that great garden--including\nthe fields of the agriculturist--which it has been part of man's set\ntask upon earth to keep and to dress. And such seems to be the order of\nclassification in the vegetable kingdom, as developed in creation, and\ndetermined by the geologic periods.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n Fig. 4.[5]\n -+-----+-----+-------------------------------\n | | | Rad. Art. Mol.\nSilurian. | | |\n | | | | Fishes.\n -+-----+-----+-----+-------------------------\n | | | |\nOld Red. | | | |\n | | | | | Reptiles.\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------------------\n | | | | |\nCarboniferous. | | | | |\n | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------------------\nPermian. | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------------------\nTriassic. | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------------------\n | | | | | | Birds.\nOolitic. | | | | | | : Mammals.\n | | | | | | :\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------\n | | | | | | :\nCretaceous. | | | | | | :\n | | | | | | :\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-------\n | | | | | | | Pla. Mam.\nTertiary. | | | | | | |\n | | | | | | |\n | | | | | | |\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-\nRecent. | | | | | | | | Man.\n -+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-\n Geologic [Rad. Art. Mol. Fish. Rep. Bird. Mam. Man.] Arrangement.\n Cuvier's [Rad. Art. Mol. Fish. Rep. Bird. Mam. Man.] Arrangement.\n\nTHE GENEALOGY OF ANIMALS.]\n\nThe parallelism which exists between the course of creation, as\nexhibited in the animal kingdom, and the classification of the greatest\nzoologist of modern times, is perhaps still more remarkable. Cuvier\ndivides all animals into vertebrate and invertebrate; the invertebrates\nconsisting, according to his arrangement, of three great\ndivisions,--mollusca, articulata, and radiata; and the vertebrates, of\nfour great classes,--the mammals, the birds, the reptiles, and the\nfishes. From the lowest zone at which organic remains occur, up till\nthe higher beds of the Lower Silurian System, all the animal remains yet\nfound belong to the invertebrate divisions. The numerous tables of stone\nwhich compose the leaves of this first and earliest of the geologic\nvolumes correspond in their contents with that concluding volume of\nCuvier's great work in which he deals with the mollusca, articulata, and\nradiata; with, however, this difference, that the three great divisions,\ninstead of occurring in a continnous series, are ranged, like the\nterrestrial herbs and trees, in parallel columns. The chain of animal\nbeing on its first appearance is, if I may so express myself, a\nthreefold chain;--a fact nicely correspondent with the further fact,\nthat we cannot in the present creation range _serially_, as either\nhigher or lower in the scale, at least two of these divisions,--the\nmollusca and articulata. In one of the higher beds of the Upper Silurian\nSystem,--a bed which borders on the base of the Old Red Sandstone,--the\nvertebrates make their earliest appearance in their fourth or ichthyic\nclass; and we find ourselves in that volume of the geologic record which\ncorresponds to Cuvier's volume on the fishes. In the many-folded pages\nof the Old Red Sandstone, till we reach the highest and last, there\noccur the remains of no other vertebrates than those of this fourth\nclass; but in its uppermost deposits there appear traces of the third or\nreptilian class; and in passing upwards still, through the\nCarboniferous, Permian, and Triassic Systems, we find reptiles\ncontinuing the master existences of the time. The geologic volume in\nwhich these great formations are included corresponds to the Cuvierian\none devoted to the Reptilia. Early in the Oolitic System, birds,\nCuvier's second class of the vertebrata, make their first appearance,\nthough their remains, like those of birds in the present time, are rare\nand infrequent; and, for at least the earlier periods of their\nexistence, we know that they were,--that they haunted for food the\nwaters of the period, and waded in their shallows,--only from marks\nsimilar to those by which Crusoe became first aware of the visits paid\nto his island by his savage neighbors,--their footprints, left impressed\non the sands over which they stalked of old. This early Oolitic volume\ncorresponds in its contents to the section devoted by Cuvier, in his\ngreat work, to his second class, the birds. And in the Stonisfield\nslate,--a deposit interposed between the \"Inferior\" and \"Great\nOolites,\" we detect the earliest indications of his first or\nmammaliferous class, apparently represented, however, by but one\norder,--the Marsupiata, or pouched animals, to whose special place in\nthe scale I shall afterwards have occasion to refer. Not until we reach\nthe times of the Tertiary division do the mammals in their higher orders\nappear. The great Tertiary volume corresponds to those volumes of Cuvier\nwhich treat of the placental animals that suckle their young. And\nfinally,--last born of creation,--man appears upon the scene, in his\nseveral races and varieties; the sublime arch of animal being at length\nreceives its keystone; and the finished work stands up complete, from\nfoundation to pinnacle, at once an admirably adjusted occupant of space,\nand a wonderful monument of Divine arrangement and classification, as it\nexists in time. Save at two special points, to which I shall afterwards\nadvert, the particular arrangement unfolded by geologic history is\nexactly that which the greatest and most philosophic of the naturalists\nhad, just previous to its discovery, originated and adopted as most\nconformable to nature: the arrangements of geologic history as exhibited\nin time, if, commencing at the earliest ages, we pursue it downwards, is\nexactly that of the \"Animal Kingdom\" of Cuvier read backwards.\n\nLet us then, in grappling with the vast multiplicity of our subject,\nattempt reducing and simplifying it by means of the classifying\nprinciple; not simply, however,--again to recur to the remark of the\nmetaphysician,--as an internal principle given us by nature, but as an\nexternal principle _exemplified_ by nature. Let us take the organisms of\nthe old geologic periods in the order in which they occur in time;\nsecure, as has been shown, that if our chronology be correct, our\nclassification will, as a consequence, be good. It will be for the\nnatural theologians of the coming age to show the bearing of this\nwonderful fact on the progress of man towards the just and the solid,\nand on the being and character of man's Creator,--to establish, on the\none hand, against the undue depreciators of intellect and its results,\nthat in certain departments of mind, such as that which deals with the\narrangement and development of the scheme of organic being, human\nthought is not profitlessly revolving in an idle circle, but progressing\nGodwards, and gradually unlocking the order of creation. And, on the\nother hand, it will be equally his proper business to demand of the\nPantheist how,--seeing that only _persons_ (such as the Cuviers and\nLindleys) could have wrought out for themselves the real arrangement of\nthis scheme,--how, I say, or on what principle, it is to be held that it\nwas a scheme originated and established at the beginning, not by a\n_personal_, but by an impersonal God. But our present business is with\nthe _fact_ of the parallel arrangements, Divine and human,--not with the\ninferences legitimately deducible from it.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 5.\n\nOLDHAMIA ANTIQUA;--the oldest known Zoophyte.\n\nWrae Head, Ireland.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 6.\n\nPALAEOCHORDA MINOR.\n\n(One half nat. size.)]\n\nBeginning with the plants, let us, however, remark, that they do not\nprecede in the order of their appearance the humbler animals. No more\nancient organism than the _Oldhamia_ of the Lowest Irish Silurians, a\nplant-like zoophyte somewhat resembling our modern sertularia, has yet\nbeen detected by the geologist; though only a few months ago the\nresearches of Mr. Salter in the ancient rocks of the Longmynd,\nShropshire, previously deemed unfossiliferous, have given, to it what\nseem to be contemporary vegetable organisms, in a few ill-preserved\nfucoids. So far as is yet known, plants and animals appear together. The\nlong upward march of the animal kingdom takes its departure at its\nstarting point from a thick forest of algae. In Bohemia, in Norway, in\nSweden, in the British Islands, in North America, wherever, in fine,\nwhat appears to be the lowest, or at least one of the lowest, zones of\nlife has yet been detected, the rocks are found to be darkened by the\nremains of algae, so abundantly developed in some cases, that they\ncompose, as in the ancient Lower Silurians of Dumfriesshire, impure beds\nof anthracite several feet in thickness. Apparently, from the original\nlooseness of their texture, the individual plants are but indifferently\npreserved; nor can we expect that organisms so ancient should exhibit\nany _very_ close resemblance to the plants which darken the half-tide\nrocks and skerries of our coasts at the present time. We do detect,\nhowever, in some of these primordial fossils, at least a noticeable\nlikeness to families familiar to the modern algaeologist. The cord-like\nplant, _Chorda filum_, known to our children as \"dead men's ropes,\"\nfrom its proving fatal at times to the too adventurous swimmer who gets\nentangled in its thick wreaths, had a Lower Silurian representative,\nknown to the Palaeontologist as the _Palaeochorda_, or ancient chorda,\nwhich existed apparently in two species,--a larger and smaller. The\nstill better known _Chondrus crispus_, the Irish moss or carrageen of\nour cookery-books, has likewise its apparent though more distant\nrepresentative in _Chondritis_, a Lower Silurian algae, of which there\nseems to exist at least three species. The fucoids, or kelp weeds,\nappear to have had also their representatives in such plants as\n_Fucoides gracilis_ of the Lower Silurians of the Malverns; in short,\nthe Thallogens of the first ages of vegetable life seem to have\nresembled, in the group, and in at least their more prominent features,\nthe algae of the existing time. And with the first indications of land we\npass direct from the Thallogens to the Acrogens,--from the sea weeds to\nthe fern allies. The Lycopodiaceae;, or club mosses, bear in the axils of\ntheir leaves minute circular cases, which form the receptacles of their\nspore-like seeds. And when, high in the Upper Silurian System, and just\nwhen preparing to quit it for the Lower Old Red Sandstone, we detect our\nearliest terrestrial organisms, we find that they are composed\nexclusively of those little spore receptacles. The number of land plants\ngradually increases as we ascend into the overlying system. Still,\nhowever, the Flora of even the Old Red is but meagre and poor; and you\nwill perhaps permit me to lighten this part of my subject, which\nthreatens too palpably to partake of the poverty of that with which it\ndeals, by a simple illustration.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 7.\n\nLYCOPODIUM CLAVATUM.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 8.\n\nEQUISETUM FLUVIATILE.]\n\nWe stand, at low ebb, on the outer edge of one of those iron-bound\nshores of the Western Highlands, rich in forests of algae, from which,\nnot yet a generation bygone, our Celtic proprietors used to derive a\nlarger portion of their revenues than from their fields and moors. Rock\nand skerry are brown with sea weed. The long cylindrical lines of\n_Chorda filum_, many feet in length, lie aslant in the tideway; long\nshaggy bunches of _Fucus serratus_ and _Fucus nodosus_ droop heavily\nfrom the rock sides; while the flatter ledges, that form the uneven\nfloor upon which we tread, bristle thick with the stiff, cartilaginous,\nmany-cleft fronds of at least two species of chondrus,--the common\ncarrageen, and the smaller species, _C. Norvegicus_. Now, in\nthe thickly-spread fucoids of this Highland shore we have not a\n_very_ inadequate representation of the first, or thallogenic\nvegetation,--that of the great Silurian period, as exhibited in the\nrocks, from the base to nearly the top of the system. And should we add\nto the rocky tract, rich in fucoids, a submarine meadow of pale shell\nsand, covered by a deep green swathe of zostera, with its jointed\nsaccharine roots and slim flowers, unfurnished with petals, we would\nrender it perhaps more adequately representative still.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 9.\n\nOSMUNDA REGALIS. (Royal Fern.)]\n\nWe cross the beach, and enter on a bare brown moor, comparatively\nfertile, however, in the club mosses. One of the largest and finest of\nthe species, _Lycopodium clavatum_, with its long scaly stems and\nupright spikes of lighter green,--altogether a graceful though\nflowerless plant, which the herd-boy learns to select from among its\nfellows, and to bind round his cap,--goes trailing on the drier spots\nfor many feet over the soil; while at the edge of trickling runnel or\nmarshy hollow, a smaller and less hardy species, _Lycopodium inundatum_,\ntakes its place. The marshes themselves bristle thick with the deep\ngreen horse tail, _Equisetum fluviatile_, with its fluted stem and\nverticillate series of linear brandies. Two other species of the same\ngenus, _Equisetum sylvaticum_ and _Equisetum arvense_, flourish on the\ndrier parts of the moor, blent with two species of minute ferns, the\nmoonwort and the adder's tongue,--ferns that, like the magnificent royal\nfern (_Osmunda regalis_), though on a much humbler scale, bear their\nseed cases on independent stems, and were much sought after of old for\nimaginary virtues, which the modern schools of medicine refuse to\nrecognize. Higher up the moor, ferns of ampler size occur, and what\nseems to be rushes, which bear atop conglobate panicles on their smooth\nleafless stems; but at its lower edge little else appears than the\nhigher Acrogens,--ferns and their allies. There occurs, however, just\nbeyond the first group of club mosses,--a remarkable exception in a\nsolitary pine,--the advance guard of one of the ancient forests of the\ncountry, which may be seen far in the background, clothing with its\nshaggy covering of deep green the lower hill-slopes. And as we found in\nthe Thallogens of that littoral zone over which we have just passed,\nrepresentatives of the marine flora of the Silurian System, from the\nfirst appearance of organisms in its nether beds, to its bone-bed of the\nUpper Ludlow rocks, in which the Lycopodites first appear, so in the\nAcrogens of that moor, with its solitary coniferous tree, we may\nrecognize an equally striking representative of the terrestrial flora\nwhich existed during the deposition of these Ludlow rocks, and of the\nvarious formations of the Old Red Sandstone, Lower, Middle, and Upper.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 10.\n\nPINUS SYLVESTRIS. (Scotch Fir.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 11.\n\nCALAMITE? Of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. Shetland. (One eighth nat.\nsize.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 12.\n\nLYCOPODITE? Of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. Thurso. (Mag. two\ndiameters.)]\n\nIn the upper beds of the Upper Silurian, as has been already remarked,\nLycopodites are the only terrestrial plants yet found. In the Lower Old\nRed Sandstone we find added to these, with Thallogens that bear at least\nthe same _general_ character as in the system beneath, minute ferns, and\na greatly larger plant, allied to the horse tails. The Old Red flora\nseems to have been prevailingly an acrogenic flora; and yet with almost\nits first beginnings,--contemporary with at least the earlier fossils of\nthe system in Scotland, we find a true polycotyledonous tree, not lower\nin the scale than the araucarites of the Coal Measures,--which in\nstructure it greatly resembles,--or than the pines or cedars of our own\ntimes (see Fig. 3). In the Middle Old Red Sandstone there occurs, with\nplants representative apparently of the ferns and their allies, a\nsomewhat equivocal and doubtful organism, which may have been the\npanicle or compound fruit of some aquatic rush; while in the Upper Old\nRed, just ere the gorgeous flora of the Coal Measures began to be, there\nexisted in considerable abundance a stately fern, the _Cyclopteris\nHibernicus_ (see Fig. 2), of mayhap not smaller proportions than our\nmonarch of the British ferns, _Osmunda regalis_, associated with a\npeculiar lepidodendron, and what seems to be a lepidostrobus,--possibly\nthe fructiferous spike or cone of the latter, mingled with carbonaceous\nstems, which, in the simplicity of their texture, and their abundance,\ngive evidence of a low but not scanty vegetation. Ere passing to the\nluxuriant carboniferous flora, I shall make but one other remark. The\nexisting plants whence we derive our analogies in dealing with the\nvegetation of this early period, contribute but little, if at all, to\nthe support of animal life. The ferns and their allies remain untouched\nby the grazing animals. Our native club mosses, though once used in\nmedicine, are positively deleterious; the horse tails, though harmless,\nso abound in silex, which wraps them round with a cuticle of stone, that\nthey are rarely cropped by cattle; while the thickets of fern which\ncover our hill-sides, and seem so temptingly rich and green in their\nseason, scarce support the existence of a single creature, and remain\nuntouched in stem and leaf, from their first appearance in spring, until\nthey droop and wither under the frosts of early winter. Even the insects\nthat infest the herbaria of the botanist almost never injure his ferns.\nNor are our resin-producing conifers, though they nourish a few beetles,\nfavorites with the herbivorous tribes in a much greater degree. Judging\nfrom all we yet know, the earliest terrestrial flora may have covered\nthe dry land with its mantle of cheerful green, and served its general\npurposes, chemical and others, in the well-balanced economy of nature;\nbut the herb-eating animals would have fared but ill even where it\nthrove most luxuriantly; and it seems to harmonize with the fact of its\nnon-edible character, that up to the present time we know not that a\nsingle herbivorous animal lived among its shades. From all that\nappears, it may be inferred that it had not to serve the purposes of the\nfloras of the passing time, in which, according to the poet,\n\n \"The world's bread depends on the shooting of a seed.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 13.\n\nFERN? of Lower Old Red Sandstone. Orkney.\n\n(Nat. Size.)]\n\nThe flora of the Coal Measures was the richest and most luxuriant, in at\nleast individual productions, with which the fossil botanist has formed\nany acquaintance. Never before or since did our planet bear so rank a\nvegetation as that of which the numerous coal seams and inflammable\nshales of the carboniferous period form but a portion of the\nremains,--the portion spared, in the first instance, by dissipation and\ndecay, and in the second by the denuding agencies. Almost all our\ncoal,--the stored up fuel of a world,--forms but a comparatively small\npart of the produce of this wonderful flora. Amid much that was so\nstrange and antique of type in its productions as to set the analogies\nof the botanist at fault, there occurred one solitary order, not a few\nof whose species closely resembled their cogeners of the present time. I\nrefer, of course, to its ferns. And these seem to have formed no small\nproportion of the entire flora of the period. Francis estimates the\nrecent dorsiferous ferns of Great Britain at thirty-five species, and\nthe species of all the other genera at six more,--forty-one species in\nall; and as the flowering plants of the country do not fall short of\nfourteen hundred species, the ferns bear to them the rather small\nproportion of about one to thirty-five; whereas of the British Coal\nMeasure flora, in which we do not yet reckon quite three hundred species\nof plants, about a hundred and twenty were ferns. Three sevenths of the\nentire carboniferous flora of Britain belonged to this familiar class;\nand for about fifty species more we can discover no nearer analogies\nthan those which connect them with the fern allies. And if with the\nBritish Coal Measure we include those also of the Continent of America,\nwe shall find the proportions in favor of the ferns still greater. The\nnumber of carboniferous plants hitherto described amounts, says M. Ad.\nBrogniart, to about five hundred, and of these two hundred and\nfifty,--one half of the whole,--were ferns.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 14.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 15.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 16.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 17.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 18.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 19.]\n\n[Illustration: FERNS OF THE COAL MEASURES.[6]]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 20.\n\nALTINGIA EXCELSA.\n\nNorfolk Island Pine. (Young Specimen.)]\n\nRising in the scale from the lower to the higher vegetable forms of the\nsystem,--from its ferns to its trees,--we find great conifers,--so great\nthat they must have raised their heads more than a hundred feet over the\nsoil; and such was their abundance in this neighborhood, that one can\nscarce examine a fragment of coal beside one's household fire that is\nnot charged with their carbonized remains. Though marked by certain\npeculiarities of structure, they bore, as is shown by the fossil trunks\nof Granton and Craigleith, the familiar outlines of true coniferous\ntrees; and would mayhap have differed no more in appearance from their\nsuccessors of the same order that now live in our forests, than these\ndiffer from the conifers of New Zealand or of New South Wales. We have\nthus, in the numerous ferns and numerous coniferous trees of the Coal\nMeasures, known objects by which to conceive of some of the more\nprominent features of the flora of which they composed so large a part.\nWe have not inadequate conceptions of at once the giants of its forests\nand the green swathe of its plains and hill-sides,--of its mighty trees\nand its dwarf _underwood_,--of its cedars of Lebanon, so to speak, and\nits hyssop of the wall. But of an intermediate class we have no\nexisting representatives; and in this class the fossil botanist finds\npuzzles and enigmas with which hitherto at least he has been able to\ndeal with only indifferent success. There is a view, however,\nsufficiently simple, which may be found somewhat to lessen, if not\naltogether remove, the difficulty. Nature does not dwell willingly in\nmediocrity; and so in all ages she as certainly produced trees, or\nplants of tree-like proportions and bulk, as she did minute shrubs and\nherbs. In not a few of the existing orders and families, such as the\nRosaceae, the Leguminosae, the Myrtaceae, and many others, we have plants\nof all sizes, from the creeping herb, half hidden in the sward, to the\nstately tree. The wild dwarf strawberry and minute stone-bramble are of\nthe same order as our finer orchard trees,--apple, pear, and plum,--or\nas those noble hawthorn, mountain ash, and wild cherry trees, that\nimpart such beauty to our lawns and woods; and the minute spring vetch\nand everlasting pea are denizens of the same great family as the tall\nlocust and rosewood trees, and the gorgeous laburnum. Did there exist no\nother plants than the Rosaceae or the Leguminosae, we would possess,\nnotwithstanding, herbs, shrubs, and trees, just as we do now. And in\nplants of a greatly humbler order we have instances of similar variety\nin point of size. The humblest grass in our meadows belongs to the same\nnatural order as the tall bamboo, that, shooting up its panicles amid\nthe jungles of India to the height of sixty feet, looks down upon all\nthe second class trees of the country. Again, the minute forked\nspleenwort of Arthur Seat, which rarely exceeds three inches in length,\nis of the same family as those tree-ferns of New Zealand and Tasmania\nthat rise to an elevation of from twenty to thirty feet. And we know how\nin the ferns provision is made for the attainment and maintenance of the\ntree-like size and character. The rachis, which in the smaller species\nis either subterranean or runs along the ground, takes in the tree-fern\na different direction, and, rising erect, climbs slowly upwards in the\ncharacter of a trunk or stem, and sends out atop, year after year, a\nhigher and yet higher coronal of fronds. And in order to impart the\nnecessary strength to this trunk, and to enable it to war for ages with\nthe elements, its mass of soft cellular tissue is strengthened all round\nby internal buttresses of dense vascular fibre, tough and elastic as the\nstrongest woods. Now, not a few of the more anomalous forms of the Coal\nMeasures seem to be simply fern allies of the types Lycopodiaceae,\nMarsileaceae, and Equisetum, that, escaping from the mediocrity of mere\nherbs, shot up into trees,--some of them very great trees,--and that had\nof necessity to be furnished with a tissue widely different from that of\ntheir minuter contemporaries and successors. It was of course an\nabsolute mechanical necessity, that if they were to present, by being\ntall and large, a wide front to the tempest, they should also be\ncomparatively solid and strong to resist it; but with this simple\nmechanical requirement there seems to have mingled a principle of a more\noccult character. The Gymnogens or conifers were the highest vegetable\nexistences of the period,--its true trees; and all the tree-like fern\nallies were strengthened to meet the necessities of their increased\nsize, on, if I may so speak, a _coniferous_ principle. Tissue resembling\nthat of their contemporary conifers imparted the necessary rigidity to\ntheir framework; nay, so strangely were they pervaded throughout by the\nconiferous characteristics, that it seems difficult to determine whether\nthey really most resembled the acrogenous or gymnogenous families. The\nLepidodendra,--great plants of the club moss type, that rose from fifty\nto seventy feet in height,--had well nigh as many points of resemblance\nto the coniferae as to the Lycopodites. The Calamites,--reed-like,\njointed plants, that more nearly resemble the Equisetaceae than aught\nelse which now exists, but which attained, in the larger specimens, to\nthe height of ordinary trees, also manifest very decidedly, in their\ninternal structure, some of the characteristics of the conifers. It has\nbeen remarked by Lindley and Hutton of even Sphenophyllum,--a genus of\nplants with verticillate leaves, of which at least six species occur in\nour Coal Measures, and which Brogniart refers to one of the humblest\nfamilies of the fern allies,--that it seems at least as nearly related\nto the Coniferae as to its lowlier representatives, the Marsileaceae. And\nit is this union of traits, pertaining to what are now widely separated\norders, that imparts to not a few of the vegetables of the Coal Measures\ntheir singularly anomalous character.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 21.\n\nEAST INDIA TREE-FERN.[7]\n\n(_Asophila perrotetiana._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 22.\n\nSECTION OF STEM OF TREE-FERN.[8]\n\n(_Cyathea._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 23.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 24.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 25.]\n\n[Illustration: LEPIDODENDRON STERNBERGII.[9]]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 26.\n\nCALAMITES MOUGEOTII.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 27.\n\nSPHENOPHYLLUM DENTATUM.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 28.\n\nSIGILLARIA RENIFORMIS.]\n\nLet me attempt introducing you more intimately to one of those plants\nwhich present scarce any analogy with existing forms, and which must\nhave imparted so strange a character and appearance to the flora of the\nCoal Measures. The Sigillaria formed a numerous genus of the\nCarboniferous period: no fewer than twenty-two different species have\nbeen enumerated in the British coal fields alone; and such was their\nindividual abundance, that there are great seams of coal which seem to\nbe almost entirely composed of their remains. At least the ancient soil\non which these seams rest, and on which their materials appear to have\nbeen elaborated from the elements, is in many instances as thickly\ntraversed by their underground stems as the soil occupied by our densest\nforests is traversed by the tangled roots of the trees by which it is\ncovered; and we often find associated with them in these cases the\nremains of no other plant. The Sigillaria were remarkable for their\nbeautifully sculptured stems, various in their pattern, according to\ntheir species. All were fluted vertically, somewhat like columns of the\nGrecian Doric; and each flute or channel had its line of sculpture\nrunning adown its centre. In one species (_S. flexuosa_) the sculpture\nconsists of round knobs, surrounded by single rings, like the heads of\nthe bolts of the ship carpenter; in another (_S. reniformis_) the knobs\nare double, and of an oval form, somewhat resembling pairs of\nkidneys,--a resemblance to which the species owes its name. In another\nspecies (_S. catenulata_) what seems a minute chain of distinctly\nformed elliptical links drops down the middle of each flute; in yet\nanother (_S. oculata_) the carvings are of an oval form, and, bearing\neach a round impression in its centre, they somewhat resemble rows of\nstaring goggle-eyes; while the carvings in yet another species (_S.\npachyderma_) consist chiefly of crescent-shaped depressions. The roots,\nor rather underground stems, of this curious genus attracted notice,\nfrom their singularity, long ere their connection with the carved and\nfluted stems had been determined, and have been often described as the\n\"stigmaria\" of the fossil botanist. They, too, have their curious\ncarvings, consisting of deeply marked stigmata, quincuncially arranged,\nwith each a little ring at its bottom, and, in at least one rare\nspecies, surrounded by a sculptured star. Unlike true roots, they\nterminate abruptly; each rootlet which they send forth was jointed to\nthe little ring or dimpled knob at the bottom of the stigmata; and the\nappearance of the whole, as it radiated from the central mass, whence\nthe carved trunk proceeded, somewhat resembled that of an enormous\ncoach-wheel divested of the rim. Unfortunately we cannot yet complete\nour description of this strange plant. A specimen, traced for about\nforty feet across a shale bed, was found to bifurcate atop into two\ngreat branches,--a characteristic in which, with several others, it\ndiffered from most of the tree-ferns,--a class of plants to which\nAdolphe Brogniart is inclined to deem it related; but no specimen has\nyet shown the nature of its foliage. I am, however, not a little\ndisposed to believe with Brogniart that it may have borne as leaves some\nof the supposed ferns of the Coal Measures; nowhere, at least, have I\nfound these lie so thickly, layer above layer, as around the stems of\nSigillaria; and the fact that, even in our own times, plants widely\ndiffering from the tree-ferns,--such, for instance, as one of the\nCycadeae,--should bear leaves scarce distinguishable from fern fronds,\nmay well reconcile us to an apparent anomaly in the case of an ancient\nplant such as Sigillaria, whose entire constitution, so far as it has\nbeen ascertained, appears to have been anomalous. The sculpturesque\ncharacter of this richly fretted genus was shared by not a few of its\ncontemporaries. The Ulodendra, with their rectilinear rows of circular\nscars, and their stems covered with leaf-like carvings, rivalled in\neffect the ornately relieved torus of a Corinthian column: Favularia,\nKnorria, Halonia, many of the Calamites, and all the Lepidodendra,\nexhibited the most delicate sculpturing. In walking among the ruins of\nthis ancient flora, the Palaeontologist almost feels as if he had got\namong the broken fragments of Italian palaces, erected long ages ago,\nwhen the architecture of Rome was most ornate, and every moulding was\nroughened with ornament; and in attempting to call up in fancy the old\nCarboniferous forests, he has to dwell on this peculiar feature as one\nof the most prominent, and to see, in the multitude of trunks darkened\nabove by clouds of foliage, that rise upon him in the prospect, the slim\ncolumns of an elder Alhambra, roughened with arabesque tracery and\nexquisite filagree work.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 29.\n\nSIGILLARIA RENIFORMIS.\n\n(Nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 30.\n\nSIGILLARIA PACHYDERMA.\n\n(One fourth nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 31.\n\nSTIGMARIA FICOIDES.\n\n(One fourth nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 32.\n\nFAVULARIA TESSELLATA.\n\n(One fifth nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 33.\n\nLEPIDODENDRON OBOVATUM.\n\n(Nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 34.\n\nCYCAS REVOLUTA.\n\n(_Recent._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig.35.\n\nZAMIA PUNGENS.\n\n(_Recent._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 36.\n\nZAMIA FENEONIS (PORTLAND OOLITE.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 37.\n\nMANTELLIA NIDIFORMIS.\n\n(Portland Dirt-bed.)]\n\nIn the Oolitic flora we find a few peculiar features introduced. The\nCyeadeae,--a family of plants allied to the ferns on the one hand, and to\nthe conifers on the other, and which in their general aspect not a\nlittle resemble stunted palms,--appear in this flora for the first time.\nIts coniferous genera, too, receive great accessions to their numbers,\nand begin to resemble, more closely than at an earlier period, the\ngenera which still continue to exist. The cypresses, the yews, the\nthujas, the dammaras, all make their earliest appearance in the flora of\nthe Oolite. Among our existing woods there seem to be but two conifers\n(that attain to the dignity of trees) indigenous to Britain,--the common\nyew, _Taxus baccata_, and the common Scotch fir, _Pinus sylvestris_; and\nyet we know that the latter alone formed, during the last few centuries,\ngreat woods, that darkened for many miles together the now barren moors\nand bare hill-sides of the Highlands of Scotland,--moors and hill-sides\nthat, though long since divested of their last tree, are still known by\ntheir old name of _forests_. In the times of the Oolite, on the other\nhand, Britain had from fourteen to twenty different species of conifers;\nand its great forests, of whose existence we have direct evidence in the\nvery abundant lignites of the system, must have possessed a richness and\nvariety which our ancient fir woods of the historic or human period\ncould not have possessed. With the Conifers and the Cycadeae there were\nmany ferns associated,--so many, that they still composed nearly two\nfifths of the entire flora; and associated with these, though in reduced\nproportions, we find the fern allies. The reduction, however, of these\nlast is rather in species than in individuals. The Brora Coal, one of\nthe most considerable Oolitic seams in Europe, seems to have been formed\nalmost exclusively of an equisetum,--_E. columnare_. In this flora the\nmore equivocal productions of the Coal Measures are represented by what\nseems to be the last of the Calamites; but it contains no\nLepidodendra,--no Ulodendra,--no Sigillaria,--no Favularia,--no Knorria\nor Halonia. Those monsters of the vegetable world that united to the\nforms of its humbler productions the bulk of trees, had, with the\nsolitary exception of the Calamites, passed into extinction; and ere the\nclose of the system they too had disappeared. The forms borne by most of\nthe Oolitic plants were comparatively familiar forms. With the Acrogens\nand Gymnogens we find the first indication of the Liliaceae, or lily-like\nplants,--of plants, too, allied to the Pandanaceae or screw pines, the\nfruits of which are sometimes preserved in a wonderfully perfect state\nof keeping in the Inferior Oolite, together with Carpolithes,--palm-like\nfruits, very ornately sculptured,--and the remains of at least one other\nmonocotyledon, that bears the somewhat general name of an Endogenite.\nWith these there occur a few disputed leaves, which I must persist in\nregarding as dicotyledonous. But they formed, whatever their true\ncharacter, a very inconspicuous feature in the Oolitic flora; and not\nuntil the overlying Cretaceous System is ushered in do we find leaves in\nany considerable quantity decidedly of this high family; nor until we\nenter into the earlier Tertiaries do we succeed in detecting a true\ndicotyledonous tree. On such an amount of observation is this order of\nsuccession determined,--though the evidence is, of course, mainly\nnegative,--that when, some eight or ten years ago, Dr. John Wilson, the\nlearned Free Church missionary to the Parsees of India, submitted to me\nspecimens of fossil woods which he had picked up in the Egyptian Desert,\nin order that I might if possible determine their age, I told him, ere\nyet the optical lapidary had prepared them for examination, that if they\nexhibited the coniferous structure, they might belong to any geologic\nperiod from the times of the Lower Old Red Sandstone downwards; but that\nif they manifested in their tissue the dicotyledonous character, they\ncould not be older than the times of the Tertiary. On submitting them in\nthin slices to the microscope, they were found to exhibit the peculiar\ndicotyledonous structure as strongly as the oak or chestnut. And\nLieutenant Newbold's researches in the deposit in which they occur has\nsince demonstrated, on stratigraphical evidence, that not only does it\nbelong to the great Tertiary division, but also to one of the\ncomparatively modern formations of the Tertiary.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 38\n\nEQUISETUM COLUMNARE.\n\n(Nat. size.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 39.\n\nCARPOLITHES CONICA.\n\n(Reduced one third.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 40.\n\nCARPOLITHES BUCKLANDII.[10]\n\n(Reduced one third.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 41.\n\nACER TRILOBATUM.[11]\n\n(Miocene of OEningen.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 42.\n\nULMUS BRONNII.[12]\n\n(Miocene of Bohemia.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 43.\n\nPALMACITES LAMANONIS.\n\n(A Palm of the Miocene of Aix.)]\n\nThe earlier flora of this Tertiary division presents an aspect widely\ndifferent from that of any of the previous ones. The ferns and their\nallies sink into their existing proportions; nor do the coniferae,\npreviously so abundant, occupy any longer a prominent place. On the\nother hand, the dicotyledonous herbs and trees, previously so\ninconspicuous in creation, are largely developed. Trees of those\nAmentiferous orders to which the oak, the hazel, the beech, and the\nplane belong, were perhaps not less abundant in the Eocene woods than in\nthose of the present time: they were mingled with trees of the Laurel,\nthe Leguminous, and the Anonaceous or custard apple families, with many\nothers; and deep forests, in the latitude of London (in which the\nintertropical forms must now be protected, as in the Crystal Palace,\nwith coverings of glass, and warmed by artificial heat), abounded in\ngraceful palms. Mr. Bowerbank found in the London clay of the island of\nSheppey alone the fruits of no fewer than thirteen different species of\nthis picturesque family, which lends so peculiar a feature to the\nlandscapes in which it occurs; and ascertained that the undergrowth\nbeneath was composed, in large proportion, of creeping plants of the\ngourd and melon order. From the middle or Miocene flora of the Tertiary\ndivision,--of which we seem to possess in Britain only the small but\ninteresting fragment detected by his Grace the Duke of Argyll among the\ntrap-beds of Mull,--most of the more exotic forms seem to have been\nexcluded. The palms, however, still survive in no fewer than thirty-one\ndifferent species, and we find in great abundance, in the place of the\nother exotics, remains of the plane and buckthorn families,--part of a\ngroup of plants that in their general aspect, as shown in the Tertiary\ndeposits of the Continent, not a little resembled the vegetation of the\nUnited States at the present day. The nearer we approach to existing\ntimes, the more familiar in form and outline do the herbs and trees\nbecome. We detect, as has been shown, at least one existing _order_ in\nthe ferns of the Coal Measures; we detect at least existing _genera_\namong the Coniferae, Equisetaceae, and Cycadaceae of the Oolite; the\nacacias, gourds, and laurels of the Eocene flora, and the planes,\nwillows, and buckthorns of the Miocene, though we fail to identify their\nspecies with aught that now lives, still more strongly remind us of the\nrecent productions of our forests or conservatories; and, on entering,\nin our downward course, the Pleistocene period, we at length find\nourselves among familiar _species_. On old terrestrial surfaces, that\ndate before the times of the glacial period, and underlie the boulder\nclay, the remains of forests of oak, birch, hazel, and fir have been\ndetected,--all of the familiar species indigenous to the country, and\nwhich still flourish in our native woods. And it was held by the late\nProfessor Edward Forbes, that the most ancient of his five existing\nBritish floras,--that which occurs in the south-west of Ireland, and\ncorresponds with the flora of the northwest of Spain and the\nPyrenees,--had been introduced into the country as early, perhaps, as\nthe times of the Miocene. Be this, however, as it may, there can rest no\ndoubt on the great antiquity of the prevailing trees of our indigenous\nforests.\n\nThe oak, the birch, the hazel, the Scotch fir, all lived, I repeat, in\nwhat is now Britain, ere the last great depression of the land. The\ngigantic northern elephant and rhinoceros, extinct for untold ages,\nforced their way through their tangled branches; and the British tiger\nand hyaena harbored in their thickets. Cuvier framed an argument for the\nfixity of species on the fact that the birds and beasts embalmed in the\ncatacombs were identical in every respect with the animals of the same\nkinds that live now. But what, it has been asked, was a brief period of\nthree thousand years, compared with the geologic ages? or how could any\nsuch argument be founded on a basis so little extended? It is, however,\nto no such narrow basis we can refer in the case of these woods. All\nhuman history is comprised in the nearer corner of the immense period\nwhich they measure out; and yet, from their first appearance in creation\ntill now they have not altered a single fibre. And such, on this point,\nis the invariable testimony of Palaeontologic science,--testimony so\ninvariable, that no great Palaeontologist was ever yet an asserter of the\ndevelopment hypothesis. With the existing trees of our indigenous woods\nit is probable that in even these early times a considerable portion of\nthe herbs of our recent flora would have been associated, though their\nremains, less fitted for preservation, have failed to leave distinct\ntrace behind them. We at least know generally, that with each succeeding\nperiod there appeared a more extensively useful and various vegetation\nthan that which had gone before. I have already referred to the sombre,\nunproductive character of the earliest terrestrial flora with which we\nare acquainted. It was a flora unfitted, apparently, for the support of\neither graminivorous bird or herbivorous quadruped. The singularly\nprofuse vegetation of the Coal Measures was, with all its wild\nluxuriance, of a resembling cast. So far as appears, neither flock nor\nherd could have lived on its greenest and richest plains; nor does even\nthe flora of the Oolite seem to have been in the least suited for the\npurposes of the shepherd or herdsman. Not until we enter on the Tertiary\nperiods do we find floras amid which man might have profitably labored\nas a dresser of gardens, a tiller of fields, or a keeper of flocks and\nherds. Nay, there are whole orders and families of plants of the very\nfirst importance to man which do not appear until late in even the\nTertiary ages. Some degree of doubt must always attach to merely\nnegative evidence; but Agassiz, a geologist whose statements must be\nreceived with respect by every student of the science, finds reason to\nconclude that the order of the Rosaceae,--an order more important to the\ngardener than almost any other, and to which the apple, the pear, the\nquince, the cherry, the plum, the peach, the apricot, the victorine, the\nalmond, the raspberry, the strawberry, and the various brambleberries\nbelong, together with all the roses and the potentillas,--was introduced\nonly a short time previous to the appearance of man. And the true\ngrasses,--a still more important order, which, as the corn-bearing\nplants of the agriculturist, feed at the present time at least two\nthirds of the human species, and in their humbler varieties form the\nstaple food of the _grazing_ animals,--scarce appear in the fossil state\nat all. They are peculiarly plants of the human period.\n\nLet me instance one other family of which the fossil botanist has not\nyet succeeded in finding any trace in even the Tertiary deposits, and\nwhich appears to have been specially created for the gratification of\nhuman sense. Unlike the Rosaceae, it exhibits no rich blow of color, or\ntempting show of luscious fruit;--- it does not appeal very directly to\neither the sense of taste or of sight: but it is richly odoriferous;\nand, though deemed somewhat out of place in the garden for the last\ncentury and more, it enters largely into the composition of some of our\nmost fashionable perfumes. I refer to the _Labiate_ family,--a family to\nwhich the lavenders, the mints, the thymes, and the hyssops belong, with\nbasil, rosemary, and marjoram,--all plants of \"gray renown,\" as\nShenstone happily remarks in his description of the herbal of his\n\"Schoolmistress.\"\n\n \"Herbs too she knew, and well of each could speak,\n That in her garden sipped the silvery dew,\n Where no vain flower disclosed a gaudy streak,\n But herbs for use and physic not a few,\n Of gray renown within those borders grew.\n The tufted basil, pun-provoking thyme,\n And fragrant balm, and sage of sober hue.\n\n \"And marjoram sweet in shepherd's posie found,\n And lavender, whose spikes of azure bloom\n Shall be erewhile in arid bundles bound,\n To lurk amid her labors of the loom,\n And crown her kerchiefs clean with meikle rare perfume.\n\n \"And here trim rosemary, that whilom crowned\n The daintiest garden of the proudest peer,\n Ere, driven from its envied site, it found\n A sacred shelter for its branches here,\n Where, edged with gold, its glittering skirts appear,\n With horehound gray, and mint of softer green.\"\n\nAll the plants here enumerated belong to the labiate family; which,\nthough unfashionable even in Shenstone's days, have still their products\nfavorably received in the very best society. The rosemary, whose\nbanishment from the gardens of the great he specially records, enters\nlargely in the composition of eau de Cologne. Of the lavenders, one\nspecies (_Lavendula vera_) yields the well known lavender oil, and\nanother (_L. latifolio_) the spike oil. The peppermint (_Meantha\nviridus_) furnishes the essence so popular under that name among our\nconfectioners; and one of the most valued perfumes of the East (next to\nthe famous _Attar_, a product of the Rosaceae) is the oil of the\n_Patchouly_ plant, another of the labiates. Let me indulge, ere quitting\nthis part of the subject, in a single remark. There have been classes of\nreligionists, not wholly absent from our own country, and well known on\nthe Continent, who have deemed it a merit to deny themselves every\npleasure of sense, however innocent and delicate. The excellent but\nmistaken Pascal refused to look upon a lovely landscape; and the Port\nRoyalist nuns remarked, somewhat simply for their side of the argument,\nthat they seemed as if warring with Providence, seeing that the favors\nwhich he was abundantly showering upon them, they, in obedience to the\nstern law of their lives, were continually rejecting. But it is better,\nsurely, to be on the side of Providence against Pascal and the nuns,\nthan on the side of Pascal and the nuns against Providence. The great\nCreator, who has provided so wisely and abundantly for all his\ncreatures, knows what is best for us, infinitely better than we do\nourselves; and there is neither sense nor merit, surely, in churlishly\nrefusing to partake of that ample entertainment, sprinkled with delicate\nperfumes, garnished with roses, and crowned with the most delicious\nfruit, which we now know was not only specially prepared for us, but\nalso got ready, as nearly as we can judge, for the appointed hour of our\nappearance at the feast. This we also know, that when the Divine Man\ncame into the world,--unlike the Port Royalists, he did not refuse the\ntemperate use of any of these luxuries, not even of that \"ointment of\nspikenard, very precious\" (a product of the labiate family), with which\nMary anointed his feet.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 44.\n\nCYCLOPHTHALMUS BUCKLANDI.\n\n(A Fossil Scorpion of the Coal Measures of Bohemia.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 45.\n\nFOSSIL DRAGON-FLY.\n\nSolenhofen.]\n\nThough it may at first seem a little out of place, let us anticipate\nhere, for the sake of the illustration which it affords, one of the\nsections of the other great division of our subject,--that which treats\nof the fossil animals. Let us run briefly over the geologic history of\ninsects, in order that we may mark the peculiar light which it casts on\nthe character of the ancient floras. No insects have yet been detected\nin the Silurian or Old Red Sandstone Systems. They first appear amid the\nhard, dry, flowerless vegetation of the Coal Measures, and in genera\nsuited to its character. Among these the scorpions take a prominent\nplace,--carnivorous arachnidae of ill repute, that live under stones and\nfallen trunks, and seize fast with their nippers upon the creatures on\nwhich they prey, crustaceans usually, such as the wood-louse, or\ninsects, such as the earth-beetles and their grubs. With the scorpions\nthere occur cockroaches of types not at all unlike the existing ones,\nand that, judging from their appearance, must have been foul feeders, to\nwhich scarce anything could have come amiss as food. Books, manuscripts,\nleather, ink, oil, meat, even the bodies of the dead, are devoured\nindiscriminately by the recent _Blatta gigantea_ of the warmer parts of\nthe globe,--one of the most disagreeable pests of the European settler,\nor of war vessels on foreign stations. I have among my books an\nage-embrowned copy of Ramsay's \"Tea Table Miscellany,\" that had been\ncarried into foreign parts by a musical relation, after it had seen hard\nservice at home, and had become smoke dried and black; and yet even it,\nthough but little tempting, as might be thought, was not safe from the\ncockroaches; for, finding it left open one day, they ate out in half an\nhour half its table of contents, consisting of several leaves.\nAssuredly, if the ancient _Blattae_ were as little nice in their eating\nas the devourers of the \"Tea Table Miscellany,\" they would not have\nlacked food amid even the unproductive flora and meagre fauna of the\nCoal Measures. With these ancient cockroaches a few locusts and beetles\nhave been found associated, together with a small _Tinea_,--a creature\nallied to the common clothes-moth, and a _Phasmia_,--a creature related\nto the spectre insects. But the group is an inconsiderable one; for\ninsects seem to have occupied no very conspicuous place in the\ncarboniferous fauna. The beetles appear to have been of the wood and\nseed devouring kinds, and would probably have found their food among the\nconifers; the _Phasmidae_ and grasshoppers would have lived on the tender\nshoots of the less rigid plants their contemporaries; the _Tinea_,\nprobably on ligneous or cottony fibre. Not a single insect has the\nsystem yet produced of the now numerous kinds that seek their food among\nflowers. In the Oolitic ages, however, insects become greatly more\nnumerous,--so numerous that they seemed to have formed almost\nexclusively the food of the earliest mammals, and apparently also of\nsome of the flying reptiles of the time. The magnificent dragon-flies,\nthe carnivorous tyrants of their race, were abundant; and we now know,\nthat while they were, as their name indicates, dragons to the weaker\ninsects, they themselves were devoured by dragons as truly such as were\never yet feigned by romancer of the middle ages. Ants were also common,\nwith crickets, grasshoppers, bugs both of the land and water, beetles,\ntwo-winged flies, and, in species distinct from the preceding\ncarboniferous ones, the disgusting cockroaches. And for the first time\namid the remains of a flora that seems to have had its few\nflowers,--though flowers could have formed no conspicuous feature in\neven an Oolitic landscape,--we detect in a few broken fragments of the\nwings of butterflies, decided trace of the flower-sucking insects. Not,\nhowever, until we enter into the great Tertiary division do these become\nnumerous. The first bee makes its appearance in the amber of the Eocene,\nlocked up hermetically in its gem-like tomb,--an embalmed corpse in a\ncrystal coffin,--along with fragments of flower-bearing herbs and trees.\nThe first of the Bombycidae too,--insects that maybe seen suspended over\nflowers by the scarce visible vibrations of their wings, sucking the\nhonied juices by means of their long, slender trunks,--also appear in\nthe amber, associated with moths, butterflies, and a few caterpillars.\nBees and butterflies are present in increased proportions in the latter\nTertiary deposits: but not until that terminal creation to which we\nourselves belong was ushered on the scene did they receive their fullest\ndevelopment. There is exquisite poetry in Wordsworth's reference to \"the\nsoft murmur of the vagrant bee,\"--\n\n \"A slender sound, yet hoary Time\n Doth to the soul exalt it with the chime\n Of all his years; a company\n Of ages coming, ages gone,\n Nations from before them sweeping.\"\n\nAnd yet, mayhap, the naked scientific facts of the history of this busy\ninsect are scarcely less poetic than the pleasing imagination of the\npoet regarding it. They tell that man's world, with all its griefs and\ntroubles, is more emphatically a world of flowers than any of the\ncreations that preceded it, and that as one great family--the\ngrasses--were called into existence, in order, apparently, that he\nmight enter in favoring circumstances upon his two earliest avocations,\nand be in good hope a keeper of herds and a tiller of the ground; and as\nanother family of plants--the Rosaceae--was created in order that the\ngardens which it would be also one of his vocations to keep and to dress\nshould have their trees \"good for food and pleasant to the taste;\" so\nflowers in general were profusely produced just ere he appeared, to\nminister to that sense of beauty which distinguishes him from all the\nlower creatures, and to which he owes not a few of his most exquisite\nenjoyments. The poet accepted the bee as a sign of high significance:\nthe geologist also accepts her as a sign. Her entombed remains testify\nto the gradual fitting up of our earth as a place of habitation for a\ncreature destined to seek delight for the mind and the eye as certainly\nas for the grosser senses, and in especial marks the introduction of the\nstately forest trees, and the arrival of the delicious flowers. And,\n\n \"Thus in their stations lifting toward the sky\n The foliaged head in cloud-like majesty,\n The shadow-casting race of trees survive:\n Thus in the train of spring arrive\n Sweet flowers: what living eye hath viewed\n Their myriads? endlessly renewed\n Wherever strikes the sun's glad ray,\n Where'er the subtile waters stray,\n Wherever sportive zephyrs bend\n Their course, or genial showers descend.\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE SECOND.\n\nTHE PALAEONTOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ANIMALS.\n\n\nAmid the unceasing change and endless variety of nature there occur\ncertain great radical ideas, that, while they form, if I may so express\nmyself, the groundwork of the change,--the basis of the variety,--admit\nin themselves of no change or variety whatever. They constitute the\naye-enduring tissue on which the ever-changing patterns of creation are\ninscribed: the patterns are ever varying; the tissue which exhibits them\nfor ever remains the same. In the animal kingdom, for instance, the\nprominent ideas have always been uniform. However much the faunas of the\nvarious geologic periods may have differed from each other, or from the\nfauna which now exists, in their general aspect and character, they were\nall, if I may so speak, equally underlaid by the great leading ideas\nwhich still constitute the master types of animal life. And these\nleading ideas are four in number. _First_, there is the _star-like_ type\nof life,--life embodied in a form that, as in the corals, the\nsea-anemones, the sea-urchins, and the star-fishes, radiates outwards\nfrom a centre; _second_, there is the _articulated_ type of life,--life\nembodied in a form composed, as in the worms, crustaceans, and insects,\nof a series of rings united by their edges, but more or less moveable on\neach other; _third_, there is the bilateral or _molluscan_ type of\nlife,--life embodied in a form in which there is a duality of\ncorresponding parts, ranged, as in the cuttle-fishes, the clams, and\nthe snails, on the sides of a central axis or plane; and _fourth_, there\nis the _vertebrate_ type of life,--life embodied in a form in which an\ninternal skeleton is built up into two cavities placed the one over the\nother; the upper for the reception of the nervous centres, cerebral and\nspinal,--the lower for the lodgment of the respiratory, circulatory, and\ndigestive organs. Such have been the four central ideas of the faunas of\nevery succeeding creation, except perhaps the earliest of all, that of\nthe Lower Silurian System, in which, so far as is yet known, only three\nof the number existed,--the radiated, articulated, and molluscan ideas\nor types. That Omnipotent Creator, infinite in his resources,--who, in\nat least the details of his workings, seems never yet to have repeated\nhimself, but, as Lyell well expresses it, breaks, when the parents of a\nspecies have been moulded, the dye in which they were cast,--manifests\nhimself, in these four great ideas, as the unchanging and unchangeable\nOne. They serve to bind together the present with all the past; and\ndetermine the unity of the authorship of a wonderfully complicated\ndesign, executed on a groundwork broad as time, and whose scope and\nbearing are deep as eternity.\n\nThe fauna of the Silurian System bears in all its three great types the\nstamp of a fashion peculiarly antique, and which, save in a few of the\nmollusca, has long since become obsolete. Its radiate animals are\nchiefly corals, simple or compound, whose inhabitants may have somewhat\nresembled the sea-anemones; with zoophites, akin mayhap to the sea-pens,\nthough the relationship must have been a remote one; and numerous\ncrinoids, or stone lilies, some of which consisted of but a sculptured\ncalyx without petals, while others threw off a series of long, flexible\narms, that divided and subdivided like the branches of a tree, and were\nthickly fringed by hair-like fibres. There is great variety and beauty\namong these Silurian crinoids; and, from the ornate sculpture of their\ngroined and ribbed _capitals_ and slender _columns_, the Gothic\narchitect might borrow not a few striking ideas.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 46.\n\nCYATHAXONIA DALMANI.]\n\nThe difference between the older and newer fashions, as exemplified in\nthe cup-shaped corals, may be indicated in a single sentence. The\nancient corals were stars of four rays, or of multiples of four; the\nmodern corals are stars of six rays, or of multiples of six. But though,\nat a certain definite period,--that during which the great Palaeozoic\ndivision ended and the Secondary division began--nature, in forming\nthis class of creatures, discarded the number four, and adopted instead\nthe number six, the great leading idea of the star itself was equally\nretained in corals of the modern as in those of the more ancient type.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 47.\n\nGLYPTOCRINUS DECADACTYLUS.\n\n(Hudson River Group, Lower Silurian.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 48.\n\nCALYMENE BLUMENBACHII.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 49.\n\nORTHISINA VERNEUILI.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 50.\n\nLITUITES CORNU-ARIETIS.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 51.\n\nLINGULA LOWISII.]\n\nThe articulata of the Silurian period bore a still more peculiar\ncharacter. They consisted mainly of the Trilobites,--a family in whose\nnicely-jointed shells the armorer of the middle ages might have found\nalmost all the contrivances of his craft, anticipated, with not a few\nbesides which he had failed to discover; and which, after receiving so\nimmense a development during the middle and later times of the Silurian\nperiod, that whole rocks were formed almost exclusively of their\nremains, gradually died out in the times of the Old Red Sandstone, and\ndisappeared for ever from creation after the Carboniferous Limestone had\nbeen deposited. The Palaeontologist knows no more unique family than that\nof the Trilobites, or a family more unlike any which now exists, or a\nfamily which marks with more certainty the early rocks in which they\noccur. And yet, though formed in a fashion that perished myriads of\nages ago, how admirably does it not exhibit the articulated type of\nbeing, and illustrate that unity of design which, amid endless\ndiversity, pervades all nature. The mollusca of the Silurians ranged\nfrom the high cephalopoda, represented in our existing seas by the\nnautili and the cuttle-fishes, to the low brachipods, some of whose\ncongeners may still be detected in the terebratula of our Highland lochs\nand bays, and some in the lingulae of the southern hemisphere. The\ncephalopods of the system are all of an obsolete type, that disappeared\nmyriads of ages ago,--a remark which, with the exceptions just\nintimated, and perhaps one or two others, applies equally to its\nbrachipods; but of at least two of its intermediate families,--the\ngasteropoda and lamellibranchiata,--several of the forms resemble those\nof recent shells of the temperate latitudes. In its general aspect,\nhowever, the Silurian fauna, antiquely fashioned, as I have said, as\nbecame its place in the primeval ages of existence, was unlike any other\nwhich the world ever saw; and the absence of the vertebrata, or at least\nthe inconspicuous place which they occupied if they were at all present,\nmust have imparted to the whole, as a group, a humble and mediocre\ncharacter. It seems to have been for many ages together a creation of\nmolluscs, corals, and Crustacea. At length, in an upper bed of the\nsystem, immediately under the base of the Old Red Sandstone, the remains\nof the earliest known fishes appear, blent with what also appears for\nthe first time,--the fragmentary remains of a terrestrial vegetation.\nThe rocks beneath this ancient bone-bed have yielded, as I have already\nsaid, no trace of any plant higher than the Thallogens, or at least not\nhigher than the Zosteracea,--plants whose proper habitat is the sea;\nbut, through an apparently simultaneous advance of the two kingdoms,\nanimal and vegetable,--though of course the simultaneousness may be but\nmerely apparent,--the first land plants and the first vertebrates\nappear together in the same deposit.\n\nWhat, let us inquire, is the character of these ancient fishes, that\nfirst complete the scale of animated nature in its four master ideas, by\nadding the vertebrate to the invertebrate divisions? So far as is yet\nknown, they all consist of one well marked order,--that placoidal order\nof Agassiz that to an internal framework of cartilage adds an external\narmature, consisting of plates, spines, and shagreen points of solid\nbone. Either of the two kinds of dog-fishes on our coasts,--the spiked\nor spotted,--maybe accepted as not inadequate representatives of this\norder as it now exists. The Port Jackson shark, however,--a creature\nthat to the dorsal spines and shagreen-covered skin of the common\ndog-fish adds a mouth terminal at the snout, not placed beneath, as in\nmost other sharks, and a palate covered with a dense pavement of\ncrushing teeth,--better illustrates the order as it first appeared in\ncreation than any of our British placoids.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 52.\n\nPORT JACKSON SHARK.\n\n(Cestracion Phillippi.)]\n\n[Illustration:\n\n Fig. 53.[13]\n -----------------------\n Silurian.\n -----+-----------------Placoid.\n | | Ganoid.\n Old Red. | |\n -----+----+------------\n | |\n Carboniferous. | |\n -----+----+------------\n Permian. | |\n -----+----+------------\n Triassic. | |\n -----+----+------------\n | |\n Oolitic. | |\n -----+----+----+----+--\n Cretaceous. | | | | Ctenoid and Cycloid.\n | | | |\n -----+----+----+----+--\n Tertiary. | | | |\n | | | |\n -----+----+----+----+--\n Geologic [Pla. Gan. Cte. Cyc.] arrangement.\n Agassiz's [Pla. Gan. Cte. Cyc.] arrangement.\n\nTHE GENEALOGY OF FISHES.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 54.\n\nAMBLYPTERUS MACROPTERTUS.\n\nFrom the Coal at Saarbruck.\n\n(A Ganoid of the Carboniferous System.)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 55.\n\nLEBIAS CEPHALOTES.\n\nCycloids of Aix. (_Miocene._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 56.\n\nPLATAX ALTISSIMUS.\n\nA Ctenoid of Monte Bolca. (_Eocene._)]\n\nAnd here let me adduce another and very remarkable instance of the\ncorrespondence which obtains between the sequence in which certain\nclasses of organisms were first ushered into being, and the order of\nclassification adopted, after many revisions, by the higher\nnaturalists. Cuvier, with not a few of the ichthyologists who preceded\nhim, arranged the fishes into two distinct series,--the Cartilaginous\nand Osseous; and these last he mainly divided into the hard or\nspiny-finned fishes, and the soft or joint-finned fishes. He placed the\nsturgeon in his Cartilaginous series; while in his soft-finned order he\nfound a place for the Polypterus of the Nile and the Lepidosteus of the\nOhio and St. Lawrence. But the arrangement, though it seemed at the time\none of the best and most natural possible, failed to meet any\ncorresponding arrangement in the course of geologic history. The place\nassigned to the class of fishes as a whole corresponded to their place\nin the Palaeontological scale;--- first of the vertebrate division in the\norder of their appearance, they border, as in the \"_Animal Kingdom_\" of\nthe naturalist, on the invertebrate divisions. But it was not until the\nnew classification of Agassiz had ranged them after a different fashion\nthat the correspondence became complete in all its parts. First, he\nerected the fishes that to an internal cartilaginous skeleton unite an\nexternal armature of plates and points of bone, into his Placoid order;\nnext, gathering together a mere handful of individuals from among the\nvarious orders and families over which they had been scattered,--the\nsturgeons from among the cartilaginous fishes, and the lepidosteus and\npolypterus from among the Clupia or herrings,--he erected into a small\nganoid order all the fishes that are covered, whatever the consistency\nof their skeleton, by a continuous or nearly continuous armor of\nenamelled bone, or by great bony plates that lock into each other at\ntheir edges. Out of the remaining fishes,--those covered with scales of\na horny substance, and which now comprise nearly nine tenths of the\nwhole class,--he erected two orders more,--a Ctenoid order, consisting\nof fishes whose scales, like those of the perch, are pectinated at\ntheir lower edges like the teeth of a comb, and a Cycloid order,\ncomposed of fishes whose scales, like those of the salmon, are defined\nall around by a simple continuous margin; and no sooner was the division\neffected than it was found to cast a singularly clear light on the early\nhistory of the class. The earliest fishes--firstborn of their\nfamily--seem to have been all placoids. The Silurian System has not yet\nafforded trace of any other vertebral animal. With the Old Red Sandstone\nthe ganoids were ushered upon the scene in amazing abundance; and for\nuntold ages, comprising mayhap millions of years, the entire ichthyic\nclass consisted, so far as is yet known, of but these two orders.\nDuring the times of the Old Red Sandstone, of the Carboniferous, of the\nPermian, of the Triassic, and of the Oolitic Systems, all fishes, though\napparently as numerous individually as they are now, were comprised in\nthe ganoidal and placoidal orders. The period of these orders seems to\nhave been nearly correspondent with the reign, in the vegetable kingdom,\nof the Acrogens and Gymnogens, with the intermediate classes, their\nallies. At length, during the ages of the Chalk, the Cycloids and\nCtenoids were ushered in, and were gradually developed in creation until\nthe human period, in which they seem to have reached their culminating\npoint, and now many times exceed in number and importance all other\nfishes. We do not see a sturgeon (our British representative of the\nganoids) once in a twelvemonth; and though the skate and dog-fish (our\nrepresentatives of the placoids) are greatly less rare, their number\nbears but a small proportion to that of the fishes belonging to the two\nprevailing orders, of which thousands of boat-loads are landed on our\ncoasts every day.\n\nThe all but entire disappearance of the ganoids from creation is surely\na curious and not unsuggestive circumstance. In the human family there\nare races that have long since reached their culminating point, and are\nnow either fast disappearing or have already disappeared. The Aztecs of\nCentral America, or the Copts of the valley of the Nile, are but the\ninconsiderable fragments of once mighty nations, memorials of whose\ngreatness live in the vast sepulchral mounds of the far West, or in the\ntemples of Thebes or Luxor, or the pyramids of Gizah. But in the rivers\nof these very countries,--in the Polypterus of the Nile, or the\nLepidosteus of the Mississippi,--we are presented with the few surviving\nfragments of a dynasty compared with which that of Egypt or of Central\nAmerica occupied but an exceedingly small portion of either space or\ntime. The dynasty of the ganoids was at one time coextensive with every\nriver, lake, and sea, and endured during the unreckoned _eons_ which\nextended from the times of the Lower Old Red Sandstone until those of\nthe Chalk. I may here mention, that as there are orders of plants, such\nas the Rosaceae and the Grasses, that scarce preceded man in their\nappearance, so there are families of fishes that seem peculiarly to\nbelong to the human period. Of these, there is a family very familiar on\nour coasts, and which, though it furnishes none of our higher ichthyic\nluxuries, is remarkable for the numbers of the human family which it\nprovides with a wholesome and palatable food. The delicate Salmonidae\nand the Pleuronectidae,--families to which the salmon and turbot\nbelong,--were ushered into being as early as the times of the Chalk; but\nthe Gadidae or cod family,--that family to which the cod proper, the\nhaddock, the dorse, the whiting, the coal-fish, the pollock, the hake,\nthe torsk, and the ling belong, with many other useful and wholesome\nspecies,--did not precede man by at least any period of time appreciable\nto the geologist. No trace of the family has yet been detected in even\nthe Tertiary rocks.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 57\n\nPTERICHTHYS OBLONGUS.\n\n(One half nat. size.)]\n\nOf the ganoids of the second age of vertebrate existence,--that of the\nOld Red Sandstone,--some were remarkable for the strangeness of their\nforms, and some for constituting links of connection which no longer\nexist in nature, between the ganoid and placoid orders. The Acanth\nfamily, which ceased with the Coal Measures, was characterized,\nespecially in its Old Red species, by a combination of traits common to\nboth orders; and among the extremer forms, in which Palaeontologists for\na time failed to detect that of the fish at all, we reckon those of the\ngenera Coccosteus, Pterichthys, and Cephalaspis. The more aberrant\ngenera, however, even while they consisted each of several species, were\ncomparatively short lived. The Coccosteus and Cephalaspis were\nrestricted to but one formation apiece; while the Pterichthys, which\nappears for the first time in the lower deposits of the Old Red\nSandstone, becomes extinct at its close. On the other hand, some of the\ngenera that exemplified the general type of their class were extremely\nlong lived. The Celacanths were reproduced in many various species, from\nthe times of the Lower Old Red Sandstone to those of the Chalk; and the\nCestracions, which appear in the Upper Ludlow Rocks as the oldest of\nfishes, continue in at least one species to exist still. It would\nalmost seem as if some such law influenced the destiny of genera in this\nichthyic class, as that which we find so often exemplified in our\nspecies. The dwarf, or giant, or deformed person, is seldom a long\nliver;--all the more remarkable instances of longevity have been\nfurnished by individuals cast in the ordinary mould and proportions of\nthe species. Not a few of these primordial ganoids wore, however, of the\nhighest rank and standing ever exemplified by their class; and we find\nAgassiz boldly assigning a reason for their superiority to their\nsuccessors, important for the fact which it embodies, and worthy, as\ncoming from him, of our most respectful attention. \"It is plain,\" we\nfind him saying, \"that before the class of reptiles was introduced upon\nour globe, the fishes, being then the only representatives of the type\nof vertebrata, were invested with the characters of a higher order,\nembodying, as it were, a prospective view of a higher development in\nanother class, which was introduced as a distinct type only at a later\nperiod; and from that time the reptilian character, which had been so\nprominent in the oldest fishes, was gradually reduced, till in more\nrecent periods, and in the present creation, the fishes lost all this\nherpetological relationship, and were at last endowed with characters\nwhich contrast as much, when compared with those of reptiles, as they\nagreed closely in the beginning. Lepidosteus alone reminds us in our\ntime of these old-fashioned characters of the class of fishes as it was\nin former days.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 58\n\nPLEURACANTHUS LAEVISSIMUS.\n\n(_Coal Measures._)\n\n(Half nat. size.)]\n\nThe ancient fishes seem to have received their fullest development\nduring the Carboniferous period. Their number was very great: some of\nthem attained to an enormous size, and, though the true reptile had\nalready appeared, they continued to retain, till the close of the\nsystem, the high reptilian character and organization. Nothing, however,\nso impresses the observer as the formidable character of the offensive\nweapons with which they were furnished, and the amazing strength of\ntheir defensive armature. I need scarce say, that the Palaeontologist\nfinds no trace in nature of that golden age of the world, of which the\npoets delighted to sing, when all creatures lived together in unbroken\npeace, and war and bloodshed were unknown. Ever since animal life began\nupon our planet, there existed, in all the departments of being,\ncarnivorous classes, who could not live but by the death of their\nneighbors, and who were armed, in consequence, for their destruction,\nlike the butcher with his axe and knife, and the angler with his hook\nand spear. But there were certain periods in the history of the past,\nduring which these weapons assumed a more formidable aspect than at\nothers; and never were they more formidable than in the times of the\nCoal Measures. The teeth of the Rhizodus--a ganoidal fish of our coal\nfields--were more sharp and trenchant than those of the crocodile of the\nNile, and in the larger specimens fully four times the bulk and size of\nthe teeth of the hugest reptile of this species that now lives. The\ndorsal spine of its contemporary, the Gyracanthus, a great placoid, much\nexceeded in size that of any existing fish: it was a mighty spear head,\nornately carved like that of a New Zealand chief, but in a style that,\nwhen he first saw a specimen in my collection, greatly excited the\nadmiration of Mr. Ruskin. But one of the most remarkable weapons of the\nperiod was the sting of the Pleuracanthus, another great placoid of the\nage of gigantic fishes. It was sharp and polished as a stiletto, but,\nfrom its rounded form and dense structure, of great strength; and along\ntwo of its sides, from the taper point to within a few inches of the\nbase, there ran a thickly-set row of barbs, hooked downwards, like the\nthorns that bristle on the young shoots of the wild rose, and which must\nhave rendered it a weapon not merely of destruction, but also of\ntorture. The defensive armor of the period, especially that of its\nganoids, seems to have been us remarkable for its powers of resistance\nas the offensive must have been for their potency in the assault; and\nit seems probable that in the great strength of the bony and enamelled\narmature of this order of fishes we have the secret of the extremely\nformidable character of the teeth, spines, and stings that coexisted\nalong with it.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 59.\n\nCARCHARIAS PRODUCTUS.\n\nCutting Tooth. (_Miocene._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 60.\n\nPLACODUS GIGAS.\n\nCrushing Teeth. (_Trias._)]\n\nSuch of the fishes of the present time as live on crustacea and the\nshelled molluscs,--such as the Wrasse or rock-fish family, and at least\none of the Goby family, the sea-wolf,--have an apparatus of crushing\nteeth greatly more solid and strong than the teeth of such of their\ncontemporaries as are either herbivorous or feed on the weaker families\nof their own class. A similar remark applies to the ancient sharks, as\ncontrasted with those of later times. So long as the strongly-armed\nganoidal order prevailed in nature, the sharks were furnished with\nmassive crushing teeth; but when the ganoids waned in creation, and the\nsoft-scaled cycloid and ctenoid orders took and amply filled the place\nwhich they had left vacant, the well known modern form of sharks' teeth\nwas introduced,--a form much rather suited for cutting soft bodies than\nfor crushing hard ones. In fine, the offensive weapons of the times of\nthe Coal Measures seem very formidable, just as those personal weapons\nof the middle ages seem so that were borne at a time when every soldier\ntook the field cased in armor of proof. The slim scimitar or slender\nrapier would have availed but little against massive iron helmets or\nmail coats of tempered steel. And so the warriors of the period armed\nthemselves with ponderous maces, battle-axes as massive as hammers, and\ndouble-handed swords of great weight and strength.\n\nBefore passing onwards to other and higher classes and orders, as they\noccurred in creation, permit me to make the formidable armor of the\nearlier fishes, offensive and defensive, the subject of a single remark.\nWe are told by Goethe, in his autobiography, that he had attained his\nsixth year when the terrible earthquake at Lisbon took place,--\"an\nevent,\" he says, \"which greatly disturbed\" his \"peace of mind for the\nfirst time.\" He could not reconcile a catastrophe so suddenly\ndestructive to thousands, with the ideas which he had already formed for\nhimself of a Providence all-powerful and all-benevolent. But he\nafterwards learned, he tells us, to recognize in such events the \"_God\nof the Old Testament._\" I know not in what spirit the remark was made;\nbut this I know, that it is the God of the Old Testament whom we see\nexhibited in all nature and all providence; and that it is at once\nwisdom and duty in his rational creatures, however darkly they may\nperceive or imperfectly they may comprehend, to hold in implicit faith\nthat the Adorable Monarch of all the past and of all the future is a\nKing who \"can do no wrong.\" This early exhibition of tooth, and spine,\nand sting,--of weapons constructed alike to cut and to pierce,--to unite\ntwo of the most indispensable requirements of the modern armorer,--a\nkeen edge to a strong back,--nay, stranger still, the examples furnished\nin this primeval time, of weapons formed not only to kill, but also to\ntorture,--must be altogether at variance with the preconceived opinions\nof those who hold that until man appeared in creation, and darkened its\nsympathetic face with the stain of moral guilt, the reign of violence\nand outrage did not begin, and that there was no death among the\ninferior creatures, and no suffering. But preconceived opinion, whether\nit hold fast, with Lactantius and the old Schoolmen, to the belief that\nthere can be no antipodes, or assert, with Caccini and Bellarmine, that\nour globe hangs lazily in the midst of the heavens, while the sun moves\nround it, must yield ultimately to scientific truth. And it is a truth\nas certain as the existence of a southern hemisphere, or the motion of\nthe earth round both its own axis and the great solar centre, that,\nuntold ages ere man had sinned or suffered, the animal creation\nexhibited exactly its present state of war,--that the strong, armed with\nformidable weapons, exquisitely constructed to kill, preyed upon the\nweak; and that the weak, sheathed, many of them, in defensive armor\nequally admirable in its mechanism, and ever increasing and multiplying\nupon the earth far beyond the requirements of the mere maintenance of\ntheir races, were enabled to escape, as species, the assaults of the\ntyrant tribes, and to exist unthinned for unreckoned ages. It has been\nweakly and impiously urged,--as if it were merely with the geologist\nthat men had to settle this matter,--that such an economy of warfare and\nsuffering,--of warring and of being warred upon,--would be, in the words\nof the infant Goethe, unworthy of an all-powerful and all-benevolent\nProvidence, and in effect a libel on his government and character. But\nthat grave charge we leave the objectors to settle with the great\nCreator himself. Be it theirs, not ours, according to the poet, to\n\n \"Snatch from his hand the balance and the rod,\n Rejudge his justice, be the god of God.\"\n\nBe it enough for the geologist rightly to interpret the record of\ncreation,--to declare the truth as he finds it,--to demonstrate, from\nevidence no clear intellect ever yet resisted, that he, the Creator,\nfrom whom even the young lions seek their food, and who giveth to all\nthe beasts, great and small, their meat in due season, ever wrought as\nhe now works in his animal kingdom,--that he gave to the primeval fishes\ntheir spines and their stings,--to the primeval reptiles their trenchant\nteeth and their strong armor of bone,--to the primeval mammals their\ngreat tusks and their sharp claws,--that he of old divided all his\ncreatures, as now, into animals of prey and the animals preyed\nupon,--that from the beginning of things he inseparably established\namong his non-responsible existences the twin laws of generation and of\ndeath,--nay, further, passing from the established truths of _Geologic_\nto one of the best established truths of _Theologic_ science,--God's\neternal justice and truth,--let us assert, that in the Divine government\nthe matter of fact always determines the question of right, and that\nwhatever has been done by him who rendereth no account to man of his\nmatters, he had in all ages, and in all places, an unchallengeable right\nto do.\n\nThe oldest known reptiles appear just a little before the close of the\nOld Red Sandstone, just as the oldest known fishes appeared just a\nlittle before the close of the Silurian System. What seems to be the\nUpper Old Red of our own country, though there still hangs a shade of\ndoubt on the subject, has furnished the remains of a small reptile,\nequally akin, it would appear, to the lizards and the batrachians; and\nwhat seems to be the Upper Old Red of the United States has exhibited\nthe foot-tracks of a larger animal of the same class, which not a little\nresemble those which would be impressed on recent sand or clay by the\nalligator of the Mississippi, did not the alligator of the Mississippi\nefface its own footprints (a consequence of the shortness of its legs)\nby the trail of its abdomen. In the Coal Measures, the reptiles hitherto\nfound,--and it is still little more than ten years since the first was\ndetected,--are all allied, though not without a cross of the higher\ncrocodilian or lacertian nature, to the batrachian order,--that lowest\norder of the reptiles to which the frogs, newts, and salamanders belong.\nThese reptiles of the carboniferous era, though only a few twelvemonths\nago we little suspected the fact, seem to have been not very rare in our\nown neighborhood. My attention was called some time since by Mr. Henry\nCadell,--an intelligent practical geologist,--to certain appearances in\none of the Duke of Buccleuch's coal pits near Dalkeith, which lie\nregarded as the tracks of air-breathing quadrupeds; and, after examining\na specimen, containing four footprints, which he had brought above\nground, and which not a little excited my curiosity, we visited the pit\ntogether. And there, in a side working about half a mile from the pit\nmouth, and about four hundred feet under the surface, I found the roof\nof the coal, which rose at a high angle, traversed by so many\nfoot-tracks, upwards, downwards, and athwart, that it cost me some\nlittle care to trace the individual lines. At least one of the number,\nhowever,--consisting of eleven footprints of the right and as many of\nthe left foot--I was able to trace from side to side of the working, a\ndistance of four yards; and several of the others for shorter spaces.\nThe prints, which were reverses or casts in a very coarse sandstone,\nwere about thirtecn inches apart across the creature's chest, and rather\nmore than a foot apart from its fore to its hinder limbs. They were\nalternately larger and smaller,--the smaller (those of the fore feet)\nmeasuring about four inches in length, and the larger (those of the\nhinder feet) about six inches. The number of toes seemed to be\nalternately four and five; but from the circumstance that the original\nmatrix on which the tracks had been impressed,--a micaceous clay\nresolved into a loose fissile sandstone,--had fallen away in the working\nof the pit, leaving but the boldly-relieved though ill-defined casts on\nthe coarse sandstone, I could not definitely determine the point.\nEnough, however, remained to show that at that spot,--little more than a\nmile from where the Duke of Buccleuch's palace now stands,--large\nreptiles had congregated in considerable numbers shortly after the great\neight feet coal seam of the Dalkeith basin had been formed. In another\npart of the pit I found foot-tracks of apparently the same animal in\nequal abundance, but still less distinct in their state of keeping. But\nthey bore testimony with the others to the comparative abundance of\nreptilian life at an early period, when the coal-bearing strata of the\nempire were little more than half deposited. It was not, however, until\nthe Permian and Triassic Systems had come to a close, and even the\nearlier ages of the Oolitic System had passed away, that the class\nreceived its fullest development in creation. And certainly very\nwonderful was the development which it then did receive. Reptiles became\neverywhere the lords and masters of this lower world. When any class of\nthe air-breathing vertebrates is very largely developed, we find it\ntaking possession of all the three old terrestrial elements,--earth,\nair, and water. The human period, for instance, like that which\nimmediately preceded it, is peculiarly a period of mammals; and we find\nthe class, _free_, if I may so express myself, of the three elements,\ndisputing possession of the sea with the fishes, in its Cetaceans, its\nseals, and its sea-lions, and of the air with the birds, in its numerous\ngenera of the bat family. Further, not until the great mammaliferous\nperiod is fairly ushered in do either the bats or the whales make their\nappearance in creation. Remains of Oolitic reptiles have been mistaken\nin more than one instance for those of Cetacea; but it is now generally\nheld that the earliest known specimens of the family belong to the\nTertiary ages, while those of the oldest bats occur in the Eocene of the\nParis Basin, associated with the bones of dolphins, lamantines, and\nmorses. Now, in the times of the Oolite it was the reptilian class that\npossessed itself of all the elements. Its gigantic enaliosaurs, huge\nreptilian _whales_ mounted on paddles, were the tyrants of the ocean,\nand must have reigned supreme over the already reduced class of fishes;\nits pterodactyles,--dragons as strange as were ever feigned by romancer\nof the middle ages, and that to the jaws and teeth of the crocodile\nadded the wings of a bat and the body and tail of an ordinary mammal,\nhad \"the power of the air,\" and, pursuing the fleetest insects in their\nflight, captured and bore them down;[14] its lakes and rivers abounded\nin crocodiles and fresh water tortoises of ancient type and fashion; and\nits woods and plains were the haunts of a strange reptilian fauna, of\nwhat has been well termed \"fearfully great lizards,\"--some of which,\nsuch as the iguanodon, rivalled the largest elephant in height, and\ngreatly more than rivalled him in length and bulk. Judging from what\nremains, it seems not improbable that the reptiles of this Oolitic\nperiod were quite as numerous individually, and consisted of well nigh\nas many genera and species, as all the mammals of the present time. In\nthe cretaceous ages, the class, though still the dominant one, is\nvisibly reduced in its standing; it had reached its culminating point in\nthe Oolite, and then began to decline; and with the first dawn of the\nTertiary division we find it occupying, as now, a very subordinate place\nin creation. Curiously enough, it is not until its times of humiliation\nand decay that one of the most remarkable of its orders appears,--an\norder itself illustrative of extreme degradation, and which figures\nlargely, in every scheme of mythology that borrowed through traditional\nchannels from Divine revelation, as a meet representative of man's great\nenemy the Evil One. I of course refer to the ophidian or serpent family.\nThe earliest ophidian remains known to the Palaeontologist occur in that\nancient deposit of the Tertiary division known as the London Clay, and\nmust have belonged to serpents, some of them allied to the Pythons, some\nto the sea-snakes, which, judging from the corresponding parts of recent\nspecies, must have been from fourteen to twenty feet in length.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 61.\n\nVESPERTILIO PARISIENSIS.\n\nA Bat of the Eocene.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 62\n\nICHTHYOSAURUS COMMUNIS.\n\n(_Lias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 63.\n\nPLESIOSAURUS DOLICHODEIRUS.\n\n(_Lias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 64.\n\nPTERODACTYLUS CRASSIROSTRIS.\n\n(_Oolite._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 65.\n\nCHELONIA BENSTEDI.\n\n(_Chalk._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 66.\n\nPALAEOPHIS TOLIAPICUS.\n\n(_Ophidian of the Eocene._)]\n\nAnd here let us again pause for a moment, to remark how strangely these\nirascible, repulsive reptiles,--creatures lengthened out far beyond the\nproportions of the other members of their class by mere vegetative\nrepetitions of the vertebrae,--condemned to derive, worm-like, their\nability of progressive motion from the ring-like scutes of the\nabdomen--venomous in many of their species,--formidable in others to\neven the noblest animals, from their fascinating powers and their great\ncraft,--without, fore or hinder limbs, without thoracic or pelvic\narches,--the very types and exemplars (our highest naturalists being the\njudges) of the extreme of animal degradation,--let us, I say, remark how\nstrangely their history has been mixed up with that of man and of\nreligion in all the older mythologies, and in that Divine Revelation\nwhence the older mythologies were derived. It was one of the most\nancient of the Phoenician fables, that the great antagonist of the\ngods was a gigantic serpent, that had at one time been their subject,\nbut revolted against them and became their enemy. It was a monstrous\nserpent that assailed and strove to destroy the _mother_ of Apollo ere\nyet the birth of the god, but which, long after, _Apollo_ in turn\nassaulted and slew. It was a great serpent that watched over the apples\nof the Hesperides, and that Hercules, ere he could possess himself of\nthe fruit, had to combat and kill. It was a frightful serpent that\nguarded the golden fleece from Jason, and which the hero had to destroy\nin the first instance, and next to exterminate the strange brood of\narmed men that sprang up from its sown teeth. In short, the old\nmythologies are well nigh as full of the serpent as those ancient Runic\nobelisks of our country, whose endless knots and complicated fretwork\nare formed throughout of the interlacings of snakes. Let us, however,\naccept as representative of this innumerable class of legends, the\nclassical story, rendered yet more classical by the profound and\nreverend comment given by Bacon in his \"Wisdom of the Ancients.\"\n\"Jupiter and the other gods,\" says the philosopher, in his simple\nversion of the tradition, \"conferred upon men a most acceptable and\ndesirable boon,--the gift of perpetual youth. But men, foolishly\noverjoyed hereat, laid this present of the gods upon an ass, who, in\nreturning back with it, being extremely thirsty, and coming to a\nfountain, the serpent who was guardian thereof would not suffer him to\ndrink but upon condition of receiving the burden he carried, whatever it\nshould be. The silly ass complied; and thus the perpetual renewal of\nyouth was for a sup of water transferred from men to the race of\nserpents.\" \"That this gift of perpetual youth should pass from men to\nserpents,\" continues Bacon, \"seems added, by way of ornament and\nillustration, to the fable.\" And it certainly _has_ much the appearance\nof an after-thought. But how very striking the resemblance, borne by the\nstory, as a whole, to that narrative in the opening page of human\nhistory which exhibits the first parents of the race as yielding up to\nthe temptation of the serpent the gift of immortality; and further, how\nremarkable the fact, that the reptile selected as typical here of the\ngreat fallen spirit that kept not his first estate, should be at once\nthe reptile of latest appearance in creation, and the one selected by\nphilosophical naturalists as representative of a reversed process in the\ncourse of being,--of a downward, sinking career, from the vertebrate\nantetype towards greatly lower types in the invertebrate divisions! The\nfallen spirit is represented in revelation by what we are now taught to\nrecognize in science as a _degraded_ reptile.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 67.\n\nBIRD TRACKS OF THE CONNECTICUT.\n\n(_Lias or Oolite._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 68.\n\nFOSSIL FOOTPRINT.\n\nConnecticut.]\n\nBirds make their first appearance in a Red Sandstone deposit of the\nUnited States in the valley of the Connecticut, which was at one time\nsupposed to belong to the Triassic System, but which is now held to be\nat least not older than the times of the Lias. No fragments of the\nskeletons of birds have yet been discovered in formations older than the\nChalk: the Connecticut remains are those of footprints exclusively; and\nyet they tell their extraordinary story, so far as it extends, with\nremarkable precision and distinctness. They were apparently all of the\nGrallae or stilt order of birds,--an order to which the cranes, herons,\nand bustards belong, with the ostriches and cassowaries, and which is\ncharacterized by possessing but three toes on each foot (one species of\nostrich has but two), or, if a fourth toe be present, so imperfectly is\nit developed in most of the cases, that it fails to reach the ground.\nAnd in almost all the footprints of the primeval birds of the\nConnecticut there are only three toes exhibited. Peculiar, ill\nunderstood laws regulate the phalangal divisions of the various animals.\nIt is a law of the human kind, for instance, that the thumb should\nconsist of but three phalanges; while the fingers, even the smallest,\nconsist of four. And, in the same way, it is a law generally exemplified\namong birds, that of the three toes which correspond to the fingers, the\ninner toe should be composed of three phalanges, the middle or largest\ntoe of four phalanges, and the outer toe, though but second in point of\nsize, of five phalanges. Such is the law now, and such was equally the\nlaw, as shown by the American footprints, in the times of the Lias. Some\nof the impressions are of singular distinctness. Every claw and phalange\nhas left its mark in the stone; while the trifid termination of the\ntarso-metatarsal bone leaves three marks more,--fifteen in all,--the\ntrue ornithic number. In some of the specimens even the pressure of a\nmetatarsal brush, still possessed by some birds, is distinctly\ntraceable; nay, there are instances in which the impress of the dermoid\npapillae has remained as sharply as if made in wax. But the immense size\nof some of these footprints served to militate for a time against belief\nin their ornithic origin. The impressions that are but secondary in\npoint of size greatly exceed those of the hugest birds which now exist;\nwhile those of the largest class equal the prints of the bulkier\nquadrupeds. There are tridactyle footprints in the red sandstones of\nConnecticut that measure eighteen inches in length from the heel to the\nmiddle claw, nearly thirteen inches in breadth from the outer to the\ninner toe, and which indicate, from their distance apart in the straight\nline, a stride of about six feet in the creature that impressed them in\nthese ancient sands,--measurements that might well startle zoologists\nwho had derived their experience of the ornithic class from existing\nbirds exclusively. Comparatively recent discoveries have, however, if\nnot lessened, at least familiarized us to the wonder. In a deposit of\nNew Zealand that dates little if at all in advance of the human period,\nthere have been detected the remains of birds scarce inferior in size to\nthose of America in the Liassic ages. The bones of the _Dinornus\ngiganteus_, exhibited by the late Dr. Mantell in Edinburgh in the autumn\nof 1850, greatly exceeded in bulk those of the largest horse. A thigh\nbone sixteen inches in length measured nearly nine inches in\ncircumference in the middle of the shaft: the head of a tibia measured\ntwenty-one inches in circumference. It was estimated that a foot entire\nin all its parts, which formed an interesting portion of the exhibition,\nwould, when it was furnished with nails, and covered by the integuments,\nhave measured about fifteen inches in length; and it was calculated by a\nvery competent authority, Professor Owen, that of the other bones of the\nleg to which it belonged, the tibia must have been about two feet nine\ninches, and the femur about fourteen and a half inches long. The larger\nthigh bone referred to must have belonged, it was held, to a bird that\nstood from eleven to twelve feet high,--the extreme height of the great\nAfrican elephant. Such were the monster birds of a comparatively recent\nperiod; and their remains serve to render credible the evidence\nfurnished by the great footprints of their remote predecessors of the\nLias. The huge feet of the greatest Dinornus whose bones have yet been\nfound would have left impressions scarcely an inch shorter than those of\nthe still huger birds of the Connecticut. Is it not truly wonderful,\nthat in this late age of the world, in which the invention of the poets\nseems to content itself with humbler and lowlier flights than of old, we\nshould thus find the facts of geology fully rivalling, in the strange\nand the _outre_, the wildest fancies of the romancers who flourished in\nthe middle ages? I have already referred to flying dragons,--real\nexistences of the Oolitic period,--that were quite as extraordinary of\ntype, if not altogether so huge of bulk, as those with which the Seven\nChampions of Christendom used to do battle; and here are we introduced\nto birds of the Liassic ages that were scarce less gigantic than the roc\nof Sinbad the Sailor. They are fraught with strange meanings these\nfootprints of the Connecticut. They tell of a time far removed into the\nby-past eternity, when great birds frequented by myriads the shores of a\nnameless lake, to wade into its shallows in quest of mail-covered fishes\nof the ancient type, or long-extinct molluscs; while reptiles equally\ngigantic, and of still stranger proportions, haunted the neighboring\nswamps and savannahs; and when the same sun that shone on the tall\nmoving forms beside the waters, and threw their long shadows across the\nred sands, lighted up the glades of deep forests, all of whose fantastic\nproductions,--tree, bush, and herb,--have even in their very species\nlong since passed away. And of this scene of things only the footprints\nremain,--\"footprints on the sands of time,\" that tell us, among other\nmatters, whence the graceful American poet derived his quiet but\nsingularly effective and unmistakeably indigenous figure:--\n\n \"Lives of great men all remind us\n We can make our lives sublime,\n _And, departing, leave behind us_\n _Footprints on the sand of time._\n Footprints that perhaps another,\n Sailing o'er life's solemn main,\n A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,\n Seeing, shall take heart again.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 69.\n\nTHYLACOTHERIUM PREVOSTI.\n\n(_Stonisfield Slate._)]\n\nWith the Stonisfield slates,--a deposit which lies above what is known\nas the Inferior Oolite,--the remains of mammaliferous animals first\nappear. As, however, no other mammalian remains occur until after the\nclose of the great Secondary Division, and as certain marked\npeculiarities attach to these Oolitic ones, it may be well to inquire\nwhether their place, so far in advance of their fellows, may not be\nindicative of a radical difference of character,--a difference\nconsiderable enough to suggest to the zoologist an improvement in his\nscheme of classification. It has been shown by Professor Owen,--our\nhighest authority in comparative anatomy,--that while one Stonisfield\ngenus unequivocally belonged to the marsupial order, another of its\ngenera bears also certain of the marsupial traits; and that the group\nwhich they composed,--a very small one, and consisting exclusively of\nminute insect-eating animals,--exhibits in its general aspect the\ncharacteristics of this pouched family. Even the genus of the group that\nleast resembles them was pronounced by Cuvier to have its nearest\naffinities with the opossums. And let us mark how very much may be\nimplied in this circumstance. In the \"_Animal Kingdom_\" of the great\nnaturalist just named, the marsupiata, or pouched animals, are made to\noccupy the fourth place among the nine orders of the Mammalia; but\nshould they not rather occupy a place intermediate between the placental\nmammals and the birds? and does not nature indicate their true position\nby the position which she assigns to them in the geologic scale? The\nbirds are oviparous; and between the extrusion of the egg and the\ndevelopment of the perfect young bird they have to hatch it into life\nduring a long period of incubation. The marsupiata are not oviparous,\nfor their _eggs_ want the enveloping shell or skin; but they, too, are\nextruded in an exceedingly rudimentary and foetal state, and have to\nundergo in the pouch a greatly longer period of _incubation_ than that\ndemanded by nature for any bird whatever. The young kangaroo is\nextruded, after it has remained for little more than a month in the\nwomb, as a foetus scarcely an inch in length by somewhat less than half\nan inch in breadth: it is blind, exhibiting merely dark eye spots; its\nlimbs are so rudimentary, that even the hinder legs, so largely\ndeveloped in the genus when mature, exist as mere stumps; it is unable\neven to suck, but, holding permanently on by a minute dug, has the\nsustaining fluid occasionally pressed into its mouth by the mother. And,\nundergoing a peculiar but not the less real process of incubation, the\ncreature that had to remain for little more than a month in the\nwomb,--strictly thirty-nine days,--has to remain in the mother's pouch,\nere it is fully developed and able to provide for itself, for a period\nof eight months. It is found to increase in weight during this hatching\nprocess, from somewhat less than an ounce to somewhat more than eight\npounds. Now, this surely is a process quite as nearly akin to the\nincubation of egg-bearing birds as to the ordinary nursing process of\nthe placental mammals; and on the occult but apparently real principle,\nthat the true arrangement of the animal kingdom is that which we find\nexemplified by the successive introduction of its various classes and\norders in the course of geologic history, should we not anticipate a\npoint of time for the introduction of the marsupiata, intermediate\nbetween the widely-distant points at which the egg-bearing birds and the\ntrue placental mammals appeared? Ranged at once chronologically, and by\ntheir mode of reproduction, the various classes of the vertebrata would\nrun, did we accept the suggested reading, as follows:--First appear\ncold-blooded vertebrates (fishes), that propagate by eggs or\nspawn,--chiefly by the latter. Next appear cold-blooded vertebrates\n(reptiles), that propagate by eggs or spawn,--chiefly by the former.\nThen appear warm-blooded vertebrates (birds), that propagate by eggs\nexclusively. Then warm-blooded vertebrates come upon the stage, that\nproduce _eggs_ without shells, which have to be subjected for months to\na species of extra-placental incubation. And last of all the true\nplacental mammals appear. And thus, tried by the test of perfect\nreproduction, the great vertebral division receives its full development\nin creation.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 70.\n\nANOPLTHERIUM COMMUNE.\n\n(_Eocene._)]\n\nThe placental mammals make their appearance, as I have said, in the\nearliest ages of the great Tertiary division, and exhibit in the group\nan aspect very unlike that which they at present bear. The Eocene ages\nwere peculiarly the ages of the Palaeotheres,--strange animals of that\npachydermatous or thick-skinned order to which the elephants, the\ntapirs, the hogs, and the horses belong. It had been remarked by\nnaturalists, that there are fewer families of this order in living\nnature than of almost any other, and that, of the existing genera, not a\nfew are widely separated in their analogies from the others. But in the\nPalaeotheres of the Eocene, which ranged in size from a large horse to a\nhare, not a few of the missing links have been found,--links connecting\nthe tapirs to the hogs, and the hogs to the Palaeotheres proper; and\nthere is at least one species suggestive of an union of some of the more\npeculiar traits of the tapirs and the horses. It was among these extinct\nPachydermata of the Paris basin that Cuvier effected his wonderful\nrestorations, and produced those figures in outline which are now as\nfamiliar to the geologist as any of the forms of the existing animals.\nThe London Clay and the Eocene of the Isle of Wight have also yielded\nnumerous specimens of those pachyderms, whose identity with the\nContinental ones has been established by Owen; but they are more\nfragmentary, and their state of keeping less perfect, than those\nfurnished by the gypsum quarries of Velay and Montmartre. In these the\nsmaller animals occur often in a state of preservation so peculiar and\npartial as to excite the curiosity of even the untaught workmen. Only\nhalf the skeleton is present. The limbs and ribs of the under side are\nfound lying in nearly their proper places; while of the limbs and ribs\nof the upper side usually not a trace can be detected,--even the upper\nside of the skull is often awanting. It-would almost seem as if some\npre-Adamite butcher had divided the carcasses longitudinally, and\ncarried away with him all the upper halves. The reading of the enigma\nseems to be, that when the creatures lay down and died, the gypsum in\nwhich their remains occur was soft enough to permit their under sides to\nsink into it, and that then gradually hardening, it kept the bones in\ntheir places; while the uncovered upper sides, exposed to the\ndisintegrating influences, either mouldered away piecemeal, or were\nremoved by accident. The bones of the larger animals of the basin are\nusually found detached; and ere they could be reconstructed into perfect\nskeletons, they taxed the extraordinary powers of the greatest of\ncomparative anatomists. Rather more than twenty different species of\nextinct mammals have been detected in the Paris basin,--not a great\nnumber, it may be thought; and yet for so limited a locality we may deem\nit not a very small one, when we take into account the fact that all our\nnative mammals of Britain and Ireland amount (according to Fleming), if\nwe except the Cetaceae and the seals, to but forty species.\n\n[Illustration: Fig 71.\n\nANIMALS OF THE PARIS BASIN.[15]\n\n(_Eocene._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 72.\n\nDINOTHERIUM GIGANTEUM.\n\n(_Miocene._)]\n\nIn the Middle or Miocene Tertiary, pachyderms, though of a wholly\ndifferent type from their predecessors, are still the prevailing forms.\nThe Dinotherium, one of the greatest quadrupedal mammals that ever\nlived, seems to have formed a connecting link in this middle age between\nthe Pachydermata and the Cetaceae. Each ramus of the under jaw, which in\nthe larger specimens are fully four feet in length, bore at the\nsymphysis a great bent tusk turned downwards, which appears to have been\nemployed as a pickaxe in uprooting the aquatic plants and liliaceous\nroots on which the creature seems to have lived. The head, which\nmeasured about three feet across,--a breadth, sufficient, surely, to\nsatisfy the demands of the most exacting phrenologist,--was provided\nwith muscles of enormous strength, arranged so as to give potent effect\nto the operations of this strange tool. The hinder part of the skull\nnot a little resembled that of the Cetaceae; while, from the form of the\nnasal bones, the creature was evidently furnished with a trunk like the\nelephant. It seems not improbable, therefore, that this bulkiest of\nmammaliferous quadrupeds constituted, as I have said, a sort of uniting\ntie between creatures still associated in the human mind, from the\ncircumstance of their massive proportions, as the greatest that swim the\nsea or walk the land,--the whale and the elephant. The Mastodon, an\nelephantoid animal, also furnished, like the elephant, with tusks and\ntrunk, but marked by certain peculiarities which constitute it a\ndifferent genus, seems in Europe to have been contemporary with the\nDinotherium; but in North America (the scene of its greatest numerical\ndevelopment) it appears to belong to a later age. In height it did not\nsurpass the African elephant, but it considerably exceeded it in\nlength,--a specimen which could not have stood above twelve feet high\nindicating a length of about twenty-five feet: it had what the elephants\nwant,--tusks fixed in its lower jaw, which the males retained through\nlife, but the females lost when young; its limbs were proportionally\nshorter, but more massive, and its abdomen more elongated and slim; its\ngrinder teeth too, some of which have been known to weigh from seventeen\nto twenty pounds, and their cusps elevated into great mammae-like\nprotuberances, to which the creature owes its name, and wholly differ in\ntheir proportions and outline from the grinders of the elephant. The\nmuch greater remoteness of the mastodonic period in Europe than in\nAmerica is a circumstance worthy of notice, as it is one of many facts\nthat seem to indicate a general transposition of at least the later\ngeologic ages on the opposite sides of the Atlantic. Groups of\ncorresponding character on the eastern and western shores of this great\nocean were not contemporaneous in time. It has been repeatedly\nremarked, that the existing plants and trees of the United States, with\nnot a few of its fishes and reptiles, bear in their forms and\nconstruction the marks of a much greater antiquity than those of Europe.\nThe geologist who sets himself to discover similar types on the eastern\nside of the Atlantic would have to seek for them among the deposits of\nthe later Tertiaries. North America seems to be still passing through\nits later Tertiary ages; and it appears to be a consequence of this\ncurious transposition, that while in Europe the mastodonic period is\nremoved by two great geologic eras from the present time, it is removed\nfrom it in America by only one. Even in America, however, that period\nlies far beyond the reach of human tradition,--a fact borne out by the\npseudo-traditions retailed by the aborigines regarding the mastodon. By\nnone of at least the higher naturalists has there been a doubt\nentertained respecting its herbivorous character; and the discovery of\nlate years of the stomach of an individual charged with decayed herbage\nand fragments of the succulent branches of trees, some of them of\nexisting species, has demonstrated the solidity of the reasonings\nfounded on its general structure and aspect. The pseudo-traditions,\nhowever, represent it in every instance as a carnivorous tyrant, that,\nhad it not been itself destroyed, would have destroyed all the other\nanimals its contemporaries. It is said by the red men of Virginia, \"that\na troop of these tremendous quadrupeds made fearful havoc for some time\namong the deer, the buffaloes, and all the other animals created for the\nuse of the Indians, and spread desolation far and wide. At last '_the\nMighty Man above_' seized his thunder and killed them all, with the\nexception of the largest of the males, who presenting his head to the\nthunderbolts, shook them off as they fell; but, being wounded in the\nside, he betook himself to flight towards the great lakes, where he\nstill resides at the present day.\"\n\nLet me here remind you in the passing, that that antiquity of type\nwhich characterizes the recent productions of North America is one of\nmany wonders,--not absolutely geological in themselves, but which, save\nfor the revelations of geology, would have forever remained unnoted and\nunknown,--which have been pressed, during the last half century, on the\nnotice of naturalists. \"It is a circumstance quite extraordinary and\nunexpected,\" says Agassiz, in his profoundly interesting work on Lake\nSuperior, \"that the fossil plants of the Tertiary beds of Oeningen\nresemble more closely the trees and shrubs which grow at present in the\neastern parts of North America, than those of any other parts of the\nworld; thus allowing us to express correctly the difference between the\nopposite coasts of Europe and America, by saying that the present\neastern American flora, and, I may add, the fauna also, have a more\nancient character than those of Europe. The plants, especially the trees\nand shrubs, growing in our days in the United States, are, as it were,\nold-fashioned; and the characteristic genera Lagomys, Chelydra, and the\nlarge Salamanders with permanent gills, that remind us of the fossils of\nOeningen, are at least equally so;--they bear the marks of former ages.\"\nHow strange a fact! Not only are we accustomed to speak of the eastern\ncontinents as the Old World, in contradistinction to the great continent\nof the west, but to speak also of the world before the Flood as the Old\nWorld, in contradistinction to the post-diluvian world which succeeded\nit. And yet equally, if we receive the term in either of its\nacceptations, is America an older world still,--an older world than that\nof the eastern continents,--an older world, in the fashion and type of\nits productions, than the world before the Flood. And when the immigrant\nsettler takes axe amid the deep backwoods, to lay open for the first\ntime what he deems a new country, the great trees that fall before\nhim,--the brushwood that he lops away with a sweep of his tool,--the\nunfamiliar herbs which he tramples under foot,--the lazy fish-like\nreptile that scarce stirs out of his path as he descends to the\nneighboring creek to drink,--the fierce alligator-like tortoise, with\nthe large limbs and small carpace, that he sees watching among the reeds\nfor fish and frogs, just as he reaches the water,--and the little\nhare-like rodent, without a tail, that he startles by the way,--all\nattest, by the antiqueness of the mould in which they are cast, how old\na country the seemingly new one really is,--a country vastly older, in\ntype at least, than that of the antediluvians and the patriarchs, and\nonly to be compared with that which flourished on the eastern side of\nthe Atlantic long ere the appearance of man, and the remains of whose\nperished productions we find locked up in the _loess_ of the Rhine, or\namid the lignites of Nassau. America is emphatically the _Old_ World. If\nwe accept, however, as sound the ingenious logic by which Colton labors\nto show, in not inelegant verse, that the _Moderns_ are the true\n_Ancients_, we may continue to term it the New World still.\n\n \"We that on these late days are thrown\n Must be the oldest Ancients known;\n The _earliest_ Modern earth hath seen\n Was Adam in his apron green.\n He lived when young Creation pealed\n Her morning hymn o'er flood and field,\n Till all her infant offspring came\n To that great christening for a name.\n And he that would the Ancients know,\n Must forward come, not backward go:\n The learned lumber of the shelves\n Shows nothing older than ourselves.\n But who in older times than we\n Shall live?--That infant on the knee,--\n See sights to us were never shown,\n And secrets known to us unknown.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 73.\n\nELEPHAS PRIMIGENIUS.\n\n(_Mammoth._) Great British Elephant.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 74.\n\nTROGONTHERIUM CUVIERI.\n\nGigantic Beaver. (_Pleistocene._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 75.\n\nURSUS SPELAEUS.\n\nCave Bear. (_Pleistocene._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 76.\n\nHYENA SPELAEA.\n\nCave Hyaena. (_Pleistocene._)]\n\nThe group of mammals which, in Europe, at least, immediately preceded\nthe human period seems to have been everywhere a remarkable one; and\nnowhere was it more so than in the British islands. Our present\nmammaliferous fauna is rather poor; but the contents of the later\ndeposits show that we must regard it as but a mere fragment of a very\nnoble one. Associated with species that still exist in the less\ncultivated parts of the country, such as the badger, the fox, the wild\ncat, the roe and the red deer, we find the remains of great animals,\nwhose congeners must now be sought for in the intertropical regions.\nBritain, during the times of the boulder clay, and for ages previous,\nhad its native elephant, its two species of rhinoceros, its\nhippopotamus, its hyaena, its tiger, its three species of bears, its two\nspecies of beavers, its great elk, and its gigantic deer. Forms now\nfound widely apart, and in very different climates, meet within the\nBritish area. During at least the earlier times of the group, the\ntemperature of our island seems to have been very much what it is now.\nAs I have already had occasion to remark, the British oak flourished on\nits plains and lower slopes, and the birch and Scotch fir on its hills.\nAnd yet under these familiar trees the lagomys or tailless hare, a form\nnow mainly restricted to Siberia and the wilds of Northern America, and\nthe reindeer, an animal whose proper habitat at the present time is\nLapland, were associated with forms that are now only to be found\nbetween the tropics, such as that of the hippopotamus and rhinoceros.\nThese last, however, unequivocally of extinct species, seem to have been\nadapted to live in a temperate climate; and we know from the famous\nSiberian specimen, that the British elephant, with its covering of long\nhair and closely-felted wool, was fitted to sustain the rigors of a very\nsevere one. It is surely a strange fact, but not less true than strange,\nthat since hill and dale assumed in Britain their present configuration,\nand the oak and birch flourished in its woods, there were caves in\nEngland haunted for ages by families of hyaenas,--that they dragged into\ntheir dens with the carcasses of long extinct animals those of the still\nfamiliar denizens of our hill-sides, and feasted, now on the lagomys,\nand now on the common hare,--that they now fastened on the beaver or the\nreindeer, and now upon the roebuck or the goat. In one of these caves,\nsuch of the bones as projected from the stiff soil have been actually\nworn smooth in a narrow passage where the hyaenas used to come in contact\nwith them in passing out and in; and for several feet in depth the floor\nbeneath is composed almost exclusively of gnawed fragments, that still\nexhibit the deeply indented marks of formidable teeth. In the famous\nKirkdale cave alone, parts of the skeletons of from two to three hundred\nhyaenas have been detected, mixed with portions of the osseous framework\nof the cave-tiger, the cave-bear, the ox, the deer, the mammoth, and the\nrhinoceros. That cave must have been a den of wild creatures for many\nages ere the times of the boulder clay, during which period it was shut\nup from all access to the light and air by a drift deposit, and lay\ncovered over until again laid open by some workmen little more than\nthirty years ago. Not only were many of the wild animals of the country\nwhich still exist contemporary for a time with its extinct bears,\ntigers, and elephants, but it seems at least highly probable that\nseveral of our domesticated breeds derived their origin from progenitors\nwhose remains we find entombed in the bone-caves and other deposits of\nthe same age; though of course the changes effected by domestication in\nalmost all the tame animals renders the question of their identity with\nthe indigenous breeds somewhat obscure. Cuvier was, however, unable to\ndetect any difference between the skeleton of a fossil horse,\ncontemporary with the elephant, and that of our domestic breed: a fossil\ngoat of the same age cannot be distinguished from the domesticated\nanimal; and one of our two fossil oxen (_Bos longifrons_) does not\ndiffer more from some of the existing breeds than these have, in the\ncourse of time, been made, chiefly by artificial means, to differ among\nthemselves. But of one of our domestic tribes no trace has yet been\nfound in the rocks: like the cod family among fishes, or the Rosaceae\namong plants, it seems to have preceded man by but a very brief period.\nAnd certainly, if created specially for his use, though the pride of the\nherald might prevent him from selecting it as in aught typical of the\nhuman race, it would yet not be easy to instance a family of animals\nthat has ministered more extensively to his necessities. I refer to the\nsheep,--that soft and harmless creature, that clothes civilized man\neverywhere in the colder latitudes with its fleece,--that feeds him with\nits flesh,--that gives its bowels to be spun into the catgut with which\nhe refits his musical instruments,--whose horns he has learned to\nfashion into a thousand useful trinkets,--and whose skin, converted into\nparchment, served to convey to later times the thinking of the first\nfull blow of the human intellect across the dreary gulf of the middle\nages.\n\nAt length the human period begins. A creature appears upon the scene\nunlike all that had preceded him, and whose nature it equally is to look\nback upon the events of the past,--among other matters, on that\nsuccession of beings upon the planet which he inhabits, with which we\nare this evening attempting to deal,--and to anticipate at least one\nsuccession more, in that still future state in which he himself is again\nto appear, in happier circumstances than now, and in a worthier\ncharacter. We possess another history of the primeval age and subsequent\nchronology of the human family than that which we find inscribed in the\nrocks. And it is well that we do so. From various causes, the geologic\nevidence regarding the period of man's first appearance on earth is\nsingularly obscure. That custom of \"burying his dead out of his sight,\"\nwhich obtained, we know, in the patriarchal times, and was probably in\nuse ever since man came first under the law of death, has had the effect\nof mingling his remains with those of creatures that were extinct for\nages ere he began to be. The cavern, once a haunt of carnivorous\nanimals, that in the first simple ages of his history had furnished him\nwith a shelter when living, became his burying-place when dead; and thus\nhis bones, and his first rude attempts in pottery and weapon-making,\nhave been found associated with the remains of the cave-hyaena and\ncave-tiger, with the teeth of the ancient hippopotamus, and the tusks of\nthe primeval elephant. The evidence on the point, too,--from the great\npaucity of human remains of a comparatively remote period, and from the\ncircumstance that they are rarely seen by geologists in the stratum in\nwhich they occur,--is usually very imperfect in its details. Further, it\nis an evidence obnoxious to suspicion, from the fact that a keen\ncontroversy has arisen on the subject of man's antiquity, that such\nfragments of man himself or of his works as manifest great age have been\npressed to serve as weapons in the fray,--that, occurring always in\nsuperficial and local deposits, their true era may be greatly antedated,\nunder the influence of prejudice, by men who have no design wilfully to\ndeceive,--and that while, respecting the older formations, with their\nabundant organisms, the conclusions of any one geologist may be tested\nby all the others, the geologist who once in a lifetime picks up in a\nstratified sand or clay a stone arrow-head or a human bone, finds that\nthe data on which he founds his conclusions may be received or rejected\nby his contemporaries, but not re-examined. It may be safely stated,\nhowever, that that ancient record in which man is represented as the\nlastborn of creation, is opposed by no geologic fact; and that if,\naccording to Chalmers, \"the Mosaic writings do not fix the antiquity of\nthe globe,\" they at least _do_ fix--making allowance, of course, for the\nvarying estimates of the chronologer--\"the antiquity of the human\nspecies.\" The great column of being, with its base set in the sea, and\ninscribed, like some old triumphal pillar, with many a strange form,--at\nonce hieroglyphic and figure,--bears, as the ornately sculptured\ncapital, which imparts beauty and finish to the whole, reasoning,\nresponsible man. There is surely a very wonderful harmony manifested in\nthe proportions of that nice sequence in which the invertebrates--the\nfishes, the reptiles, the birds, the marsupials, the placental mammals,\nand, last of all, man himself--are so exquisitely arranged. It reminds\nus of the fine figure employed by Dryden in his first Ode for St.\nCecilia's Day,--a figure which, viewed in the light cast on it by the\nmodern science of Palaeontology, stands out in bolder relief than that in\nwhich it could have appeared to the poet himself:--\n\n \"From harmony, from heavenly harmony,\n This universal frame began;\n From harmony to harmony,\n Through all the compass of the notes it ran,\n The _diapason_ closing full in man.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 77.\n\nASAPHUS CAUDATUS.\n\n(_Silurian._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 78.\n\nORTHOCERAS LATERALE.\n\n(_Mountain Limestone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 79.\n\nSPIRIGERINA RETICULARIS.\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 80.\n\nA. MARGARITATUS.\n\n(_Lias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 81.\n\nA. BISULCATUS.\n\n(_Lias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 82.\n\nBELEMNITELLA MUCRONATA.\n\n(_Chalk._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 83.\n\nBELEMNITES SULCATUS.\n\n(_Oolite._)]\n\nIn the limits to which I have restricted myself, I have been able to do\nlittle more than simply to chronicle the successive eras in which the\nvarious classes and divisions of the organic kingdom, vegetable and\nanimal, make their appearance in creation. I have produced merely a\nbrief record of the various births, in their order, of that great family\nwhose father is God. And in pursuing such a plan, much, of necessity,\nmust have been omitted. I ought perhaps to have told you, that very\nrarely, if ever, do the master forms of a period constitute the\nprevailing or typical organisms of its deposits. Of the three great\ndivisions of which the geologic scale consists,--Palaeozoic, Secondary,\nand Tertiary,--the first, or ichthyic period, is marked chiefly, not by\nits great fishes, but by the peculiar character of its brachipodous and\ncephalopodous mollusca, and in its earlier stages by its three-lobed\ncrustaceae; the second or reptilian period was emphatically the period\nof the ammonite and belemnite; while the third and last, or mammalian\nperiod, was that of gastropodous and conchiferous molluscs, impressed,\ngenerically at least, by all the features of the group which still\nexists in our seas. Save in a few local deposits, fishes do not form the\nprevailing organisms in the formations of the age of fishes; nor\nreptiles in the formations of the age of reptiles; nor yet mammals in\nthe formations of the age of mammals. Nay, it is not improbable that the\nrecent or human period may be marked most prominently in the future,\nwhen it comes to exist simply as a geologic system, by a still humbler\norganism than most of these molluscs. On almost all rocky shores a line\nof pale gray may be seen at low water, running for mile after mile along\nthe belt that has been laid bare at the bases of the cliffs by the fall\nof the tide. It owes its pale color to millions of millions of a small\nbalanus (_B. balanoides_), produced in such amazing abundance in the\nlittoral zone as to cover with a rough crust every minute portion of\nrock and every sedentary shell. Other species of the same genus (_B.\ncrenatus_ and _B. porcatus_) occupy the depths of the sea beyond; and\ntheir remains, washed ashore by the waves, and mingled with those of the\nlittoral species, form often great accumulations of shell sand. I have\nseen among the Hebrides a shell sand accumulated along the beach to the\ndepth of many feet, of which fully two thirds was composed of the valves\nand compartments of balanidae; and a similar sand on the east coast of\nScotland, a little to the south of St. Andrews, formed in still larger\nproportions of the fragments of a single species,--_Balanus crenatus_.\nNow, this genus, so amazingly abundant at the present time in every\nexisting sea, and whose accumulated remains bid fair to exist as great\nlimestone rocks in the future, had no existence in the Palaeozoic or\nSecondary ages. It first appears in the times of the earlier Tertiary,\nin, however, only a single species; and, becoming gradually of more and\nmore importance as a group, it receives its fullest numerical\ndevelopment in the present time. And thus the remains of a sub-class of\nanimals, low in their standing among the articulata, may form one of the\nmost prominent Palaeontological features of the human period. But enough\nfor the present of circumstance and detail.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 84.\n\nMUREX ALVEOLATUS.\n\n(_Red Crag._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 85.\n\nASTARTE OMALII.\n\n(_Red Crag._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 86.\n\nBALANUS CRASSUS.\n\n(_Red Crag._)]\n\nSuch, so far as the geologist has yet been able to read the records of\nhis science, has been the course of creation, from the first beginnings\nof vitality upon our planet, until the appearance of man. And very\nwonderful, surely, has that course been! How strange a procession! Never\nyet on Egyptian obelisk or Assyrian frieze,--where long lines of figures\nseem stalking across the granite, each charged with symbol and\nmystery,--have our Layards or Rawlinsons seen aught so extraordinary as\nthat long procession of being which, starting out of the blank depths of\nthe bygone eternity, is still defiling across the stage, and of which we\nourselves form some of the passing figures. Who shall declare the\nprofound meanings with which these geologic hieroglyphics are charged,\nor indicate the ultimate goal at which the long procession is destined\nto arrive?\n\nThe readings already given, the conclusions already deduced, are as\nvarious as the hopes and fears, the habits of thought, and the cast of\nintellect, of the several interpreters who have set themselves,--some,\nalas! with but little preparation and very imperfect knowledge,--to\ndeclare in their order the details of this marvellous, dream-like\nvision, and, with the dream, \"the interpretation thereof.\" One class of\ninterpreters may well remind us of the dim-eyed old man,--the genius of\nunbelief so poetically described by Coleridge,--who, sitting in his cold\nand dreary cave, \"talked much and vehemently concerning an infinite\nseries of causes and effects, which he explained to be a string of blind\nmen, the last of whom caught hold of the skirt of the one before him, he\nof the next, and so on, till they were all out of sight, and that they\nall walked infallibly straight, without making one false step, though\nall were alike blind.\" With these must I class those assertors of the\ndevelopment hypothesis who can see in the upward progress of being only\nthe operations of an incomprehending and incomprehensible law, through\nwhich, in the course of unreckoned ages, the lower tribes and families\nhave risen into the higher, and inferior into superior natures, and in\nvirtue of which, in short, the animal creation has grown, in at least\nits nobler specimens, altogether unwittingly, without thought or care on\nits own part, and without intelligence on the part of the operating law,\nfrom irrational to rational, and risen in the scale from the mere\npromptings of instinct to the highest exercise of reason,--from apes and\nbaboons to Bacons and Newtons. The blind lead the blind;--the unseeing\nlaw operates on the unperceiving creatures; and they go, not together\ninto the ditch, but direct onwards, straight as an arrow, and higher\nand higher at every step.\n\nAnother class look with profound melancholy on that great city of the\ndead,--the burial-place of all that ever lived in the past,--which\noccupies with its ever-extending pavements of gravestones, and its\never-lengthening streets of tombs and sepulchres, every region opened up\nby the geologist. They see the onward procession of being as if but\ntipped with life, and nought but inanimate carcasses all behind,--dead\nindividuals, dead species, dead genera, dead creations,--a universe of\ndeath; and ask whether the same annihilation which overtook in turn all\nthe races of all the past, shall not one day overtake our own race also,\nand a time come when men and their works shall have no existence save as\nstone-pervaded fossils locked up in the rock forever? Nowhere do we find\nthe doubts and fears of this class more admirably portrayed than in the\nworks of perhaps the most thoughtful and suggestive of living poets:--\n\n \"Are God and Nature then at strife,\n That Nature lends such evil dreams,\n So careful of the type she seems,\n So careless of the single life?\n 'So careful of the type!' but no,\n From scarped cliff and quarried stone,\n She cries, 'A thousand types are gone;\n I care for nothing; all shall go:\n Thou makest thine appeal to me;\n I bring to life, I bring to death;\n The spirit does but mean the breath.\n I know no more.' And he,--shall he,\n Man, her last work, who seemed so fair,\n Such splendid purpose in his eyes,\n Who rolled the psalm to wintry skies\n And built him fanes of fruitless prayer,\n Who trusted God was love indeed,\n And love creation's final law,\n Though Nature, red in tooth and claw,\n With ravine shrieked against his creed,--\n Who loved, who suffered countless ills,\n Who battled for the true, the just,--\n Be blown about the desert dust,\n Or sealed within the iron hills?\n No more!--a monster then, a dream,\n A discord. Dragons of the prime,\n That tore each other in their slime,\n Were mellow music matched with him.\n O, life, as futile then as frail,--\n O for thy voice to soothe and bless!\n What hope of answer or redress,\n Behind the vail, behind the vail!\"\n\nThe sagacity of the poet here,--that strange sagacity which seems so\nnearly akin to the prophetic spirit,--suggests in this noble passage the\ntrue reading of the enigma. The appearance of man upon the scene of\nbeing constitutes a new era in creation; the operations of a new\n_instinct_ come into play,--that _instinct_ which anticipates a life\nafter the grave, and reposes in implicit faith upon a God alike just and\ngood, who is the pledged \"rewarder of all who diligently seek Him.\" And\nin looking along the long line of being,--ever rising in the scale from\nhigher to yet higher manifestations, or abroad on the lower animals,\nwhom instinct never deceives,--can we hold that man, immeasurably higher\nin his place, and infinitely higher in his hopes and aspirations, than\nall that ever went before him, should be, notwithstanding, the one grand\nerror in creation,--the one painful worker, in the midst of present\ntrouble, for a state into which he is never to enter,--the befooled\nexpectant of a happy future, which he is never to see? Assuredly no. He\nwho keeps faith with all his humbler creatures,--who gives to even the\nbee and the dormouse the winter for which they prepare,--will to a\ncertainty not break faith with man,--with man, alike the deputed lord of\nthe present creation, and the chosen heir of all the future. We have\nbeen looking abroad on the old geologic burying-grounds, and deciphering\nthe strange inscriptions on their tombs; but there are other\nburying-grounds, and other tombs,--solitary churchyards among the hills,\nwhere the dust of the martyrs lies, and tombs that rise over the ashes\nof the wise and good; nor are there awanting, on even the monuments of\nthe perished races, frequent hieroglyphics, and symbols of high meaning,\nwhich darkly intimate to us, that while _their_ burial-yards contain but\nthe debris of the past, we are to regard the others as charged with the\nsown seed of the future.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE THIRD.\n\nTHE TWO RECORDS, MOSAIC AND GEOLOGICAL.\n\n\nIt is now exactly fifty years since a clergyman of the Scottish Church,\nengaged in lecturing at St. Andrews, took occasion in enumerating the\nvarious earths of the chemist, to allude to the science, then in its\ninfancy, that specially deals with the rocks and soils which these\nearths compose. \"There is a prejudice,\" he remarked, \"against the\nspeculations of the geologist, which I am anxious to remove. It has been\nsaid that they nurture infidel propensities. It has been alleged that\ngeology, by referring the origin of the globe to a higher antiquity than\nis assigned to it by the writings of Moses, undermines our faith in the\ninspiration of the Bible, and in all the animating prospects of the\nimmortality which it unfolds. This is a false alarm. _The writings of\nMoses do not fix the antiquity of the globe._\"\n\nThe bold lecturer on this occasion,--for it needed no small courage in a\ndivine of any Established Church to take up, at the beginning of the\npresent century, a position so determined on the geologic side,--was at\nthe time an obscure young man, characterized, in the small circle in\nwhich he moved, by the ardor of his temperament and the breadth and\noriginality of his views; but not yet distinguished in the science or\nliterature of his country, and of comparatively little weight in the\ntheological field. He was marked, too, by what his soberer acquaintance\ndeemed eccentricities of thought and conduct. When the opposite view was\nall but universal, he held and taught that free trade would be not only\na general benefit to the people of this country, but would inflict\npermanent injury on no one class or portion of them; and further, at a\ntime when the streets and lanes of all the great cities of the empire\nwere lighted with oil burnt in lamps, he held that the time was not\ndistant when a carburetted hydrogen gas would be substituted instead;\nand, on getting his snug parsonage-house repaired, he actually\nintroduced into the walls a system of tubes and pipes for the passage\ninto its various rooms of the gaseous fluid yet to be employed as the\nilluminating agent. Time and experience have since impressed their stamp\non these supposed eccentricities, and shown them to be the sagacious\nforecastings of a man who saw further and more clearly than his\ncontemporaries; and fame has since blown his name very widely, as one of\nthe most comprehensive and enlightened, and, withal, one of the most\nthoroughly earnest and sincere, of modern theologians. The bold lecturer\nof St. Andrews was Dr. Thomas Chalmers,--a divine whose writings are now\nknown wherever the English language is spoken, and whose wonderful\neloquence lives in memory as a vanished power, which even his\nextraordinary writings fail adequately to represent. And in the position\nwhich he took up at this early period with respect to geology and the\nDivine Record, we have yet another instance of the great sagacity of the\nman, and of his ability of correctly estimating the prevailing weight of\nthe evidence with which, though but partially collected at the time, the\ngeologist was preparing to establish the leading propositions of his\nscience. Even in this late age, when the scientific standing of geology\nis all but universally recognized, and the vast periods of time which it\ndemands fully conceded, neither geologist nor theologian, could, in any\nnew scheme of reconciliation, shape his first proposition more skilfully\nthan it was shaped by Chalmers a full half century ago. It has formed\nsince that time the preliminary proposition of those ornaments of at\nonce science and the English Church, the present venerable Archbishop of\nCanterbury, Dr. Bird Sumner, with Doctors Buckland, Conybeare, and\nProfessor Sedgwick; of eminent evangelistic Dissenters too, such as the\nlate Dr. Pye Smith, Dr. John Harris, Dr. Robert Vaughan, Dr. James\nHamilton, and the Rev. Mr. Binney,--enlightened and distinguished men,\nwho all came early to the conclusion, with the lecturer of St. Andrews,\nthat \"the writings of Moses do not fix the antiquity of the globe.\"\n\nIn 1814, ten years after the date of the St. Andrews' lectures, Dr.\nChalmers produced his more elaborate scheme of reconciliation between\nthe Divine and the Geologic Records, in a \"Review of Cuvier's Theory of\nthe Earth;\" and that scheme, perfectly adequate to bring the Mosaic\nnarrative into harmony with what was known at the time of geologic\nhistory, has been very extensively received and adopted. It may, indeed,\nstill be regarded as the most popular of the various existing schemes.\nIt teaches, and teaches truly, that between the first act of creation,\nwhich evoked out of the previous nothing the _matter_ of the heavens and\nearth, and the first act of the first day's work recorded in Genesis,\nperiods of vast duration may have intervened; but further, it insists\nthat the days themselves were but natural days of twenty-four hours\neach; and that, ere they began, the earth, though mayhap in the previous\nperiod a fair residence of life, had become void and formless, and the\nsun, moon, and stars, though mayhap they had before given light, had\nbeen, at least in relation to our planet, temporarily extinguished. In\nshort, while it teaches that the successive creations of the geologist\nmay all have found ample room in the period preceding that creation to\nwhich man belongs, it teaches also that the record in Genesis bears\nreference to but the existing creation, and that there lay between it\nand the preceding ones a chaotic period of death and darkness. The\nscheme propounded by the late Dr. Pye Smith, and since adopted by\nseveral writers, differs from that of Chalmers in but one circumstance,\nthough an important one. Dr. Smith held, with the great northern divine,\nthat the Mosaic days were natural days; that they were preceded by a\nchaotic period; and that the work done in them related to but that last\nof the creations to which the human species belongs. Further, however,\nhe held in addition, that the chaos of darkness and confusion out of\nwhich that creation was called was of but limited extent, and that\noutside its area, and during the period of its existence, many of our\npresent lands and seas may have enjoyed the light of the sun, and been\ntenanted by animals and occupied by plants, the descendants of which\nstill continue to exist. The treatise of Dr. Pye Smith was published\nexactly a quarter of a century posterior to the promulgation, through\nthe press, of the argument of Dr. Chalmers; and this important\naddition,--elaborated by its author between the years 1837 and\n1839,--seems to have been made to suit the more advanced state of\ngeological science at the time. The scheme of reconciliation perfectly\nadequate in 1814 was found in 1839 to be no longer so; and this mainly\nthrough a peculiarity in the order in which geological fact has been\nevolved and accumulated in this country, and the great fossiliferous\nsystems studied and wrought out; to which I must be permitted briefly to\nadvert.\n\nWilliam Smith, the \"Father of English Geology,\" as he has been well\ntermed (a humble engineer and mineral surveyor, possessed of but the\nordinary education of men of his class and profession), was born upon\nthe English Oolite,--that system which, among the five prevailing\ndivisions of the great Secondary class of rocks, holds exactly the\nmiddle place. The Triassic system and the Lias lie beneath it; the\nCretaceous system and the Weald rest above. Smith, while yet a child,\nhad his attention attracted by the Oolitic fossils; and it was observed,\nthat while his youthful contemporaries had their garnered stores of\nmarbles purchased at the toy shop, he had collected, instead, a hoard of\nspherical fossil terebratulae, which served the purposes of the game\nequally well. The interest which he took in organic remains, and the\ndeposits in which they occur, influenced him in the choice of a\nprofession; and, when supporting himself in honest independence as a\nskilful mineral surveyor and engineer, he travelled over many thousand\nmiles of country, taking as his starting point the city of Bath, which\nstands near what is termed the Great Oolite: and from that centre he\ncarefully explored the various Secondary formations above and below. He\nascertained that these always occur in a certain determinate order; that\neach contains fossils peculiar to itself; and that they run diagonally\nacross the kingdom in nearly parallel lines from north-east to\nsouth-west. And, devoting every hour which he could snatch from his\nprofessional labors to the work, in about a quarter of a century, or\nrather more, he completed his great stratigraphical map of England. But,\nthough a truly Herculean achievement, regarded as that of a single man\nunindebted to public support, and uncheered by even any very general\nsympathy in his labors, it was found to be chiefly valuable in its\ntracings of the Secondary deposits, and strictly exact in only that\nOolitic centre from which his labors began. It was remarked at an early\nperiod that he ought to have restricted his publication to the\nformations which lie between the Chalk and the Red Marl inclusive; or,\nin other words, to the great Secondary division. The Coal Measures had,\nhowever, been previously better known, from their economic importance,\nand the number of the workings opened among them, than the deposits of\nany other system; and ere the publication of the map of Smith, Cuvier\nand Brogniart had rendered famous all over the world the older Tertiary\nformations of the age of the London Clay. But both ends of the\ngeological scale, comprising those ancient systems older than the Coal,\nand representative of periods in which, so far as is yet known, life,\nanimal and vegetable, first began upon our planet, and those systems of\ncomparatively modern date, representative of the periods which\nimmediately preceded the human epoch, were equally unknown. The light\nfell strongly on only that middle portion of the series on which the\nlabors of Smith had been mainly concentrated. The vast geologic bridge,\nwhich, like that in the exquisite allegory of Addison, strode across a\n\"part of the great tide of eternity,\" \"had a black cloud hanging at each\nend of it.\" And such was the state of geologic science when, in 1814,\nDr. Chalmers framed his scheme of reconciliation.\n\nSince that time, however, a light not less strong than the one thrown by\nWilliam Smith on the formations of the Lias and the Oolite has been cast\non both the older and the newer fossiliferous systems. Two great gaps\nstill remain to be filled up,--that which separates the Palaeozoic from\nthe Secondary division, and that which separates the Secondary from the\nTertiary one. But they occur at neither end of the geological scale.\nMainly through the labors of two distinguished geologists, who, finding\nthe geologic school of their own country distracted by a fierce and\nfruitless controversy, attached themselves to the geologic school of\nEngland, and have since received the honor of knighthood in\nacknowledgment of their labors, both ends of the geologic scale have\nbeen completed. Sir Roderick Murchison addressed himself to the\nformations older than the Coal, more especially to the Upper and Lower\nSilurian systems, from the Ludlow rooks to the Llandeilo flags. The Old\nRed Sandstone too, a system which lies more immediately beneath the\nCoal, has also been explored, and its various deposits, with their\npeculiar organic remains, enumerated and described. And Sir Charles\nLyell, setting himself to the other extremity of the scale, has wrought\nout the Tertiary formations, and separated them into the four great\ndivisions which they are now recognized as forming. And of these, the\nvery names indicate that certain proportions of their organisms still\ncontinue to exist. It is a great fact, now fully established in the\ncourse of geological discovery, that between the plants which in the\npresent time cover the earth, and the animals which inhabit it, and the\nanimals and plants of the later extinct creations, there occurred no\nbreak or blank, but that, on the contrary, many of the existing\norganisms were contemporary during the morning of their being, with many\nof the extinct ones during the evening of theirs. We know further, that\nnot a few of the shells which now live on our coasts, and several of\neven the wild animals which continue to survive amid our tracts of hill\nand forest, were in existence many ages ere the human age began. Instead\nof dating their beginning only a single natural day, or at most two\nnatural days, in advance of man, they must have preceded him by many\nthousands of years. In fine, in consequence of that comparatively recent\nextension of geologic fact in the direction of the later systems and\nformations, through which we are led to know that the present creation\nwas not cut off abruptly from the preceding one, but that, on the\ncontrary, it dovetailed into it at a thousand different points, we are\nled also to know, that any scheme of reconciliation which would\nseparate between the recent and the extinct existences by a chaotic gulf\nof death and darkness, is a scheme which no longer meets the necessities\nof the case. Though perfectly adequate forty years ago, it has been\ngreatly outgrown by the progress of geological discovery, and is, as I\nhave said, adequate no longer; and it becomes a not unimportant matter\nto determine the special scheme that would bring into completest harmony\nthe course of creation, as now ascertained by the geologist, and that\nbrief but sublime narrative of its progress which forms a meet\nintroduction in Holy Writ to the history of the human family. The first\nquestion to which we must address ourselves in any such inquiry is of\ncourse a very obvious one,--_What are the facts scientifically\ndetermined which now demand a new scheme of reconciliation?_\n\nThere runs around the shores of Great Britain and Ireland a flat terrace\nof unequal breadth, backed by an escarpment of varied height and\ncharacter, which is known to geologists as the old coast-line. On this\nflat terrace most of the seaport towns of the empire are built. The\nsubsoil which underlies its covering of vegetable mould consists usually\nof stratified sands and gravels, arranged after the same fashion as on\nthe neighboring beach, and interspersed in the same manner with sea\nshells. The escarpment behind, when formed of materials of no great\ncoherency, such as gravel or clay, exists as a sloping, grass-covered\nbank,--at one place running out into promontories that encroach upon the\nterrace beneath,--at another receding into picturesque, bay-like\nrecesses; and where composed, as in many localities, of rock of an\nenduring quality, we find it worn, as if by the action of the surf,--in\nsome parts relieved into insulated stacks, in others hollowed into deep\ncaverns,--in short, presenting all the appearance of a precipitous\ncoast-line, subjected to the action of the waves. Now, no geologist can\nor does doubt that this escarpment was at one time the coast-line of the\nisland,--the line against which the waves broke at high water in some\ndistant age, when either the sea stood from twenty to thirty feet higher\nalong our shores than it does now, or the land sat from twenty to thirty\nfeet lower. Nor can the geologist doubt, that along the flat terrace\nbeneath, with its stratified beds of sand and gravel, and its\naccumulations of sea shells, the tides must have risen and fallen twice\nevery day, as they now rise and fall along the beach that at present\ngirdles our country. But, in reference to at least human history, the\nage of the old coast-line and terrace must be a very remote one. Though\ngeologically recent, it lies far beyond the reach of any written record.\nIt has been shown by Mr. Smith of Jordanhill, one of our highest\nauthorities on the subject, that the wall of Antoninus, erected by the\nRomans as a protection against the Northern Caledonians, was made to\nterminate at the Firths of Forth and Clyde, with relation, not to the\nlevel of the old coast-line, but to that of the existing one. And so we\nmust infer that, ere the year A.D. 140 (the year during which, according\nto our antiquaries, the greater part of the wall was erected) the old\ncoast-line had attained to its present elevation over the sea. Further,\nhowever, we know from the history of Diodorus the Sicilian, that at a\nperiod earlier by at least two hundred years, St. Michael's Mount, in\nCornwall, was connected with the mainland at low water, just as it is\nnow, by a flat isthmus, across which, upon the falling of the tide, the\nancient Cornish miners used to carry over their tin in carts. Had the\nrelative levels of sea and land been those of the old coast-line at the\ntime, St. Michael's Mount, instead of being accessible at low ebb would\nhave been separated from the shore by a strait from three to five\nfathoms in depth. It would not have been then as now, as described in\nthe verse of Carew,--\n\n \"Both land and island twice a day.\"\n\nBut even the incidental notice of Diodorus Siculus represents very\ninadequately the antiquity of the existing coast-line. Some of its\ncaves, hollowed in hard rock in the line of faults and shifts by the\nattrition of the surf, are more than a hundred feet in depth; and it\nmust have required many centuries to excavate tough trap or rigid gneiss\nto a depth so considerable, by a process so slow. And yet, however long\nthe sea may have stood against the present coast-line, it must have\nstood for a considerably longer period against the ancient one. The\nlatter presents generally marks of greater attrition than the modern\nline, and its wave-hollowed caves are of a depth considerably more\nprofound. In determining, on an extensive tract of coast, the average\nprofundity of both classes of caverns from a considerable number of\neach, I ascertained that the proportional average depth of the modern to\nthe ancient is as two to three. For every two centuries, then, during\nwhich the waves have been scooping out the caves of the present\ncoast-line, they must have been engaged for three centuries in scooping\nout those of the old one. But we know _historically_, that for at least\ntwenty centuries the sea has been toiling in these modern caves; and who\nshall dare affirm that it has not been toiling in them for at least ten\ncenturies more? But if the sea has stood for but even two thousand six\nhundred years against the present coast-line (and no geologist would\ndare fix his estimate lower), then must it have stood against the old\nline, ere it could have excavated caves one third deeper, three thousand\nnine hundred years. And both periods united (six thousand five hundred\nyears) more than exhaust the Hebrew chronology. Yet what a mere\nbeginning of geologic history does not the epoch of the old coast-line\nform! It is but a mere starting point from the recent period. Not a\nsingle shell seems to have become extinct during the last six thousand\nfive hundred years! The shells which lie embedded in the subsoils\nbeneath the old coast-line are exactly those which still live in our\nseas.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 87.\n\nASTARTE ARCTICA.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 88.\n\nTELLINA PROXIMA.]\n\nAbove this ancient line of coast we find, at various heights, beds of\nshells of vastly older date than those of the low-lying terrace, and\nmany of which are no longer to be found living around our shores. I\nspent some time last autumn in exploring one of these beds, once a sea\nbottom, but now raised two hundred and thirty feet over the sea, in\nwhich there occurred great numbers of shells now not British, though\nfound in many parts of Britain at heights varying from two hundred to\nnearly fourteen hundred feet over the existing sea level. But though no\nlonger British shells, they are shells that still continue to live in\nhigh northern latitudes, as on the shores of Iceland and Spitzbergen;\nand the abundance in which they were developed on the submerged plains\nand hill-sides of what are now England and Scotland, during what is\ntermed the Pleistocene period, shows of itself what a very protracted\nperiod that was. The prevailing tellina of the bed which I last\nexplored,--a bed which occurs in some places six miles inland, in others\nelevated on the top of dizzy crags,--is a sub-arctic shell (_Tellina\nproxima_), of which only dead valves are now to be detected on our\ncoasts, but which may be found living at the North Cape and in\nGreenland. The prevailing astarte, its contemporary, was _Astarte\narctica_, now so rare as a British species, that many of our most\nsedulous collectors have never seen a native specimen, but which is\ncomparatively common on the northern shores of Iceland, and on the\neastern coasts of Norway, within the arctic circle. In this elevated\nScottish bed of the Pleistocene period I laid these boreal shells open\nto the light by hundreds, on the spot evidently where the individuals\nhad lived and died. Under the severe climatal conditions to which\n(probably from some change in the direction of the gulf stream) what is\nnow Northern Europe had been brought, this tellina and astarte had\nincreased and multiplied until they became prevailing shells of the\nBritish area; and this increase must have been the slow work of ages,\nduring which the plains, and not a few of the table lands, of the\ncountry, were submerged in a sub-arctic sea, and Great Britain existed\nas but a scattered archipelago of wintry islands. But in a still earlier\nperiod, of which there exists unequivocal evidence in the buried forests\nof Happisburgh and Cromer, the country had not only its head above\nwater, as now, but seems to have possessed oven more than its present\nbreadth of surface. During this ancient time,--more remote by many\ncenturies than not only the times of the old coast-line, but than even\nthose of the partial submergence of the island,--that northern mammoth\nlived in great abundance, of which the remains have been found by\nhundreds in England alone, together with the northern hippopotamus, and\nat least two northern species of rhinoceros. And though they have all\nceased to exist, with their wild associates in the forests and jungles\nof the Pleistocene, the cave-hyaena, the cave-tiger, and the cave-bear,\nwe know that the descendants of some of their feebler contemporaries,\nsuch as the badger, the fox, the wild cat, and the red deer, still live\namid our hills and brakes. The trees, too, under which they roamed, and\nwhose remains we find buried in the same deposits as theirs, were of\nspecies that still hold their place as aboriginal trees of the country,\nor of at least the more northerly provinces of the continent. The common\nScotch fir, the common birch, and a continental species of conifer of\nthe far north, the Norwegian spruce (_Abies excelsa_), have been found\nunderlying the Pleistocene drift, and rooted in the mammiferous crag;\nand for many ages must the old extinct elephant have roamed amid these\nfamiliar trees. From one limited tract of sea bottom on the Norfolk\ncoast the fishermen engaged in dredging oysters brought ashore, in the\ncourse of thirteen years (from 1820 to 1833), no fewer than two thousand\nelephants' grinders, besides great tusks and numerous portions of\nskeletons. It was calculated that these remains could not have belonged\nto fewer than five hundred individual mammoths of English growth; and,\nvarious in their states of keeping, and belonging to animals of which\nonly a few at a time could have found sufficient food in a limited tract\nof country, the inference seems inevitable that they must have belonged,\nnot to one or two, but to many succeeding generations. The further fact,\nthat remains of this ancient elephant (_Elephas primigenius_) occur all\nround the globe in a broad belt, extending from the fortieth to near the\nseventieth degree of north latitude, leads to the same conclusion. It\nmust have required many ages ere an animal that breeds so slowly as the\nelephant could have extended itself over an area so vast.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 89.\n\nNORWEGIAN SPRUCE.\n\n(Abies excelsa.)]\n\nMany of the contemporaries of this northern mammoth, especially of its\nmolluscan contemporaries, continue, as I have said, to live in their\ndescendants. Of even a still more ancient period, represented by the Red\nCrag, seventy out of every hundred species of shells still exist; and of\nan older period still, represented by the Coraline Crag, there survive\nsixty out of every hundred. In the Red Crag, for instance, we find the\nfirst known ancestors of our common edible periwinkle and common edible\nmussel; and in the Coraline Crag, the first known ancestors of the\ncommon horse-mussel, the common whelk, the common oyster, and the great\npecten. There then occurs a break in the geologic deposits of Britain,\nwhich, however, in other parts of Europe we find so filled up as to\nrender it evident that no corresponding break took place in the chain of\nexistence; but that, on the contrary, from the present time up to the\ntimes represented by the earliest Eocene formations of the Tertiary\ndivision, day has succeeded day, and season has followed season, and\nthat no chasm or hiatus--no age of general chaos, darkness, and\ndeath--has occurred, to break the line of succession, or check the\ncourse of life. All the evidence runs counter to the supposition that\nimmediately before the appearance of man upon earth, there existed a\nchaotic period which separated the previous from the present creation.\nUp till the commencement of the Eocene ages, if even then, there was no\nsuch chaotic period, in at least what is now Britain and the European\ncontinent: the persistency from a high antiquity of some of the existing\nraces, of not only plants and shells, but of even some of the\nmammiferous animals, such as the badger, the goat, and the wild cat,\nprove there was not; and any scheme of reconciliation which takes such a\nperiod for granted must be deemed as unsuited to the present state of\ngeologic knowledge, as any scheme would have been forty years ago which\ntook it for granted that the writings of Moses _do_ \"fix the antiquity\nof the globe.\"\n\nThe scheme of reconciliation adopted by the late Dr. Pye Smith, though,\nsave in one particular, identical, as I have said, with that of Dr.\nChalmers, is made, in virtue of its single point of difference, to steer\nclear of the difficulty. Both schemes exhibit the creation recorded in\nGenesis as an event which took place about six thousand years ago; both\ndescribe it as begun and completed in six natural days; and both\nrepresent it as cut off from a previously existing creation by a chaotic\nperiod of death and darkness. But while, according to the scheme of\nChalmers, both the Biblical creation and the previous period of death\nare represented as coextensive with the globe, they are represented,\naccording to that of Dr. Smith, as limited and local. They may have\nextended, it is said, over only a few provinces of Central Asia, in\nwhich, when all was life and light in other parts of the globe, there\nreigned for a time only death and darkness amid the welterings of a\nchaotic sea; which, at the Divine command, was penetrated by light, and\noccupied by dry land, and ultimately, ere the end of the creative week,\nbecame a centre in which certain plants and animals, and finally man\nhimself, were created. And this scheme, by leaving to the geologist in\nthis country and elsewhere, save mayhap in some unknown Asiatic\ndistrict, his unbroken series, certainly does not conflict with the\nfacts educed by geologic discovery. It virtually removes Scripture\naltogether out of the field. I must confess, however, that on this, and\non some other accounts, it has failed to satisfy me. I have stumbled,\ntoo, at the conception of a merely local and limited chaos, in which the\ndarkness would be so complete, that when first penetrated by the light,\nthat penetration could be described as actually a _making_ or creating\nof light; and that, while life obtained all around its precincts, could\nyet be thoroughly void of life, A local darkness so profound as to admit\nno ray of light seems to have fallen for a time on Egypt, as one of the\nten plagues; but the event was evidently miraculous; and no student of\nnatural science is entitled to have recourse, in order to extricate\nhimself out of a difficulty, to supposititious, unrecorded miracle.\nCreation cannot take place without miracle; but it would be a strange\nreversal of all our previous conclusions on the subject, should we have\nto hold that the dead, dark, blank out of which creation arose was\nmiraculous also. And if, rejecting miracle, we cast ourselves on the\npurely natural, we find that the local darknesses dependent on known\ncauses, of which we have any record in history, were always either very\nimperfect, like the darkness of your London fogs, or very temporary,\nlike the darkness described by Pliny as occasioned by a cloud of\nvolcanic ashes; and so, altogether inadequate to meet the demands of a\nhypothesis such as that of Dr. Smith. And yet further, I am disposed, I\nmust add, to look for a broader and more general meaning in that grand\ndescription of the creation of all things with which the Divine record\nso appropriately opens, than I could recognize it as forming, were I\nassured it referred to but one of many existing creations,--a creation\nrestricted to mayhap a few hundred square miles of country, and to\nmayhap a few scores of animals and plants. What, then, is the scheme of\nreconciliation which I would venture to propound?\n\nLet me first remark, in reply, that I come before you this evening, not\nas a philologist, but simply as a student of geological fact, who,\nbelieving his Bible, believes also, that though theologians have at\nvarious times striven hard to pledge it to false science, geographical,\nastronomical, and geological, it has been pledged by its Divine Author\nto no falsehood whatever. I occupy exactly the position now, with\nrespect to geology, that the mere Christian geographer would have\noccupied with respect to geography in the days of those doctors of\nSalamanca who deemed it unscriptural to hold with Columbus that the\nworld is round,--not flat; or exactly the position which the mere\nChristian astronomer would have occupied with respect to astronomy in\nthe days of that Francis Turrettine who deemed it unscriptural to hold\nwith Newton and Galileo, that it is the earth which moves in the\nheavens, and the sun which stands still. The mere geographer or\nastronomer might have been wholly unable to discuss with Turrettine or\nthe doctors the niceties of Chaldaic punctuation, or the various\nmeanings of the Hebrew verbs. But this much, notwithstanding, he would\nbe perfectly qualified to say:--However great your skill as linguists,\nyour reading of what you term the scriptural geography or scriptural\nastronomy must of necessity be a false reading, seeing that it commits\nScripture to what, in my character as a geographer or astronomer, I know\nto be a monstrously false geography or astronomy. Premising, then, that\nI make no pretensions to even the slightest skill in philology, I remark\nfurther, that it has been held by accomplished philologists, that the\ndays of the Mosaic creation may be regarded, without doing violence to\nthe genius of the Hebrew language, as successive periods of great\nextent. And certainly, in looking at my English Bible, I find that the\nportion of time spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis as _six_ days,\nis spoken of in the second chapter as _one_ day. True, there are other\nphilologers, such as the late Professor Moses Stuart, who take a\ndifferent view; but then I find this same Professor Stuart striving hard\nto make the phraseology of Moses \"fix the antiquity of the globe;\" and\nso, as a mere geologist, I reject his philology, on exactly the same\nprinciple on which the mere geographer would reject, and be justified in\nrejecting, the philology of the doctors of Salamanca, or on which the\nmere astronomer would reject, and be justified in rejecting, the\nphilology of Turrettine and the old Franciscans. I would, in any such\ncase, at once, and without hesitation, cut the philological knot, by\ndetermining that that philology cannot be sound which would commit the\nScriptures to a science that cannot be true. Waiving, however, the\nquestion as a philological one, and simply holding with Cuvier,\nParkinson, and Silliman, that each of the _six_ days of the Mosaic\nnarrative in the first chapter were what is assuredly meant by the _day_\nreferred to in the second,--not natural days, but lengthened periods,--I\nfind myself called on, as a geologist, to account for but three of the\nsix. Of the period during which light was created,--of the period during\nwhich a firmament was made to separate the waters from the waters,--or\nof the period during which the two great lights of the earth, with the\nother heavenly bodies, became visible from the earth's surface,--we need\nexpect to find no record in the rocks. Let me, however, pause for a\nmoment, to remark the peculiar character of the language in which we are\nfirst introduced in the Mosaic narrative to the heavenly bodies,--sun,\nmoon, and stars. The moon, though absolutely one of the smallest lights\nof our system, is described as secondary and subordinate to only its\ngreatest light, the sun. It is the apparent, then, not the actual, which\nwe find in the passage,--what _seemed_ to be, not what _was_; and as it\nwas merely what appeared to be greatest that was described as greatest,\non what grounds are we to hold that it may not also have been what\n_appeared_ at the time to be made that has been described as made? The\nsun, moon, and stars may have been created long before, though it was\nnot until this fourth period of creation that they became visible from\nthe earth's surface.\n\nThe geologist, in his attempts to collate the Divine with the geologic\nrecord, has, I repeat, only three of the six periods of creation to\naccount for,--the period of plants, the period of great sea monsters and\ncreeping things, and the period of cattle and beasts of the earth. He is\ncalled on to question his systems and formations regarding the remains\nof these three great periods, and of these only. And the question once\nfairly stated, what, I ask, is the reply? All geologists agree in\nholding that the vast geological scale naturally divides into _three_\ngreat parts. There are many lesser divisions,--divisions into systems,\nformations, deposits, beds, strata; but the master divisions, in each of\nwhich we find a type of life so unlike that of the others, that even the\nunpractised eye can detect the difference, are simply three,--the\nPalaeozoic, or oldest fossiliferous division; the Secondary, or middle\nfossiliferous division; and the Tertiary, or latest fossiliferous\ndivision.\n\nIn the first, or Palaeozoic division, we find corals, crustaceans,\nmolluscs, fishes, and, in its later formations, a few reptiles. But none\nof these classes of organisms give its leading character to the\nPalaeozoic; they do not constitute its prominent feature, or render it\nmore remarkable as a scene of life than any of the divisions which\nfollowed. That which chiefly distinguished the Palaeozoic from the\nSecondary and Tertiary periods was its gorgeous flora. It was\nemphatically the period of plants,--\"of herbs yielding seed after their\nkind.\" In no other age did the world ever witness such a flora: the\nyouth of the earth was peculiarly a green and umbrageous youth,--a youth\nof dusk and tangled forests, of huge pines and stately araucarians, of\nthe reed-like calamite, the tall tree-fern, the sculptured sigillaria,\nand the hirsute lepidodendron. Wherever dry land, or shallow lake, or\nrunning stream appeared, from where Melville Island now spreads out its\nice wastes under the star of the pole, to where the arid plains of\nAustralia lie solitary beneath the bright cross of the south, a rank and\nluxuriant herbage cumbered every footbreadth of the dank and steaming\nsoil; and even to distant planets our earth must have shone through the\nenveloping cloud with a green and delicate ray. Of this extraordinary\nage of plants we have our cheerful remembrancers and witnesses in the\nflames that roar in our chimneys when we pile up the winter fire,--in\nthe brilliant gas that now casts its light on this great assemblage, and\nthat lightens up the streets and lanes of this vast city,--in the\nglowing furnaces that smelt our metals, and give moving power to our\nponderous engines,--in the long dusky trains that, with shriek and\nsnort, speed dart-like athwart our landscapes,--and in the great\ncloud-enveloped vessels that darken the lower reaches of your noble\nriver, and rush in foam over ocean and sea. The geologic evidence is so\ncomplete as to be patent to all, that the first great period of\norganized being was, as described in the Mosaic record, peculiarly a\nperiod of herbs and trees, \"yielding seed after their kind.\"\n\nThe middle great period of the geologist--that of the Secondary\ndivision--possessed, like the earlier one, its herbs and plants, but\nthey were of a greatly less luxuriant and conspicuous character than\ntheir predecessors, and no longer formed the prominent trait or feature\nof the creation to which they belonged. The period had also its corals,\nits crustaceans, its molluscs, its fishes, and in some one or two\nexceptional instances its dwarf mammals. But the grand existences of the\nage,--the existences in which it excelled every other creation, earlier\nor later, were its huge creeping things,--its enormous monsters of the\ndeep,--and, as shown by the impressions of their footprints stamped upon\nthe rocks, its gigantic birds. It was peculiarly the age of egg-bearing\nanimals, winged and wingless. Its wonderful _whales_, not, however, as\nnow, of the mammalian, but of the reptilian class,--ichthyosaurs,\nplesiosaurs, and cetiosaurs,--must have tempested the deep; its creeping\nlizards and crocodiles, such as the teliosaurus, megalosaurus, and\niguanodon,--creatures some of which more than rivalled the existing\nelephant in height, and greatly more than rivalled him in bulk,--must\nhave crowded the plains or haunted by myriads the rivers of the period;\nand we know that the footprints of at least one of its many birds are\nfully twice the size of those made by the horse or camel. We are thus\nprepared to demonstrate, that the second period of the geologist was\npeculiarly and characteristically a period of whale-like reptiles of the\nsea, of enormous creeping reptiles of the land, and of numerous birds,\nsome of them of gigantic size; and, in meet accordance with the fact, we\nfind that the second Mosaic period with which the geologist is called on\nto deal was a period in which God created the fowl that flieth above the\nearth, with moving [or creeping] creatures, both in the waters and on\nthe land, and what our translation renders great whales, but that I find\nrendered, in the margin, great sea monsters.\n\nThe Tertiary period had also its prominent class of existences. Its\nflora seems to have been no more conspicuous than that of the present\ntime; its reptiles occupy a very subordinate place; but its beasts of\nthe field were by far the most wonderfully developed, both in size and\nnumbers, that ever appeared upon earth. Its mammoths and its mastodons,\nits rhinoceri and its hippopotami, its enormous dinotherium and colossal\nmegatherium, greatly more than equalled in bulk the largest mammals of\nthe present time, and vastly exceeded them in number. The remains of one\nof its elephants (_Elephas primigenius_) are still so abundant amid the\nfrozen wastes of Siberia, that what have been not inappropriately termed\n\"ivory quarries\" have been wrought among their bones for more than a\nhundred years. Even in our own country, of which, as I have already\nshown, this elephant was for long ages a native, so abundant are the\nskeletons and tusks, that there is scarcely a local museum in the\nkingdom that has not its specimens, dug out of the Pleistocene deposits\nof the neighborhood. And with this ancient elephant there were meetly\nassociated in Britain, as on the northern continents generally all\naround the globe, many other mammals of corresponding magnitude. \"Grand\nindeed,\" says an English naturalist, \"was the fauna of the British\nislands in those early days. Tigers as large again as the biggest\nAsiatic species lurked in the ancient thickets; elephants of nearly\ntwice the bulk of the largest individuals that now exist in Africa or\nCeylon roamed in herds; at least two species of rhinoceros forced their\nway through the primeval forest; and the lakes and rivers were tenanted\nby hippopotami as bulky, and with as great tusks, as those of Africa.\"\nThe massive cave-bear and large cave-hyaena belonged to the same\nformidable group, with at least two species of great oxen (_Bos\nlongifrons_ and _Bos primigenius_), with a horse of smaller size, and an\nelk (_Megaceros Hibernicus_) that stood ten feet four inches in height.\nTruly this Tertiary age--this third and last of the great geologic\nperiods--was peculiarly the age of great \"beasts of the earth after\ntheir kind, and of cattle after their kind.\"\n\nPermit me at this stage, in addressing myself to a London audience, to\nrefer to what has been well termed one of the great _sights_ of London.\nAn illustration drawn from what must be familiar to you all may impart\nto your conceptions, respecting the facts on which I build, a degree of\ntangibility which otherwise they could not possess.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 90.\n\nLEPIDODENDRON STERNBERGII.]\n\nOne of perhaps the most deeply interesting departments of your great\nBritish Museum--the wonder of the world--is that noble gallery,\nconsisting of a suite of rooms, opening in line, the one beyond the\nother, which forms its rich storehouse of organic remains. You must of\ncoarse remember the order in which the organisms of that gallery are\nranged. The visitor is first ushered into a spacious room devoted to\nfossil plants, chiefly of the Coal Measures. And if these organisms are\nin any degree less imposing in their aspect than those of the apartments\nwhich follow in the series, it is only because that, from the exceeding\ngreatness of the Coal Measure plants, they can be exhibited in but bits\nand fragments. Within less than an hour's walk of the Scottish capital\nthere are single trees of this ancient period deeply embedded in the\nsandstone strata, which, though existing as mere mutilated portions of\ntheir former selves, would yet fail to find accommodation in that great\napartment. One of those fossil trees,--a noble araucarian,--which occurs\nin what is known as the Granton quarry, is a mere fragment, for it\nwants both root and top, and yet what remains is sixty-one feet in\nlength by six feet in diameter; and beside it there lies a smaller\naraucarian, also mutilated, for it wants top and branches, and _it_\nmeasures seventy feet in length by four feet in diameter. I saw lately,\nin a quarry of the Coal Measures about two miles from my dwelling-house,\nnear Edinburgh, the stem of a plant (_Lepidodendron Sternbergii_),\nallied to the dwarfish club mosses of our moors, considerably thicker\nthan the body of a man, and which, reckoning on the ordinary proportions\nof the plant, must have been at least seventy feet in height. And of a\nkind of aquatic reed (calamites), that more resembles the diminutive\nmare's tail of our marshes than aught else that now lives, remains have\nbeen found in abundance in the same coal field, more than a foot in\ndiameter by thirty feet in length. Imposing, then, as are the vegetable\nremains of this portion of the National Museum, they would be greatly\nmore imposing still did they more adequately represent the gigantic\nflora of the remote age to which they belong.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 91.\n\nCALAMITES CANNAEFORMIS.]\n\nPassing onwards in the gallery from the great plants of the Palaeozoic\ndivision to the animals of the Secondary one, the attention is at once\narrested by the monstrous forms on the wall. Shapes that more than rival\nin strangeness the great dragons, and griffins, and \"laithly worms,\" of\nmediaeval legend, or, according to Milton, the \"gorgons, hydras, and\nchimeras dire,\" of classical fable, frown on the passing visitor; and,\nthough wrapped up in their dead and stony sleep of ages, seem not only\nthe most strange, but also the most terrible things on which his eye\never rested. Enormous jaws, bristling with pointed teeth, gape horrid in\nthe stone, under staring eye-sockets a full foot in diameter. Necks that\nhalf equal in length the entire body of the boa-constrictor stretch out\nfrom bodies mounted on fins like those of a fish, and furnished with\ntails somewhat resembling those of the mammals. Here we see a winged\ndragon, that, armed with sharp teeth and strong claws, had careered\nthrough the air on leathern wings like those of a bat; there an enormous\ncrocodilian whale, that, mounted on many-jointed paddles, had traversed,\nin quest of prey, the green depths of the sea; yonder a herbivorous\nlizard, with a horn like that of the rhinoceros projecting from its\nsnout, and that, when it browsed amid the dank meadows of the Wealden,\nmust have stood about twelve feet high. All is enormous, monstrous,\nvast, amid the creeping and flying things and the great sea monsters of\nthis division of the gallery.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 92.\n\nMEGATHERIUM CUVIERI.]\n\nWe pass on into the third and lower division, and an entirely different\nclass of existences now catch the eye. The huge mastodon, with his\nenormous length of body, and his tusks projecting from both upper and\nunder jaw, stands erect in the middle of the floor,--a giant skeleton.\nWe see beside him the great bones of the megatherium,--thigh bones\neleven inches in diameter, and claw-armed toes more than two feet in\nlength. There, too, ranged species beyond species, are the extinct\nelephants; and there the ponderous skull of the dinotherium, with the\nbent tusks in its lower jaw, that give to it the appearance of a great\npickaxe, and that must have dug deeply of old amid the liliaceous roots\nand bulbs of the Tertiary lakes and rivers. There also are the massive\nheads and spreading horn-cores of the _Bos primigenius_, and the large\nbones and broad plank-like horns of the great Irish elk. And there too,\nin the same apartment, but leaning against its further wall,--last, as\nmost recent, of all the objects of wonder in that great gallery,--is the\nfamous human skeleton of Guadaloupe, standing out in bold relief from\nits slab of gray limestone. It occurs in the series, just as the series\ncloses, a little beyond the mastodon and the mammoths; and, in its\nstrange character as a fossil man, attracts the attention scarce less\npowerfully than the great Palaeozoic plants, the great Secondary\nreptiles, or the great Tertiary mammals.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 93.\n\nSKULL OF DINOTHERIUM GIGANTEUM.\n\n(_Miocene._)]\n\nI last passed through this wondrous gallery at the time when the\nattraction of the Great Exhibition had filled London with curious\nvisitors from all parts of the empire; and a group of intelligent\nmechanics, fresh from some manufacturing town of the midland counties,\nwere sauntering on through its chambers immediately before me. They\nstood amazed beneath the dragons of the Oolite and Lias; and, with more\nthan the admiration and wonder of the disciples of old when\ncontemplating the huge stones of the Temple, they turned to say, in\nalmost the old words, \"Lo! master, what manner of great beasts are\nthese?\" \"These are,\" I replied, \"the sea monsters and creeping things of\nthe second great period of organic existence.\" The reply seemed\nsatisfactory, and we passed on together to the terminal apartments of\nthe range appropriated to the Tertiary organisms. And there, before the\nenormous mammals, the mechanics again stood in wonder, and turned to\ninquire. Anticipating the query, I said, \"And these are the huge beasts\nof the earth, and the cattle of the third great period of organic\nexistence; and yonder, in the same apartment, you see, but at its\nfurther end, is the famous fossil man of Guadaloupe, locked up by the\npetrifactive agencies in a slab of limestone.\" The mechanics again\nseemed satisfied. And, of course, had I encountered them in the first\nchamber of the suite, and had they questioned me respecting the\norganisms with which _it_ is occupied, I would have told them that they\nwere the remains of the herbs and trees of the _first_ great period of\norganic existence. But in the chamber of the mammals we parted, and I\nsaw them no more.\n\nThere could not be a simpler incident. And yet, rightly apprehended, it\nreads its lesson. You have all visited the scene of it, and must all\nhave been struck by the three salient points, if I may so speak, by\nwhich that noble gallery lays strongest hold of the memory, and most\npowerfully impresses the imagination,--by its gigantic plants of the\nfirst period (imperfectly as these are represented in the collection),\nby its strange misproportioned sea monsters and creeping things of the\nsecond, and by its huge mammals of the third. Amid many thousand various\nobjects, and a perplexing multiplicity of detail, which it would\nrequire the patient study of years even partially to classify and know,\nthese are the great prominent features of the gallery, that\ninvoluntarily, on the part of the visitor, force themselves on his\nattention. They at once pressed themselves on the attention of the\nintelligent though unscientific mechanics, and, I doubt not, still dwell\nvividly in their recollections; and I now ask you, when you again visit\nthe national museum, and verify the fact of the great prominence of\nthese classes of objects, to bear in mind, that the gallery in which\nthey occur represents, both in the order and character of its contents,\nthe course of creation. I ask you to remember that, had there been human\neyes on earth during the Palaeozoic, Secondary, and Tertiary periods,\nthey would have been filled in succession by the great plants, the great\nreptiles, and the great mammals, just as those of the mechanics were\nfilled by them in the museum. As the sun and moon, when they first\nbecame visible in the heavens, would have seemed to human eyes--had\nthere been human eyes to see--not only the greatest of the celestial\nlights, but peculiarly the prominent objects of the epoch in which they\nappeared, so would these plants, reptiles, and mammals, have seemed in\nsuccession the prominent objects of the several epochs in which _they_\nappeared. And, asking the geologist to say whether my replies to the\nmechanics were not, with all their simplicity, true to geological fact,\nand the theologian to say whether the statements which they embodied\nwere not, with all their geology, true to the scriptural narrative, I\nask further, whether (of course, making due allowance for the laxity of\nthe terms botanic and zoological of a primitive language unadapted to\nthe niceties of botanic or zoologic science) the Mosaic account of\ncreation could be rendered more essentially true, than we actually find\nit, to the history of creation geologically ascertained. If, taking the\nMosaic days as equivalent to lengthened periods, we hold that, in giving\ntheir brief history, the inspired writer seized on but those salient\npoints that, like the two great lights of the day and night, would have\narrested most powerfully, during these periods, a human eye, we shall\nfind the harmony of the two records complete. In your visit to the\nmuseum, I would yet further ask you to mark the place of the human\nskeleton in the great gallery. It stands--at least it stood only a few\nyears ago--in the same apartment with the huge mammifers. And it is\nsurely worthy of remark, that while in both the sacred and geologic\nrecords a strongly defined line separates between the period of plants\nand the succeeding periods of reptiles, and again between the period of\nreptiles and the succeeding period of mammals, no line in either record\nseparates between this period of mammals and the human period. Man came\ninto being as the lastborn of creation, just ere the close of that sixth\nday--the third and terminal period of organic creation--to which the\ngreat mammals belong. Let me yet further remark, that in each of these\nthree great periods we find, with respect to the classes of existences,\nvegetable or animal, by which they were most prominently characterized,\ncertain well marked culminating points together, if I may so express\nmyself,--twilight periods of morning dawn and evening decline. The\nplants of the earlier and terminal systems of the Palaeozoic division are\nfew and small: it was only during the protracted _eons_ of the\nCarboniferous period that they received their amazing development,\nunequalled in any previous or succeeding time.[16] In like manner, in\nthe earlier or Triassic deposits of the Secondary division, the\nreptilian remains are comparatively inconsiderable; and they are almost\nequally so in its Cretaceous or later deposits. It was during those\nmiddle ages of the division, represented by its Liassic, Oolitic, and\nWealden formations, that the class existed in that abundance which\nrendered it so peculiarly, above every other age, an age of creeping\nthings and great sea monsters. And so also, in the Tertiary, regarded\nas but an early portion of the human division, there was a period of\nincrease and diminution,--a morning and evening of mammalian life. The\nmammals of its early Eocene ages were comparatively small in bulk and\nlow in standing; in its concluding ages, too, immediately ere the\nappearance of man, or just as he had appeared, they exhibited, both in\nsize and number, a reduced and less imposing aspect. It was chiefly in\nits middle and latter, or Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene ages, that\nthe myriads of its huger giants,--its dinotheria, mastodons, and\nmammoths,--cumbered the soil. I, of course, restrict my remarks to the\nthree periods of organic life, and have not inquired whether aught\nanalogous to these mornings and evenings of increase and diminution need\nbe sought after in any of the others.\n\nSuch are a few of the geological facts which lead me to believe that the\n_days_ of the Mosaic account were great periods, not natural days; and\nbe it remembered, that between the scheme of lengthened periods and the\nscheme of a merely local chaos, which existed no one knows how, and of a\nmerely local creation, which had its scene no one knows where,\ngeological science leaves us now no choice whatever. It has been urged,\nhowever, that this scheme of periods is irreconcileable with that Divine\n\"reason\" for the institution of the Sabbath which he who appointed the\nday of old has, in his goodness, vouchsafed to man. I have failed to see\nany force in the objection. God the Creator, who wrought during six\nperiods, rested during the seventh period; and as we have no evidence\nwhatever that he recommenced his work of creation,--as, on the contrary,\nman seems to be the last formed of creatures,--God may be resting still.\nThe presumption is strong that his Sabbath is an extended period, not a\nnatural day, and that the work of Redemption is his Sabbath day's work.\nAnd so I cannot see that it in the least interferes with the integrity\nof the reason rendered to read it as follows:--Work during six periods,\nand rest on the seventh; for in six periods the Lord created the heavens\nand the earth, and on the seventh period _He_ rested. The Divine periods\nmay have been very great,--the human periods very small; just as a vast\ncontinent or the huge earth itself is very great, and a map or\ngeographical globe very small. But if in the map or globe the\nproportions be faithfully maintained, and the scale, though a minute\none, be true in all its parts and applications, we pronounce the map or\nglobe, notwithstanding the smallness of its size, a faithful copy. Were\nman's Sabbaths to be kept as enjoined, and in the Divine proportions, it\nwould scarcely interfere with the logic of the \"reason annexed to the\nfourth commandment,\" though in this matter, as in all others in which\nman can be an imitator of God, the imitation should be a miniature one.\n\nThe work of Redemption may, I repeat, be the work of God's Sabbath day.\nWhat, I ask, viewed as a whole, is the prominent characteristic of\ngeologic history, or of that corresponding history of creation which\nforms the grandly fashioned vestibule of the sacred volume? Of both\nalike the leading characteristic is progress. In both alike do we find\nan upward progress from dead matter to the humbler forms of vitality,\nand from thence to the higher. And after great cattle and beasts of the\nearth had, in due order, succeeded inanimate plants, sea monsters, and\nmoving creatures that had life, the moral agent, man, enters upon the\nscene. Previous to his appearance on earth, each succeeding elevation in\nthe long upward march had been a result of creation. The creative fiat\nwent forth, and dead matter came into existence. The creative fiat went\nforth, and plants, with the lower animal forms, came into existence. The\ncreative fiat went forth, and the oviparous animals,--birds and\nreptiles,--came into existence. The creative fiat went forth, and the\nmammiferous animals,--cattle and beasts of the earth,--came into\nexistence. And, finally, last in the series, the creative fiat went\nforth, and responsible, immortal man, came into existence. But has the\ncourse of progress come, in consequence, to a close? No. God's work of\nelevating, raising, heightening,--of making the high in due progression\nsucceed the low,--still goes on. But man's responsibility, his\nimmortality, his God-implanted instincts respecting an eternal future,\nforbid that that work of elevation and progress should be, as in all the\nother instances, a work of creation. To create would be to supersede.\nGod's work of elevation _now_ is the work of fitting and preparing\npeccable, imperfect man for a perfect, impeccable, future state. God's\nseventh day's work is the work of Redemption. And, read in this light,\nhis reason vouchsafed to man for the institution of the Sabbath is found\nto yield a meaning of peculiar breadth and emphasis. God, it seems to\nsay, rests on _his_ Sabbath from his creative labors, in order that by\nhis Sabbath day's work he may save and elevate you. Rest ye also on your\nSabbaths, that through your co-operation with him in this great work ye\nmay be elevated and saved. Made originally in the image of God, let God\nbe your pattern and example. Engaged in your material and temporal\nemployments, labor in the proportions in which he labored; but, in order\nthat you may enjoy an eternal future with him, rest also in the\nproportions in which he rests.\n\nOne other remark ere I conclude. In the history of the earth which we\ninhabit, molluscs, fishes, reptiles, mammals, had each in succession\ntheir periods of vast duration; and then the human period began,--the\nperiod of a fellow worker with God, created in God's own image. What is\nto be the next advance? Is there to be merely a repetition of the\npast?--an introduction a second time of man made in the image of God?\nNo. The geologist, in those tables of stone which form his records,\nfinds no example of dynasties once passed away again returning. There\nhas been no repetition of the dynasty of the fish, of the reptile, of\nthe mammal. The dynasty of the future is to have glorified man for its\ninhabitant; but it is to be the dynasty--\"the _kingdom_\"--not of\nglorified man made in the image of God, but of God himself in the form\nof man. In the doctrine of the two conjoined natures, human and Divine,\nand in the further doctrine that the terminal dynasty is to be\npeculiarly the dynasty of HIM in whom the natures are united, we find\nthat required progression beyond which progress cannot go. We find the\npoint of elevation never to be exceeded meetly coincident with the final\nperiod never to be terminated,--the infinite in height harmoniously\nassociated with the eternal in duration. Creation and the Creator meet\nat one point, and in one person. The long ascending line from dead\nmatter to man has been a progress Godwards,--not an asymptotical\nprogress, but destined from the beginning to furnish a point of union;\nand occupying that point as true God and true man,--as Creator and\ncreated,--we recognize the adorable Monarch of all the future!\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FOURTH.\n\nTHE MOSAIC VISION OF CREATION.\n\n\nThe history of creation is introduced into the \"Paradise Lost\" as a\npiece of narrative, and forms one of the two great episodes of the poem.\nMilton represents the common father of the race as \"led on\" by a desire\nto know\n\n \"What within Eden or without was done\n Before his memory;\"\n\nand straightway Raphael, \"the affable archangel,\" in compliance with the\nwish, enters into a description of the six days' work of the Divine\nCreator,--a description in which, as Addison well remarks, \"the whole\nenergy of our tongue is employed, and the several great scenes of\ncreation rise up to view, one after another, in such a manner, that the\nreader seems present at this wonderful work, and to assist among the\nchoirs of angels who are spectators of it.\" In the other great episode\nof the poem,--that in which the more prominent changes which were to\nhappen in after time upon the earth are made to pass before Adam, he is\nrepresented as carried by Michael to the top of a great mountain, lofty\nas that on which in a long posterior age the Tempter placed our Saviour,\nand where the coming events are described as rising up in vision before\nhim. In the earlier episode, as in those of the Odyssey and Aeneid, in\nwhich heroes relate in the courts of princes the story of their\nadventures, there is but narrative and description; in the later, a\nseries of magnificent pictures, that form and then dissolve before the\nspectator, and comprise, in their vivid tints and pregnant outlines, the\nfuture history of a world. And one of these two episodes,--that which\nrelates to the creation of all things,--must have as certainly had a\nplace in human history as in the master epic of England. Man would have\nforever remained ignorant of many of those events related in the opening\nchapters of Scripture, which took place ere there was a human eye to\nwitness, or a human memory to record, had he not been permitted, like\nAdam of old, to hold intercourse with the intelligences that had\npreceded him in creation, or with the great Creator himself, the Author\nof them all; and the question has been asked of late, both in our own\ncountry and on the Continent, What was the form and nature of the\nrevelation by which the pre-Adamic history of the earth and heavens was\noriginally conveyed to man? Was it conveyed, like the sublime story of\nRaphael, as a piece of narrative, dictated, mayhap, to the inspired\npenman, or miraculously borne in upon his mind? Or was it conveyed by a\nsuccession of sublime visions like that which Michael is represented as\ncalling up before Adam, when, purging his \"visual nerves with euphrasy\nand rue,\" he enabled him to see, in a series of scenes, the history of\nhis offspring from the crime of Cain down to the destruction of the Old\nWorld by a flood? The passages in which the history of creation is\nrecorded give no intimation whatever of their own history; and so we are\nleft to balance the probabilities regarding the mode and form in which\nthey were originally revealed, and to found our ultimate conclusions\nrespecting them on evidence, not direct, but circumstantial.\n\nThe Continental writers on this curious subject may be regarded as not\ninadequately represented by Dr. J.H. Kurtz, Professor of Theology at\nDorpat,--one of the many ingenious biblical scholars of modern Germany.\nWe find him stating the question, in his _Bibel und Astronomie_ (second\nedition, 1849), with great precision and clearness, but in a manner, so\nfar at least as the form of his thinking is concerned, strikingly\ncharacteristic of what may be termed the theological fashion of his\ncountry in the present day. \"The source of all human history,\" he says,\n\"is _eye-witness_, be it that of the reporter, or of another whose\naccount has been handed down. Only what man has himself seen or\nexperienced can be the subject of man's historical compositions. So that\nhistory, so far as man can write it, can begin with but the point at\nwhich he has entered into conscious existence, and end with the moment\nthat constitutes the present time. Beyond these points, however, lies a\ngreat province of historic development, existing on the one side as the\n_Past_, on the other side as the _Future_. For when man begins to be an\nobserver or actor of history, he himself, and the whole circumstantials\nof his condition, have already come historically into being. Nor does\nthe flow of development stop with what is his present. Millions of\ninfluences are spinning the thread still on; but no one can tell what\nthe compound result of all their energies is to be. Both these sorts of\nhistory, then, lie beyond the region of man's knowledge, which is shut\nup in space and time, and can only call the present its own. It is God\nalone who, standing beyond and above space and time, sees backwards and\nforwards both the development which preceded the first _present_ of men,\nand that which will succeed this our latest _present_. Whatever the\ndifference of the two kinds of history may be, they hold the same\nposition in relation both to the principle of the human ignorance and\nthe principle of the human knowledge. The principle of the ignorance is\nman's condition as a creature; the principle of the knowledge is the\nDivine knowledge; and the medium between ignorance and knowledge is\nobjectively Divine revelation, and subjectively prophetic vision by man,\nin which he beholds with the eye of the mind what is shut and hid from\nthe eye of his body.\" From these premises Dr. Kurtz goes on to argue\nthat the pre-Adamic history of the past being _theologically_ in the\nsame category as the yet undeveloped history of the future, that record\nof its leading events which occurs in the Mosaic narrative is simply\n_prophecy_ described backwards; and that, coming under the prophetic\nlaw, it ought of consequence to be subjected to the prophetic rule of\nexposition. There are some very ingenious reasonings employed in\nfortifying this point; and, after quoting from Eichhorn a passage to the\neffect that the opening chapter in Genesis is much rather a creative\npicture than a creative history, and from Ammon to the effect that the\nauthor of it evidently takes the position of a beholder of creation, the\nlearned German concludes his general statement by remarking, that the\nscenes of the chapter are prophetic tableaux, each containing a leading\nphase of the drama of creation. \"Before the eye of the seer,\" he says,\n\"scene after scene is unfolded, until at length, in the seven of them,\nthe course of creation, in its main _momenta_, has been fully\nrepresented.\" The revelation has every characteristic of prophecy by\nvision,--prophecy by eye-witnessing; and may be perhaps best understood\nby regarding it simply as an exhibition of the actual phenomena of\ncreation presented to the mental eye of the prophet under the ordinary\nlaws of perspective, and truthfully described by him in the simple\nlanguage of his time.\n\nIn our own country a similar view has been taken by the author of a\nsingularly ingenious little work which issued about two years ago from\nthe press of Mr. Constable of Edinburgh, \"The Mosaic Record in Harmony\nwith Geology.\"[17] The writer, however, exhibits, in dealing with his\nsubject, the characteristic sobriety of the Anglo-Saxon mind; and while\nthe leading features of his theory agree essentially with those of the\nContinental one, he does not press it so far. In canvassing the _form_\nof the revelation made to Moses in the opening of Genesis, he discusses\nthe nature of the inspiration enjoyed by that great prophet; and thus\nretranslates literally from the Hebrew the passage in which the Divine\nBeing is himself introduced as speaking direct on the point in the\ncontroversy raised by Aaron and Miriam. \"And He [the Lord] said, hear\nnow my words: If he [Moses] were _your_ prophet [subordinate, or at\nleast not superior, to the prophetess and the high priest], I, Jehovah,\nin the vision to him would make myself known: in the dream would I speak\nto him. Not so _my_ servant Moses [God's prophet, not theirs]; in all my\nhouse faithful is he. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him, and vision, but\nnot in dark speeches; and likeness of Jehovah he beholds.\" Moses, then,\nwas favored with \"visions without dark speeches.\"\n\nNow, as implied in the passage thus retranslated, there is a grand\ndistinction between symbolic and therefore _dark_ visions, and visions\nnot symbolic nor dark. Visions addressed, as the word indicates, to the\neye, may be obviously of a twofold character,--they may be either darker\nthan words, or a great deal clearer than words. The vision, for\ninstance, of future monarchies which Daniel saw symbolized under the\nform of monstrous animals had to be explained in words; the vision of\nPeter, which led to the general admission of the Gentiles into the\nChristian Church, had also virtually to be explained in words; they were\nboth visions of the dark class; and revelation abounds in such. But\nthere were also visions greatly clearer than words. Such, for instance,\nwas the vision of the secret chamber of imagery, with its seventy men of\nthe ancients of Israel given over to idolatry, which was seen by the\nprophet as he sat in his own house; and the vision of the worshippers of\nthe sun in the inner court of the temple, witnessed from what was\n_naturally_ the same impossible point of view; with the vision of the\nJewish women in the western gate \"weeping for Thammuz,\" when, according\nto Milton's noble version,\n\n \"The love tale\n Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,\n Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch\n Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led,\n His eye surveyed the dark idolatries\n Of alienated Judah.\"\n\nHere, then, were there visions of scenes actually taking place at the\ntime, which, greatly clearer than any merely verbal description,\nsubstituted the seeing of the eye for the hearing of the ear. And\nvisions of this latter kind were enjoyed, argues the writer of this\ningenious treatise, by the prophet Moses.\n\nOne of the cases adduced may be best given in the author's own words.\n\"Moses,\" he says, \"received directions from God how to proceed in\nconstructing the Tabernacle and its sacred furniture; and David also was\ninstructed how the Temple of Solomon should be built. Let us hear\nScripture regarding the nature of the directions given to these men:--\n\n'According unto the _appearance_ [literally sight, vision] which the\nLord had showed unto Moses, so he made the _candlestick_.'--(Num. 5:4.)\n\n'The whole in _writing_, by the hand of Jehovah upon me, he taught; the\nwhole works of the pattern.'--(1 Chron. 28:19.)\n\n\"There was thus a writing in the case of David; a sight or vision of the\nthing to be made in that of Moses.\"\n\nSo far the author of the Treatise. He might have added further, that\nfrom the nature of things, the revelation to Moses in this instance\n_must_ have been \"sight or vision,\" if, indeed, what is not in the least\nlikely, the peculiar architecture and style of ornament used in the\nTabernacle was not a borrowed style, already employed in the service of\nidolatry. An old, long established architecture can be adequately\ndescribed by speech or writing; a new, original architecture can be\nadequately described only by pattern or model, that is, by sight or\nvision. Any intelligent cutter in stone or carver in wood could furnish\nto order, though the order were merely a verbal one, a Corinthian or\nIonic capital; but no such mechanic, however skilful or ingenious, could\nfurnish to order, if unprovided with a pattern or drawing, a _facsimile_\nof one of the ornately sculptured capitals of Gloucester Cathedral or\nYork Minster. To ensure a _facsimile_ in any such case, the originals,\nor representations of them, would require to be submitted to the\neye,--not merely described to the ear. Nay, from the example given in\nthe text,--that of the golden candlestick,--we have an instance\nfurnished in recent times of the utter inadequacy of mere description\nfor the purposes of the sculptor or artist. Ever since copperplate\nengravings and illustrated Bibles became comparatively common,\nrepresentations of the branched candlestick taken from the written\ndescription have been common also. The candlestick on the arch of Titus,\nthough not deemed an exact representation of the original one described\nin the Pentateuch, is now regarded,--correctly, it cannot be\ndoubted,--as at least the nearest approximation to it extant. Public\nattention was first drawn to this interesting piece of sculpture in\ncomparatively modern times; and it was then found that all the previous\nrepresentations taken from the written description were widely\nerroneous. They only served to show, not the true outlines of the golden\ncandlestick, but merely that inadequacy of verbal description for\nartistic purposes which must have rendered _vision_, or, in other words,\noptical representation, imperative in the case of Moses. Some of our\nmost sober minded commentators take virtually the same view of this\nnecessity of vision for ensuring the production of the true pattern of\nthe Tabernacle. \"The Lord,\" says Thomas Scott, \"not only directed Moses\nby words how to build the Tabernacle and form its sacred furniture, but\nshowed him a model exactly representing the form of every part, and the\nproportion of each to all the rest.\" There must have been clear optical\nvision in the case,--\"vision without dark speeches.\" Such, too, was the\ncharacter of other of the Mosaic visions, besides that of the \"pattern\"\nseen in the Mount. The burning bush, for instance, was a vision\naddressed to the eye; and seemed to come so palpably under the ordinary\noptical laws, that the prophet _drew near_ to examine the extraordinary\nphenomena which it exhibited.\n\nThe visual or optical character of _some_ of the revelations made to\nMoses thus established, the writer goes on to inquire whether that\nspecial revelation which exhibits the generations of the heavens and\nearth in their order was not a visual revelation also. \"Were the words\nthat Moses wrote,\" he asks, \"merely impressed upon his mind? Did he hold\nthe pen, and another dictate? Or did he see in vision the scenes that he\ndescribes? The freshness and point of the narrative,\" he continues, \"the\nfreedom of the description, and the unlikelihood that Moses was an\nunthinking machine in the composition, all indicate that he saw in\nvision what he has here given us in writing. _He is describing from\nactual observation._\" The writer remarks in an earlier portion of his\ntreatise, that all who have adopted the theory advocated in the previous\nlecture,--the \"Two Records,\" which was, I may state, published in a\nseparate form, ere the appearance of his work, and which he does me the\nhonor of largely quoting,--go upon the supposition that things during\nthe Mosaic days are described as they would appear to the eye of one\nplaced upon earth; and he argues that, as no man existed in those\ndistant ages, a reason must be assigned for this _popular_ view of\ncreation which the record is rightly assumed to take. And certainly, if\nit was in reality a view described from actual vision, the fact would\nform of itself an adequate reason. What man had actually seen, though\nbut in dream or picture, would of course be described _as seen by man_:\nlike all human history, it would, to borrow from Kurtz, be founded on\neye-witnessing; and the fact that the Mosaic record of creation is\n_apparently_ thus founded, affords a strong presumption that it was in\nreality revealed, not by dictation, but by vision.\n\nNor, be it remembered, has the recognition of a purely _optical_\ncharacter in the revelation been restricted to the assertion of any one\ntheory of reconciliation. It was as certainly held by Chalmers and Dr.\nPye Smith, as by Dr. Kurtz and the author of this treatise; nay, it has\nbeen recognized by not a few of their opponents also. Granville Penn,\nfor instance, does not scruple to avow his belief, in his elaborate\n\"Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaic Geologies,\" that both sun and moon\nwere created on the first day of creation, though they did not become\n\"_optically_ visible\" until the fourth. \"In truth, that the fourth day\nonly rendered visible the sidereal creation of the first day, is\nmanifested,\" he says, \"by collating the transactions of the two days. On\nthe first day, we are told generally, 'God divided the light, or day,\nand the darkness, or night;' but the physical agents which he employed\nfor that division are not there declared. On the fourth day, we are told\nreferentially, 'God commanded the lights [or luminaries] for dividing\nday and night, to give their light upon earth.' Here, then, it is\nevident from the retrospective implication of the latter description,\nthat the lights or luminaries for dividing day and night, which were to\ngive their light upon the earth for the first time on the fourth day,\nwere the unexpressed physical agents by which God divided the day and\nnight on the first day.\" Now, whatever may be thought of Mr. Penn's\nargument here, there can be no doubt that it demonstrates at least his\nown belief in the purely optical character of the Mosaic account of the\nsidereal creation. It is an account, he held, not of what God wrought on\nthe first day in the heavens, but of what a human eye would have seen on\nthe fourth day from the earth. And Moses Stuart, in his philological\nassault on the geologists, is scarce less explicit in his avowal of a\nsimilar belief. \"Every one sees,\" he says, \"that to speak of the sun as\nrising and setting, is to describe, in common parlance, what appears\n_optically_, that is, to our sensible view, as reality. But the history\nof creation is a different affair. In ONE RESPECT, indeed, there is a\nresemblance. _The historian everywhere speaks as an optical observer\nstationed on a point of our world, and surveying from this the heavens\nand the earth, and speaking of them as seen in this manner by his bodily\neye._ The sun, and moon, and stars, are servants of the earth, lighted\nup to garnish and to cheer it, and to be the guardians of its times and\nseasons. Other uses he knows not for them: certainly of other uses he\ndoes not speak. The distances, magnitudes, orbicular motions,\ngravitating powers, and projectile forces of the planets and of the\nstars, are all out of the circle of his history, and probably beyond his\nknowledge. Inspiration does not make men _omniscient_. It does not teach\nthem the scientific truths of astronomy, or chemistry, or botany, nor\nany science as such. Inspiration is concerned with teaching _religious_\ntruths, and such facts or occurrences as are connected immediately with\nillustrating, or with impressing them on the mind.\" Thus far Dr. Stuart\nand Mr. Penn,--men whose evidence on this special head must be\nsufficient to show that it is not merely geologists who have recognized\nan _optical_ or _visual_ character in the Mosaic history of creation.\nAnd certainly the inference deduced from the admitted _fact_, that is,\nthe inference that the optical description must have been founded on a\nrevelation addressed to the eye,--a revelation by vision,--does seem a\nfair and legitimate one. The revelation must have been either a\nrevelation in words or ideas, or a revelation of scenes and events\npictorially exhibited. Failing, however, to record its own history, it\nleaves the student equally at liberty, so far as _external_ evidence is\nconcerned, to take up either view; while, so far as _internal_ evidence\ngoes, the presumption seems all in favor of revelation by vision; for,\nwhile no reason can be assigned why, in a revelation by word or idea,\nappearances which took place ere there existed a human eye should be\n_optically_ described, nothing can be more natural or obvious than that\nthey should be so described, had they been revealed by vision as a piece\nof _eye-witnessing_. It seems, then, at least eminently probable that\nsuch was the mode or form of the revelation in this case, and that he\nwho saw by vision on the Mount the pattern of the Tabernacle and its\nsacred furniture, and in the Wilderness of Horeb the bush burning but\nnot consumed,--types and symbols of the coming dispensation and of its\nDivine Author,--saw also by vision the _pattern_ of those successive\npre-Adamic creations, animal and vegetable, through which our world was\nfitted up as a place of human habitation. The _reason_ why the drama of\ncreation has been _optically_ described seems to be, that it was in\nreality _visionally_ revealed.\n\nA further question still remains: _If_ the revelation was by vision,\nthat circumstance affords of itself a satisfactory reason why the\ndescription should be _optical_; and, on the other hand, since the\ndescription is decidedly _optical_, the presumption is of course strong\nthat the revelation was by vision. But why, it may be asked, by vision?\nCan the presumption be yet further strengthened by showing that this\nvisual mode or form was preferable to any other? Can there be a reason,\nin fine, assigned _for_ the _reason_,--for that revelation by vision\nwhich accounts for the optical character of the description? The\nquestion is a difficult one; but I think there can. There seems to be a\npeculiar fitness in a revelation made by vision, for conveying an\naccount of creation to various tribes and peoples of various degrees of\nacquirement, and throughout a long course of ages in which the knowledge\nof the heavenly bodies or of the earth's history, that is, the sciences\nof astronomy and geology, did not at first exist, but in which\nultimately they came to be studied and known. We must recognize such a\nmode as equally fitted for the earlier and the more modern times,--for\nthe ages anterior to the rise of science, and the ages posterior to its\nrise. The prophet, by describing what he had actually seen in language\nfitted to the ideas of his time, would shock no previously existing\nprejudice that had been founded on the apparent evidence of the senses;\nhe could as safely describe the moon as the second great light of\ncreation, as he could the sun as its first great light, and both, too,\nas equally subordinate to the planet which we inhabit. On the other\nhand, an enlightened age, when it had come to discover this key to the\ndescription, would find it _optically_ true in all its details. But how\ndifferently would not a revelation have fared, in at least the earlier\ntime, that was strictly scientific in its details,--a revelation, for\ninstance, of the great truth demonstrated by Galileo, that the sun rests\nin the centre of the heavens, while the apparently immoveable earth\nsweeps with giddy velocity around it; or of the great truth demonstrated\nby Newton, that our ponderous planet is kept from falling off into empty\nspace by the operation of the same law that impels a descending pebble\ntowards the ground! A great miracle wrought in proof of the truth of the\nrevelation might serve to enforce the belief of it on the generation to\nwhom it had been given; but the generations that followed, to whom the\nmiracle would exist as a piece of mere testimony, would credit, in\npreference, the apparently surer evidence of their senses, and become\nunbelievers. They would act, all unwittingly, on the principle of Hume's\nfamous argument, and prefer to rest rather on their own _experience_ of\nthe great phenomena of nature, than on the doubtful testimony of their\nancestors, reduced in the lapse of ages to a dim, attenuated tradition.\nNor would a geological revelation have fared better, in at least those\nperiods intermediate between the darker and more scientific ages, in\nwhich ingenious men, somewhat skeptical in their leanings, cultivate\nliterature, and look down rather superciliously on the ignorance and\nbarbarism of the past. What would skeptics such as Hobbes and Hume have\nsaid of an opening chapter in Genesis that would describe successive\nperiods,--first of molluscs, star-lilies, and crustaceans, next of\nfishes, next of reptiles and birds, then of mammals, and finally of man;\nand that would minutely portray a period in which there were lizards\nbulkier than elephants, reptilian whales furnished with necks slim and\nlong as the bodies of great snakes, and flying dragons, whose spread of\nwing greatly more than doubled that of the largest bird? The world would\nassuredly not receive such a revelation. Nor, further, have scientific\nfacts or principles been revealed to man which he has been furnished\nwith the ability of observing or discovering for himself. It is\naccording to the economy of revelation, that the truths which it\nexhibits should be of a kind which, lying beyond the reach of his ken,\nhe himself could never have elicited. From every view of the case, then,\na prophetic exhibition of the pre-Adamic scenes and events by vision\nseems to be the one best suited for the opening chapters of a revelation\nvouchsafed for the accomplishment of moral, not scientific purposes, and\nat once destined to be contemporary with every stage of civilization,\nand to address itself to minds of every various calibre, and every\ndifferent degree of enlightenment.\n\nThe statement of Dr. Kurtz, that as vision of pre-Adamic history comes\nunder the same laws as vision of history still future, it ought\ntherefore to be read by the same rules, craves reflection. \"Since the\nsource of knowledge for both kinds of history,\" we find him saying, \"and\nnot only the source, but the means, and manner, and way of coming to\nknow, is the same, viz., the _eye-witness_ of the prophet's mental eye,\nit follows that the historical representation which he who thus comes to\nknow, _projects_ [or portrays], in virtue of this eye-witnessing of his,\nholds the same relation to the reality in both the cases we speak of,\nand must be subjected to the same laws of exposition. We thus get this\nvery important rule of interpretation, viz., that the representations of\npre-human events, which rest upon revelation, are to be handled from the\nsame point of view, and expounded by the same laws, as the prophecies\nand representations of future times and events, which also rest upon\nrevelation. This, then, is the only proper point of view for scientific\nexposition of the Mosaic history of creation; that is to say, if we\nacknowledge that it proceeded from Divine revelation, not from\nphilosophic speculation or experimental investigation, or from the ideas\nof reflecting men.\" There is certainly food for thought in this striking\nand original view; and there is at least one simple rule of prophetic\nexposition which may be applied to the pre-Adamic history, in accordance\nwith the principle which it suggests. After all that a scientific\ntheology has done for the right interpretation of prophecy, we find the\nprediction always best read by the light of its accomplishment. The\nevent which it foretold forms its true key; and when this key is\nwanting, all is uncertainty. The past is comparatively clear. The\nhieroglyphic forms which crowd the anterior portions of the prophetic\ntablet are found wonderfully to harmonize (men such as the profound\nNewton being the judges) with those great historic events, already\nbecome matter of history, which they foreshadowed and symbolized; but,\non the other hand, the hieroglyphics which occupy the tablet's\nposterior portion,--the hieroglyphics that symbolize events still\nfuture,--are invincibly difficult and inexplicable. I have read several\nworks on prophecy produced in the last age, in which the writers were\nbold enough to quit the clue with which history furnishes the student of\nfulfilled prophecy, and, with the prophecies yet unfulfilled as their\nguide, to plunge into a troubled sea of speculation regarding the\nhistory of the future. And I have found that in every instance they were\ndeplorably at fault regarding even the events that were nearest at hand\nat the time. History is thus the surest interpreter of the revealed\nprophecies which referred to events _posterior_ to the times of the\nprophet. In what shall we find the surest interpretation of the revealed\n_prophecies_ that referred to events _anterior_ to his time? In what\nlight, or on what principle, shall we most correctly read the prophetic\ndrama of creation? In the light, I reply, of scientific discovery,--on\nthe principle that the clear and certain must be accepted, when\nattainable, as the proper exponents of the doubtful and obscure. What\nfully developed history is to the prophecy which of old looked forwards,\nfully developed science is to the prophecy which of old looked\nbackwards. Scarce any one will question whether that portion of the\ncreation drama which deals with the heavenly bodies ought to be read in\nthe light of established astronomic discovery or no; for, save by\nperhaps a few of Father Cullen's monks, who can still hold that the sun\nmoves round the earth, and is only six feet in diameter, all theologians\nhave now received the astronomic doctrines, and know that they rest upon\na basis at least as certain as any of the historic events symbolized in\nfulfilled prophecy. And were we to challenge for the established\ngeologic doctrines a similar place and position with respect to those\nportions of the drama which deal with the two great kingdoms of nature,\nplant and animal, we might safely do so in the belief that the claim\nwill be one day as universally recognized as the astronomic one is now.\n\nOn this principle there may, of course, be portions of the _prophetic_\npre-Adamic past of as doubtful interpretation at the present time, from\nthe imperfect development of physical science, as is any portion of the\nprophetic future from the imperfect development of historic events. The\nscience necessary to the interpretation of the one may be as certainly\nstill to discover as the events necessary to the interpretation of the\nother may be still to take place. Three centuries have not yet passed\nsince astronomic science was sufficiently developed to form a true key\nto the various notices of the heavenly bodies which occur in Scripture;\namong the others, to the notice of their final appearance on the\n_fourth_ day of creation. Little more than half a century has yet passed\nsince geologic science was sufficiently developed to influence the\ninterpretation given of the three _other_ days' work. And respecting the\nwork of at least the first and second days, more especially that of the\nsecond, we can still but vaguely guess. The science necessary to the\nright understanding of these portions of the prophetic record has still,\nit would seem, to be developed, if, indeed, it be destined at all to\nexist; and at present we can indulge in but doubtful surmises regarding\nthem. What may be termed the three _geologic_ days,--the third, fifth,\nand sixth,--may be held to have extended over those Carboniferous\nperiods during which the great plants were created,--over those Oolitic\nand Cretacious periods during which the great sea monsters and birds\nwere created,--and over those Tertiary periods during which the great\nterrestrial mammals were created. For the intervening or fourth day we\nhave that wide space represented by the Permian and Triassic periods,\nwhich, less conspicuous in their floras than the period that went\nimmediately before, and less conspicuous in their faunas than the\nperiods that came immediately after, were marked by the decline, and\nultimate extinction, of the Palaeozoic forms, and the first partially\ndeveloped beginnings of the Secondary ones. And for the first and second\ndays there remain the great Azoic period, during which the immensely\ndeveloped gneisses, mica schists, and primary clay slates, were\ndeposited, and the two extended periods represented by the Silurian and\nOld Red Sandstone systems. These, taken together, exhaust the geologic\nscale, and may be named in their order as, _first_, the Azoic day or\nperiod; _second_, the Silurian and Old Red Sandstone day or period;\n_third_, the Carboniferous day or period; _fourth_, the Permian and\nTriassic day or period; _fifth_, the Oolitic and Cretaceous day or\nperiod; and _sixth_, the Tertiary day or period. Let us attempt\nconceiving how they might have appeared pictorially, if revealed in a\nseries of visions to Moses, as the successive scenes of a great\nair-drawn panorama.\n\nDuring the Azoic period, ere life appears to have begun on our planet,\nthe temperature of the earth's crust seems to have been so high, that\nthe strata, at first deposited apparently in water, passed into a\nsemi-fluid state, became strangely waved and contorted, and assumed in\nits composition a highly crystalline character. Such is peculiarly the\ncase with the fundamental or gneiss deposits of the period. In the\noverlying mica schist there is still much of contortion and disturbance;\nwhereas the clay slate, which lies over all, gives evidence, in its more\nmechanical texture, and the regularity of its strata, that a gradual\nrefrigeration of the general mass had been taking place, and that the\nclose of the Azoic period was comparatively quiet and cool. Let us\nsuppose that during the earlier part of this period of excessive heat\nthe waters of the ocean had stood at the boiling point even at the\nsurface, and much higher in the profounder depths, and further, that\nthe half-molten crust of the earth, stretched out over a molten abyss,\nwas so thin that it could not support, save for a short time, after some\nconvulsion, even a small island above the sea level. What, in such\ncircumstances, would be the aspect of the scene, optically exhibited\nfrom some point in space elevated a few hundred yards over the sea? It\nwould be simply a blank, in which the intensest glow of fire would fail\nto be seen at a few yards' distance. An inconsiderable escape of steam\nfrom the safety-valve of a railway engine forms so thick a screen, that,\nas it lingers for a moment, in the passing, opposite the carriage\nwindows, the passengers fail to discern through it the landscape beyond.\nA continuous stratum of steam, then, that attained to the height of even\nour present atmosphere, would wrap up the earth in a darkness gross and\npalpable as that of Egypt of old,--a darkness through which even a\nsingle ray of light would fail to penetrate. And beneath this thick\ncanopy the unseen deep would literally \"boil as a pot,\" wildly tempested\nfrom below; while from time to time more deeply seated convulsion would\nupheave sudden to the surface vast tracts of semi-molten rock, soon\nagain to disappear, and from which waves of bulk enormous would roll\noutwards, to meet in wild conflict with the giant waves of other\nconvulsions, or return to hiss and sputter against the intensely heated\nand fast foundering mass, whose violent upheaval had first elevated and\nsent them abroad. Such would be the probable state of things during the\ntimes of the earlier gneiss and mica schist deposits,--times buried deep\nin that chaotic night or \"evening\" which must have continued to exist\nfor mayhap many ages after that beginning of things in which God created\nthe heavens and the earth, and which preceded the first day. To a human\neye stationed within the cloud, all, as I have said, must have been\nthick darkness: to eyes Divine, that could have looked through the\nenveloping haze, the appearance would have been that described by\nMilton, as seen by angel and archangel at the beginning of creation,\nwhen from the gates of heaven they looked down upon chaos:--\n\n \"On heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore\n They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss,\n Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,\n Up from the bottom turned by furious _heat_\n And surging waves, as mountains to assault\n Heaven's height, and with the centre mix the pole.\"\n\nAt length, however, as the earth's surface gradually cooled down, and\nthe enveloping waters sunk to a lower temperature,--let us suppose,\nduring the latter times of the mica schist, and the earlier times of the\nclay slate,--the steam atmosphere would become less dense and thick, and\nat length the rays of the sun would struggle through, at first\ndoubtfully and diffused, forming a faint twilight, but gradually\nstrengthening as the latter ages of the slate formation passed away,\nuntil, at the close of the great primary period, day and night,--the one\nstill dim and gray, the other wrapped in a pall of thickest\ndarkness,--would succeed each other as now, as the earth revolved on its\naxis, and the unseen luminary rose high over the cloud in the east, or\nsunk in the west beneath the undefined and murky horizon. And here again\nthe _optical_ appearance would be exactly that described by Milton:--\n\n \"'Let there be light,' said God, and forthwith light\n Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,\n Sprung from the deep, and from her native east\n To journey through the airy gloom began,\n Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun\n Was not: she in a cloudy tabernacle\n Sojourned the while. God saw the light was good,\n And light from darkness by the hemisphere\n Divided: light the day, and darkness night,\n He named. This was the first day, even and morn.\"\n\nThe second day's work has been interpreted variously, according to the\ngenerally received science of the times of the various commentators who\nhave dealt with it. Even in Milton, though the great poet rejected the\nearlier idea of a solid firmament, we find prominence given to that of a\nvast hollow sphere of \"circumfluous waters,\" which, by encircling the\natmosphere, kept aloof the \"fierce extremes of chaos.\" Later\ncommentators, such as the late Drs. Kitto and Pye Smith, hold that the\nScriptural analogue of the _firmament_ here--by the way, a Greek, not a\nHebrew idea, first introduced into the Septuagint--was in reality simply\nthe atmosphere with its clouds. \"The historian\" [Moses], says Dr. Kitto,\n\"speaks as things would have appeared to a spectator at the time of the\ncreation. A portion of the heavy watery vapor had flown into the upper\nregions, and rested there in dense clouds, which still obscured the sun;\nwhile below, the whole earth was covered with water. Thus we see the\npropriety with which the firmament is said to have divided the waters\nfrom the waters.\" It is certainly probable that in a vision of creation\nthe atmospheric phenomena of the second great act of the creation drama\nmight have stood out with much greater prominence to the prophetic eye\nplaced in the circumstances of a natural one, than any of its other\nappearances. The invertebrate life of the Silurian period, or even the\nichthyic life of the earlier Old Bed Sandstone period, must have been\ncomparatively inconspicuous from any sub-aerial point of view elevated\nbut a few hundred feet over the sea level. Even the few islets of the\nlatter ages of the period, with their ferns, lepidodendra, and\nconiferous trees, forming, as they did, an exceptional feature in these\nages of vast oceans, and of organisms all but exclusively marine, may\nhave well been excluded from a representative diorama that exhibited\noptically the grand characteristics of the time. Further, it seems\nequally probable that the introduction of organized existence on our\nplanet was preceded by a change in the atmospheric conditions which had\nobtained during the previous period, in which the earth had been a\ndesert and empty void. We know that just before the close of the\nSilurian ages terrestrial plants had appeared, and that before the close\nof the Old Red Sandstone ages, air-breathing animals had been produced;\nand infer that the atmosphere in which both could have existed must have\nbeen considerably different from that which lay dark and heavy over the\nbare hot rocks, and tenantless, steam-emitting seas, of the previous\ntime. Under a gray, opaque sky, in which neither sun nor moon appear, we\nare not unfrequently presented with a varied drapery of clouds,--a\ndrapery varied in form, though not in color: bank often seems piled over\nbank, shaded beneath and lighter above; or the whole breaks into dappled\ncloudlets, which bear--to borrow from the poetic description of\nBloomfield--the \"beauteous semblance of a flock at rest.\" And if such\naerial draperies appeared in this early period, with the clear space\nbetween them and the earth which we so often see in gray, sunless days,\nthe optical aspect must have been widely different from that of the\nprevious time, in which a dense vaporous fog lay heavy upon rock and\nsea, and extended from the earth's surface to the upper heights of the\natmosphere.\n\nThe third day's vision seems to be more purely geological in its\ncharacter than either of the previous two. Extensive tracts of dry land\nappear, and there springs up over them, at the Divine command, a rank\nvegetation. And we know that what seems to be the corresponding\nCarboniferous period, unlike any of the preceding ones, was remarkable\nfor its great tracts of terrestrial surface, and for its extraordinary\nflora. For the first time dry land, and organized bodies at once bulky\nenough, and exhibited in a medium clear enough, to render them\nconspicuous objects in a distant prospect, appear in the Mosaic drama;\nand we still find at once evidence of the existence of extensive though\napparently very flat lands, and the remains of a wonderfully gigantic\nand abundant vegetation, in what appear to be the rocks of this period.\nThe vision of the fourth day, like that of the second, pertained not to\nthe earth, but to the _heavens_; the sun, moon, and stars become\nvisible, and form the sole subjects of the prophetic description. And\njust as, during the second period, the earth would in all probability\nhave failed to furnish any feature of mark enough to divert a human eye\nplaced on a commanding station from the conspicuous _atmospheric_\nphenomena of the time, so it seems equally probable that during this\nfourth period it would have failed to furnish any feature of mark enough\nto divert a human eye from the still more conspicuous _celestial_\nphenomena of the time. As has been already incidentally remarked, the\nPermian and Triassic periods were \"epochs\"--to employ the language of\nthe late Professor Edward Forbes--\"of great poverty of production of\ngeneric types.\" On the other hand, the appearance for the first time of\nsun, moon, and stars, must have formed a scene well suited to divert the\nattention of the seer from every other. Nor (as has been somewhat rashly\nargued by Dr. Kitto and several others) does it seem irrational to hold\nthat three very extended _periods_ should have elapsed ere the sidereal\nheavens became visible on earth. Addison's popular illustration, drawn\nfrom one of the calculations of Newton, made in an age when comets were\nbelieved to be solid bodies, rendered the reading public familiar,\nconsiderably more than a century ago, with the vast time which large\nbodies greatly heated would take in cooling. \"According to Sir Isaac\nNewton's calculation,\" said the exquisitely classical essayist, \"the\ncomet that made its appearance in 1680 imbibed so much heat by its\napproaches to the sun, that it would have been two thousand times hotter\nthan red hot iron had it been a globe of that metal; and that, supposing\nit as big as the earth, and at the same distance from the sun, it would\nbe fifty thousand years in cooling before it recovered its natural\ntemper.\" Such was an estimate of the philosopher, that excited no little\nwonder in the days of our great grandfathers, for the vast time which it\ndemanded; and, now that the data on which such a calculation ought to be\nfounded are better known than in the age of Newton, yet more time would\nbe required still. It is now ascertained, from the circumstance that no\ndew is deposited in our summer evenings save under a clear sky, that\neven a thin covering of cloud,--serving as a robe to keep the earth\nwarm,--prevents the surface heat of the planet from radiating into the\nspaces beyond. And such a cloud, thick and continuous, as must have\nwrapped round the earth as with a mantle during the earlier geologic\nperiods, must have served to retard for many ages the radiation, and\nconsequently the reduction, of that internal heat of which it was itself\na consequence. Further, the rocks and soils that form the surface of our\nglobe would be much more indifferent conductors of heat than the iron\nsuperficies of Newton's ball, and would serve yet more to lengthen out\nthe cooling process. Nor would a planet covered over for ages with a\nthick screen of vapor be a novelty even yet in the universe. It is\ndoubtful whether astronomers have ever yet looked on the face of\nMercury: it is at least very generally held that hitherto only his\nclouds have been seen. Even Jupiter, though it is thought his mountains\nhave been occasionally detected raising their peaks through openings in\nhis cloudy atmosphere, is known chiefly by the dark shifting bands that,\nstreaking his surface in the line of his trade winds, belong not to his\nbody, but to his thick dark covering. It is questionable whether a human\neye on the surface of Mercury would ever behold the sun, notwithstanding\nhis near proximity; nor would he be often visible, if at all, from the\nsurface of Jupiter. Nor, yet further, would a warm steaming atmosphere\nmuffled in clouds have been unfavorable to a rank, flowerless vegetation\nlike that of the Coal Measures. There are moist, mild, cloudy days of\nspring and early Summer that rejoice the heart of the farmer, for he\nknows how conducive they are to the young growth on his fields. The Coal\nMeasure climate would have consisted of an unbroken series of these,\nwith mayhap a little more of cloud and moisture, and a great deal more\nof heat. The earth would have been a vast greenhouse covered with smoked\nglass; and a vigorous though mayhap loosely knit and faintly colored\nvegetation would have luxuriated under its shade.\n\nThe fifth and sixth days,--that of winged fowl and great sea monsters,\nand that of cattle and beasts of the earth,--I must regard as adequately\nrepresented by those Secondary ages, Oolitic and Cretaceous, during\nwhich birds were introduced, and reptiles received their greatest\ndevelopment, and those Tertiary ages during which the gigantic mammals\npossessed the earth and occupied the largest space in creation. To the\nclose of this latter period,--the evening of the sixth day,--man\nbelongs,--at once the last created of terrestrial creatures, and\ninfinitely beyond comparison the most elevated in the scale; and with\nman's appearance on the scene the days of creation end, and the Divine\nSabbath begins,--that Sabbath of rest from creative labor of which the\nproper work is the moral development and elevation of the species, and\nwhich will terminate only with the full completion of that sublime task\non the full accomplishment of which God's eternal purposes and the\ntendencies of man's progressive nature seem alike directed. Now, I am\ngreatly mistaken if we have not in the six geologic periods all the\nelements, without misplacement or exaggeration, of the Mosaic drama of\ncreation.\n\nI have referred in my brief survey to extended periods. It is probable,\nhowever, that the prophetic vision of creation, if such was its\ncharacter, consisted of only single representative scenes, embracing\neach but a point of time; it was, let us suppose, a diorama, over whose\nshifting pictures the curtain rose and fell six times in\nsuccession,--once during the Azoic period, once during the earlier or\nmiddle Palaeozoic period, once during the Carboniferous period, once\nduring the Permian or Triassic period, once during the Oolitic or\nCretaceous period, and finally, once during the Tertiary period. Dr.\nKurtz holds, taking the Sabbath into the series, that the division into\n_seven_ scenes or stages may have been regulated with reference to the\nimportance and sacredness of the mythic number seven,--the symbol of\ncompleteness or perfection; but the suggestion will perhaps not now\ncarry much weight among the theologians of Britain, whatever it might\nhave done two centuries ago. It is true, that creation _might_ have been\nexhibited, not by seven, but by seven hundred, or even by seven thousand\nscenes; and that the accomplished man of science, skilled in every\nbranch of physics, might have found something distinct in them all. But\nnot the less do the seven, or rather the six, exhibited scenes appear to\nbe not symbolic or mystical, at least not exclusively symbolic or\nmystical, but truly representative of successive periods, strongly\ndistinctive in their character, and capable, with the three geologic\ndays as given points in the problem, of being treated geologically.\nAnother of the questions raised, both by the German doctor and the\nwriter in our own country, must be recognized as eminently suggestive.\n\"We treat the history of creation,\" says Dr. Kurtz, \"with its six days'\nwork, as a connected series of so many prophetic visions. The appearance\nand evanishing of each such vision seem to the seer as a morning and an\nevening, apparently because these were presented to him as an increase\nand decrease of light, like morning and evening twilight.\" And we find\nthe Scottish writer taking essentially the same view. \"Each day\ncontains,\" he says, \"the description of what he [Moses] beheld in a\nsingle vision, and when it faded it was twilight. There is nothing\nforced in supposing that, after the vision had for a time illumined the\nfancy of the seer, it was withdrawn from his eyes, in the same way that\nthe landscape becomes dim on the approach of evening.... From this point\nof view, a 'day' can only mean the period during which the Divinely\nenlightened fancy of the seer was active. When all continued bright and\nmanifest before his entranced but still conscious soul, it was 'day' or\n'light.' When the dimness of departing enlightenment fell upon the\nscene, it was the evening twilight.\" The _days_, then, are removed, we\nfind, by the holders of this view, altogether from the province of\nchronology to the province of prophetic vision; they are represented\nsimply as parts of the exhibited scenery, or rather as forming the\nmeasures of the apparent time during which the scenery _was_ exhibited.\nWe must also hold, however, that in the character of symbolic days they\nwere as truly representative of the lapse of foregone periods of\ncreation as the scenery itself was representative of the creative work\naccomplished in these periods. For if the apparent days occurred in only\nthe vision, and were not symbolic of foregone periods, they could not\nhave been transferred with any logical propriety from the vision itself\nto that which the vision represented, as we find done in what our\nShorter Catechism terms \"the reason annexed to the Fourth\nCommandment.\"[18] The days must have been prophetic days, introduced,\nindeed, into the panorama of creation as mayhap mere openings and\ndroppings of the curtain, but not the less symbolic of that series of\nsuccessive periods, each characterized by its own productions and\nevents, in which creation itself was comprised. Nothing more probable,\nhowever, than that even Moses himself may have been unacquainted with\nthe _extent_ of the periods represented in the vision; nay, he may have\nbeen equally unconscious of the actual extent of the seeming days by\nwhich they were symbolized. \"Visions without dark speeches,\"--visions,\nnot of symbolic apparitions, but of actual existences and events, past\nor present,--may, nay must, have differed from what may be termed the\ndark hieroglyphic visions; but we find in all visions an element of mere\nrepresentative value introduced when they deal with time, and that they\noccur as if wholly outside its pale. These creation \"days\" seem, in\nrelation to what they typify, to have been, if I may so express myself,\nthe mere _modules_ of a graduated scale.\n\nSuch a description of the creative vision of Moses as the one given by\nMilton of that vision of the future, which he represents as conjured up\nbefore Adam by the archangel, would be a task rather for the scientific\npoet than for the mere practical geologist or sober theologian. Let us\nsuppose that it took place far from man, in an untrodden recess of the\nMidian desert, ere yet the vision of the burning bush had been\nvouchsafed; and that, as in the vision of St. John in Patmos, voices\nwere mingled with scenes, and the ear as certainly addressed as the eye.\nA \"great darkness\" first falls upon the prophet, like that which in an\nearlier age fell upon Abraham, but without the \"horror;\" and, as the\nDivine Spirit moves on the face of the wildly troubled waters, as a\nvisible aurora enveloped by the pitchy cloud, the great doctrine is\norally enunciated, that \"in the beginning God created the heavens and\nthe earth.\" Unreckoned ages, condensed in the vision into a few brief\nmoments, pass away; the creative voice is again heard, \"Let there be\nlight,\" and straightway a gray diffused light springs up in the east,\nand, casting its sickly gleam over a cloud-limited expanse of steaming,\nvaporous sea, journeys through the heavens towards the west. One heavy,\nsunless day is made the representative of myriads; the faint light waxes\nfainter,--it sinks beneath the dim, undefined horizon; the first scene\nof the drama closes upon the seer; and he sits awhile on his hill-top in\ndarkness, solitary but not sad, in what seems to be a calm and starless\nnight.\n\nThe light again brightens,--it is day; and over an expanse of ocean\nwithout visible bound the horizon has become wider and sharper of\noutline than before. There is life in that great sea,--invertebrate,\nmayhap also ichthyic, life; but, from the comparative distance of the\npoint of view occupied by the prophet, only the slow roll of its waves\ncan be discerned, as they rise and fall in long undulations before a\ngentle gale; and what most strongly impresses the eye is the change\nwhich has taken place in the atmospheric scenery. That lower stratum of\nthe heavens occupied in the previous vision by seething steam, or gray,\nsmoke-like fog, is clear and transparent; and only in an upper region,\nwhere the previously invisible vapor of the tepid sea has thickened in\nthe cold, do the clouds appear. But there, in the higher strata of the\natmosphere they lie, thick and manifold,--an upper sea of great waves,\nseparated from those beneath by the transparent firmament, and, like\nthem too, impelled in rolling masses by the wind. A mighty advance has\ntaken place in creation; but its most conspicuous optical sign is the\nexistence of a transparent atmosphere,--of a firmament, stretched out\nover the earth, that separates the waters above from the waters below.\nBut darkness descends for the third time upon the seer, for the evening\nand the morning have completed the second day.\n\nYet again the light rises under a canopy of cloud; but the scene has\nchanged, and there is no longer an unbroken expanse of sea. The white\nsurf breaks, at the distant horizon, on an insulated reef, formed mayhap\nby the Silurian or Old Red coral zoophytes ages before, during the\nbygone yesterday; and beats in long lines of foam, nearer at hand,\nagainst a low, winding shore, the seaward barrier of a widely spread\ncountry. For at the Divine command the land has arisen from the\ndeep,--not inconspicuously and in scattered islets, as at an earlier\ntime, but in extensive though flat and marshy continents, little raised\nover the sea level; and a yet further fiat has covered them with the\ngreat carboniferous flora. The scene is one of mighty forests of\ncone-bearing trees,--of palms, and tree-ferns, and gigantic club mosses,\non the opener slopes, and of great reeds clustering by the sides of\nquiet lakes and dark rolling rivers. There is deep gloom in the recesses\nof the thicker woods, and low thick mists creep along the dank marsh or\nsluggish stream. But there is a general lightening of the sky over head;\nas the day declines, a redder flush than had hitherto lighted up the\nprospect falls athwart fern covered bank and long withdrawing glade. And\nwhile the fourth evening has fallen on the prophet, he becomes sensible,\nas it wears on, and the fourth dawn approaches, that yet another change\nhas taken place. The Creator has spoken, and the stars look out from\nopenings of deep unclouded blue; and as day rises, and the planet of\nmorning pales in the east, the broken cloudlets are transmuted from\nbronze into gold, and anon the gold becomes fire, and at length the\nglorious sun arises out of the sea, and enters on his course rejoicing.\nIt is a brilliant day; the waves, of a deeper and softer blue than\nbefore, dance and sparkle in the light; the earth, with little else to\nattract the gaze, has assumed a garb of brighter green; and as the sun\ndeclines amid even richer glories than those which had encircled his\nrising, the moon appears full orbed in the east,--to the human eye the\nsecond great luminary of the heavens,--and climbs slowly to the zenith\nas night advances, shedding its mild radiance on land and sea.\n\nAgain the day breaks; the prospect consists, as before, of land and\nocean. There are great pine woods, reed-covered swamps, wide plains,\nwinding rivers, and broad lakes; and a bright sun shines over all. But\nthe landscape derives its interest and novelty from a feature unmarked\nbefore. Gigantic birds stalk along the sands, or wade far into the water\nin quest of their ichthyic food; while birds of lesser size float upon\nthe lakes, or scream discordant in hovering flocks, thick as insects in\nthe calm of a summer evening, over the narrower seas, or brighten with\nthe sunlit gleam of their wings the thick woods. And ocean has its\nmonsters: great \"_tanninim_\" tempest the deep, as they heave their huge\nbulk over the surface, to inhale the life-sustaining air; and out of\ntheir nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a \"seething pot or cauldron.\"\nMonstrous creatures, armed in massive scales, haunt the rivers, or scour\nthe flat rank meadows; earth, air, and water are charged with animal\nlife; and the sun sets on a busy scene, in which unerring instinct\npursues unremittingly its few simple ends,--the support and preservation\nof the individual, the propagation of the species, and the protection\nand maintenance of the young.\n\nAgain the night descends, for the fifth day has closed; and morning\nbreaks on the sixth and last day of creation. Cattle and beasts of the\nfields graze on the plains; the thick-skinned rhinoceros wallows in the\nmarshes; the squat hippopotamus rustles among the reeds, or plunges\nsullenly into the river; great herds of elephants seek their food amid\nthe young herbage of the woods; while animals of fiercer nature,--the\nlion, the leopard, and the bear,--harbor in deep caves till the evening,\nor lie in wait for their prey amid tangled thickets, or beneath some\nbroken bank. At length, as the day wanes and the shadows lengthen, man,\nthe responsible lord of creation, formed in God's own image, is\nintroduced upon the scene, and the work of creation ceases forever upon\nthe earth. The night falls once more upon the prospect, and there dawns\nyet another morrow,--the morrow of God's rest,--that Divine Sabbath in\nwhich there is no more creative labor, and which, \"blessed and\nsanctified\" beyond all the days that had gone before, has as its special\nobject the moral elevation and final redemption of man. And over _it_ no\nevening is represented in the record as falling, for its special work is\nnot yet complete. Such seems to have been the sublime panorama of\ncreation exhibited in vision of old to\n\n \"The shepherd who first taught the chosen seed,\n In the beginning how the heavens and earth\n Rose out of chaos;\"\n\nand, rightly understood, I know not a single scientific truth that\nmilitates against even the minutest or least prominent of its details.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE FIFTH.\n\nGEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES.\n\n\nPART I.\n\nThe science of the geologist seems destined to exert a marked influence\non that of the natural theologian. For not only does it greatly add to\nthe materials on which the natural theologian founds his deductions, by\nadding to the organisms, plant and animal, of the present creation the\nextinct organisms of the creations of the past, with all their\nextraordinary display of adaptation and design; but it affords him,\nbesides, materials peculiar to itself, in the history which it furnishes\nboth of the appearance of these organisms in time, and of the wonderful\norder in which they were chronologically arranged. Not only--to borrow\nfrom Paley's illustration--does it enable him to argue on the old\ngrounds, from the contrivance exhibited in the _watch_ found on the\nmoor, that the watch could not have lain upon the moor forever; but it\nestablishes further, on different and more direct evidence, that there\nwas a time when absolutely the watch was not there; nay, further, so to\nspeak, that there was a previous time in which no watches existed at\nall, but only water clocks; yet, further, that there was a time in which\nthere were not even water clocks, but only sundials; and further, an\nearlier time still in which sundials were not, nor any measurers of time\nof any kind. And this is distinct ground from that urged by Paley. For,\nbesides holding that each of these contrivances must have had in turn\nan originator or contriver, it adds historic fact to philosophic\ninference. Geology takes up the master volume of the greatest of the\nnatural theologians, and, after scanning its many apt instances of\npalpable design, drawn from the mechanism of existing plants and\nanimals, authoritatively decides that not one of these plants or animals\nhad begun to be in the times of the Chalk; nay, that they all date their\norigin from a period posterior to that of the Eocene. And the fact is,\nof course, corroborative of the inference. \"That well constructed\nedifice,\" says the natural theologian, \"cannot be a mere _lusus naturae_,\nor chance combination of stones and wood; it must have been erected by a\nbuilder.\" \"Yes,\" remarks the geologist, \"it was erected some time during\nthe last nine years. I passed the way ten years ago, and saw only a\nblank space where it now stands.\" Nor does the established fact of an\nabsolute beginning of organic being seem more pregnant with important\nconsequences to the science of the natural theologian than the fact of\nthe peculiar order in which they begin to be.\n\nThe importance of the now demonstrated fact, that all the living\norganisms which exist on earth had a beginning, and that a time was when\nthey were not, will be best appreciated by those who know how much, and,\nit must be added, how unsuccessfully, writers on the evidences have\nlabored to convict of an absurdity, on this special head, the atheistic\nassertors of an infinite series of beings. Even Robert Hall (in his\nfamous Sermon on Modern Infidelity) could but play, when he attempted\ngrappling with the subject, upon the words _time_ and _eternity_, and\nstrangely argue, that as each member of an infinite series must have\nbegun in _time_, while the succession itself was _eternal_, it was\npalpably absurd to ask us to believe in a _succession_ of beings that\nwas thus infinitely earlier than any of the beings themselves which\ncomposed the succession. And Bentley, more perversely ingenious still,\ncould assert, that as each of the individuals in an infinite series must\nhave consisted of many parts,--that as each man in such a series, for\ninstance, must have had ten fingers and ten toes,--it was palpably\nabsurd to ask us to believe in an infinity which thus comprised many\ninfinities,--ten infinities of fingers, for example, and ten infinities\nof toes. The infidels had the better in this part of the argument. It\nwas surely easy enough to show against the great preacher, on the one\nhand, that _time_ in such a question is but a mere word that means\nsimply a certain limited or definite period which had a beginning,\nwhereas eternity means an unlimited and undefinable period which had no\nbeginning;--that his seeming argument was no argument, but merely a sort\nof verbal play on this difference of signification in the\nwords;--further, that man could conceive of an infinite series, whether\nextended in infinite space, or subsisting in infinite time, just as well\nas he could conceive of any other infinity, and in the same way; and\nthat the only mode of disproving the possibility of such a series would\nbe to show, what of course cannot be shown, that in conceiving of it in\nthe progressive mode in which, according to Locke, man can alone\nconceive of the infinite or the eternal, there would be a point reached\nat which it would be impossible for him to go on adding millions on\nmillions to the previous sum. The symbolic \"_ad infinitum_\" could be\nmade as adequately representative in the case of an infinite series of\nmen or animals in unlimited time, as of an infinite series of feet or\ninches in unlimited space, or of an infinite series of hours or minutes\nin the past eternity. And as for Bentley, on the other hand, he ought\nsurely to have known that all infinities are not equal, seeing that\nNewton had expressly told him so in the second of his four famous\nletters; but that, on the contrary, one infinity may be not only ten\ntimes greater than another infinity, but even infinitely greater than\nanother infinity; and that so the conception of an infinity of men\npossessed of ten infinities of fingers and toes is in no respect an\nabsurdity. Of the three infinities possible in space, the second is\ninfinitely greater than the first, and the third infinitely greater than\nthe second. A line infinitely produced is capable of being divided\ninto--that is, consists of--an infinity of given parts; a plane\ninfinitely extended is capable of being divided into an infinity of\ninfinitely divisible lines; and a cube, that is, a solid, infinitely\nexpanded, is capable of being divided into an infinity of infinitely\ndivisible planes. In fine, metaphysic theology furnishes no argument\nagainst the infinite series of the atheist. But geology does. Every\nplant and animal that now lives upon earth began to be during the great\nTertiary period, and had no place among the plants and animals of the\ngreat Secondary division. We can trace several of our existing\nquadrupeds, such as the badger, the hare, the fox, the red deer, and the\nwild cat, up till the earlier times of the Pleistocene; and not a few of\nour existing shells, such as the great pecten, the edible oyster, the\nwhelk, and the Pelican's-foot shell, up till the greatly earlier times\nof the Coraline Crag. But at certain definite lines in the deposits of\nthe past, representative of certain points in the course of time, the\nexisting mammals and molluscs cease to appear, and we find their places\noccupied by other mammals and molluscs. Even such of our British shells\nas seem to have enjoyed as species the longest term of life cannot be\ntraced beyond the times of the Pliocene deposits. We detect their\nremains in a perfect state of keeping in almost every shell-bearing bed,\ntill we reach the Red and Coraline Crags, where we find them for the\nlast time; and, on passing into older and deeper lying beds, we see\ntheir places taken by other shells, of species altogether distinct. The\nvery common shell _Purpura lapillus_, for instance, is found in our\nraised beaches, in our Clyde beds, in our boulder clays and\nmammaliferous crags, and, finally, in the Red Crag, beyond which it\nfails to appear. And such also is the history of the common edible\nmussel and common periwinkle; whereas the common edible cockle, and\ncommon edible pecten (_P. opercularis_) occur not only in all these\nsuccessive beds, but in the Coral Crag also. They are older by a whole\ndeposit than their present contemporaries, the mussel and periwinkle;\nand these, in turn, seem of older standing than shells such as _Murex\nerinaceus_, that has not been traced beyond the times of the\nmammaliferous crag, or than shells such as _Scrobicularia piperata_,\nthat has not been detected in more ancient deposits than raised sea\nbeaches of the later periods, and the elevated bottoms of old estuaries\nand lagoons. We thus know, that in certain periods, nearer or more\nremote, all our existing molluscs _began_ to exist, and that they had no\nexistence during the previous periods; which were, however, richer in\nanimals of the same great molluscan group than the present time. Our\nBritish group of recent marine shells falls somewhat short of _four_\nhundred species;[19] whereas the group characteristic of the older\nMiocene deposits, largely developed in those districts of France which\nborder on the Bay of Biscay, and more sparingly in the south of England,\nnear Yarmouth, comprises more than six hundred species. Nearly an equal\nnumber of still older shells have been detected in a single deposit of\nthe Paris basin,--the _Calcaire grossier_; and a good many more in a\nmore ancient formation still, the London Clay. On entering the Chalk, we\nfind a yet older group of shells, wholly unlike any of the preceding\nones; and in the Oolite and Lias yet other and different groups. And\nthus group preceded group throughout all the Tertiary, Secondary, and\nPalaeozoic periods; some of them remarkable for the number of species\nwhich they contained, others for the profuse abundance of their\nindividual specimens, until, deep in the rocks at the base of the\nSilurian system, we detect what seems to be the primordial group,\nbeneath which only a single animal organism is known to occur,--the\n_Oldhamia antiqua_,--a plant-like zoophyte, akin apparently to some of\nour recent sertularia, (See fig. 5, page 48.) Each of the extinct groups\nhad, we find, a beginning and an end;--there is not in the wide domain\nof physical science a more certain fact; and every species of the group\nwhich now exists had, like all their predecessors on the scene, their\nbeginning also. The \"infinite series\" of the atheists of former times\ncan have no place in modern science: all organic existences, recent or\nextinct, vegetable or animal, have had their beginning;--there was a\ntime when they were not. The geologist can indicate that time, if not by\nyears, at least by periods, and show what its relations were to the\nperiods that went before and that came after; and as it is equally a\nrecognized truth on both sides of the controversy, that as something now\nexists, something must have existed forever, and as it must now be not\nless surely recognized, that that something was not the race of man, nor\nyet any other of the many races of man's predecessors or contemporaries,\nthe question, What then was that something? comes with a point and\ndirectness which it did not possess at any former time. By what, or\nthrough whom, did these races of nicely organized plants and animals\nbegin to be? Hitherto at least there has been but one reply to the\nquestion originated on the skeptical side. All these races, it is said,\nhave been _developed_, in the long course of ages, into what they now\nare, as the young animal is developed in the womb, or the young plant is\ndeveloped from the seed. Topsy, in the novel, \"'spected that she was not\nmade, but growed;\" and the only class of opponents which the geological\ntheist finds in the field which his science has laid open to the world\nis a class that hold by the philosophy of Topsy.\n\nLet me briefly remark regarding this development hypothesis, with which\nI have elsewhere dealt at considerable length, that while the facts of\nthe geologist are demonstrably such, that is, truths capable of proof,\nthe hypothesis is a mere dream, unsupported by a shadow of evidence. A\nman of a lively imagination could no doubt originate many such dreams;\nnay, we know that in the dark ages dreams of the kind were actually\noriginated. The _Anser Bernicla_, or barnacle goose, a common winter\nvisitant of our coasts, was once believed to be developed out of\ndecaying wood long submerged in sea water: and one of our commonest\ncirripedes or barnacles, _Lepas anatifera_, still bears, in its specific\nname of the goose-producing _lepas_, evidence that it was the creature\nspecially recognized by our ancestors as the half-developed goose. As if\nin memory of this old development legend, the bird still bears the name\nof the barnacle, and the barnacle of the bird; and we know further, that\nvery intelligent men for their age, such as Gerardes the herbalist\n(1597), and Hector Boece the historian (1524), both examined these\nshells, and, knowing but little of comparative anatomy, were satisfied\nthat the animal within was the partially developed embryo of a fowl.\nSuch was one of the fables gravely credited as a piece of natural\nhistory in Britain about three centuries ago, and such was the kind of\nevidence by which it was supported. And we know that the followers of\nEpicurus received from their master, without apparent suspicion, fables\nstill more extravagant, and that wanted even such a shadow of proof to\nsupport them as satisfied the herbalist and the historian. The\nEpicureans at least professed to believe that the earth, after\nspontaneously producing herbs and trees, began to produce in great\nnumbers mushroom-like bodies, that, when they came to maturity, burst\nopen, giving egress each to a young animal, which proved the founder of\na race; and that thus, in succession, all the members of the animal\nkingdom were ushered into existence. But whether the dream be that of\nthe Epicureans of classic times, or that of the naturalists of the\nmiddle ages, or that of the Lamarckians of our own days, it is equally a\ndream, and can have no place assigned to it among either the solid facts\nor the sober deductions of science. Nay, the dream of the Lamarckians\nlabors under a special disadvantage, from which the dreams of the others\nare free. If some modern Boece or Epicurus were to assert that at\ncertain definite periods, removed from fifteen to fifty thousand years\nfrom the present time, all our existing animals were developed from\ndecaying wood, or from a wonderful kind of mushrooms that the earth\nproduced only once every ten thousand years, the assertion, if incapable\nof proof, would be at least equally incapable of being _dis_-proven. But\nwhen the Lamarckian affirms that all our recent species of plants and\nanimals were developed out of previously existing plants and animals of\nspecies entirely different, he affirms what, if true, _would_ be capable\nof proof; and so, if it cannot be proven, it is only because it is not\ntrue. The trilobites have been extinct ever since the times of the\nMountain Limestone; and yet, by series of specimens, the individual\ndevelopment of certain species of this family, almost from the extrusion\nof the animal from the egg until the attainment of its full size, has\nbeen satisfactorily shown. By specimen after specimen has every stage of\ngrowth and every degree of development been exemplified; and the\nPalaeontologist has come as thoroughly to know the creatures, in\nconsequence, under their various changes from youth to age, as if they\nhad been his contemporaries, and had grown up under his eye. And had our\nexisting species, vegetable and animal, been derived from other species\nof the earlier periods, it would have been equally possible to\ndemonstrate, by a series of specimens, _their_ relationship. Let us\nagain instance the British shells. Losing certain species in each of the\nolder and yet older deposits at which we successively arrive, we at\nlength reach the Red and Coraline Crags, where we find, mingled with the\nfamiliar forms, a large per centage of forms now extinct; then going on\nto the shells of the lower Miocene, more than six hundred species\nappear, almost all of which are strange to us; and then, passing to the\nEocene shells of the _Calcaire grossier_, we find ourselves among well\nnigh as large a group of yet other and older strangers, not one of which\nwe are able to identify with any shell now living in the British area.\nThere would be thus no lack of materials for forming such a genealogy of\nthe British shells, had they been gradually developed out of the extinct\nspecies, as that which M. Barrande has formed of the trilobites. But no\nsuch genealogy can be formed. We cannot link on a single recent shell to\na single extinct one. _Up_ to a certain point we find the recent shells\nexhibiting all their present specific peculiarities, and beyond that\npoint they cease to appear. _Down_ to a certain point the extinct shells\nalso exhibit all _their_ specific peculiarities, and then they disappear\nforever. There are no intermediate species,--no connecting links,--no\nsuch connected series of specimens to be found as enables us to trace a\ntrilobite through all its metamorphoses from youth to age. All geologic\nhistory is full of the beginnings and the ends of species,--of their\nfirst and their last days; but it exhibits no genealogies of\ndevelopment. The Lamarckian sets himself to grapple, in his dream, with\nthe history of all creation: we awaken him, and ask him to grapple,\ninstead, with the history of but a few individual species,--with that of\nthe mussel or the whelk, the clam or the oyster; and we find from his\nhelpless ignorance and incapacity what a mere pretender he is.\n\nBut while no hypothesis of development can neutralize or explain away\nthe great geologic fact, that every true species had a beginning\nindependently, apparently, of every preceding species, there was\ndemonstrably a general progress, in the course of creation, from lower\nto higher forms, which seems scarce less fraught with important\nconsequences to the natural theologian than this fact of _beginning_\nitself. For while the one fact effectually disposes of the \"infinite\nseries\" of the atheist, the other fact disposes scarce less effectually\nof those reasonings on the skeptical side which, framed on the\nassumption that creation is a \"singular effect,\"--an effect without\nduplicate,--have been employed in urging, that from that one effect only\ncan we know aught regarding the producing cause. Knowing of the cause\nfrom but the effect, and having experience of but one effect, we cannot\nrationally hold, it has been argued, that the producing cause could have\noriginated effects of a higher or more perfect kind. The creation which\nit produced we know; but, having no other measure of its power, we\ncannot regard it, it has been contended, as equal to the production of a\nbetter or nobler creation, or of course hold that it _could_ originate\nsuch a state of things as that perfect future state which faith\ndelights to contemplate. It has been well said of the author of this\ningenious argument,--by far the most sagacious of the skeptics,--that if\nwe admit his premises we shall find it difficult indeed to set aside his\nconclusions. And how, in this case, does geology deal with his premises?\nBy opening to us the history of the remote past of our planet, and\nintroducing us, through the present, to former creations, it breaks down\nthat _singularity_ of effect on which he built, and for one creation\ngives us many. It gives us exactly that which, as he truly argued, his\ncontemporaries had not,--an _experience_ in creations. And let us mark\nhow, applied to each of these in succession, his argument would tell.\n\nThere was a time when life, animal or vegetable, did not exist on our\nplanet, and when all creation, from its centre to its circumference, was\nbut a creation of dead matter. What, in that early age, would have been\nthe effect of the argument of Hume? Simply this,--that though the\nproducing Cause of all that appeared was competent to the formation of\ngases and earths, metals and minerals, it would be unphilosophic to deem\nhim adequate to the origination of a single plant or animal, even to\nthat of a spore or of a monad. Ages pass by, and the Palaeozoic creation\nis ushered in, with its tall araucarians and pines, its highly organized\nfishes, and its reptiles of comparatively low standing. And how now, and\nwith what effect, does the argument apply? It is now rendered evident,\nthat in the earlier creation the producing Cause had exerted but a\nportion of his power, and that he could have done greatly more than he\nactually did, seeing that we now find him adequate to the origination of\nvitality and organization in its two great kingdoms, plant and animal.\nBut, still confining ourselves with cautious skepticism within the\nlimits of our argument, we continue to hold that, as fishes of a high\nand reptiles of a low order, with trees of the cone-bearing family, are\nthe most perfect specimens of their respective classes which the\nproducing Cause has originated, it would be rash to hold, in the absence\nof proof, that he _could_ originate aught higher or more perfect. And\nnow, as yet other ages pass away, the creation of the great Secondary\ndivision takes the place of that of the vanished Palaeozoic; and we find\nin its few dicotyledonous plants, in its reptiles of highest standing,\nin its great birds, and in its some two or three humble marsupial\nmammals, that in the previous, as in the earlier creation, the producing\nCause had been, if I may so express myself, working greatly under his\nstrength, and that in this third creation we have a still higher display\nof his potency. With some misgivings, however, we again apply our\nargument. And now yet another creation,--that of the Tertiary period,\nwith its noble forests of dicotyledonous trees and its sagacious and\ngigantic mammals,--rises upon the scene; and as our experience in\ncreations has now become very considerable, and as we have seen each in\nsuccession higher than that which preceded it, we find that,\nnotwithstanding our assumed skepticism, we had, compelled by one of the\nmost deeply seated instincts of our nature, been secretly anticipating\nthe advance which the new state of things actually realizes. But\napplying the argument once more, we at least assume to hold, that as the\nsagacious elephant is the highest example of animal life yet produced by\nthe originating Cause, it would be unphilosophic to deem him capable of\nproducing a higher example. And, while we are thus reasoning, man\nappears upon creation,--a creature immeasurably superior to all the\nothers, and whose very nature it is to make use of his experience of the\npast for his guidance in the future. And if that only be solid\nexperience or just reasoning which enables us truly to anticipate the\nevents which are to come, and so to make provision for them; and if that\nexperience be not solid, and that reasoning not just, which would serve\nbut to darken our discernment, and prevent us from correctly predicating\nthe cast and complexion of coming events; what ought to be our decision\nregarding an argument which, had it been employed in each of the\nvanished creations of the past, would have had but the effect of\narresting all just anticipation regarding the immediately succeeding\ncreation, and which, thus reversing the main end and object of\nphilosophy, would render the philosopher who clung to it less sagacious\nin divining the future than even the ordinary man? But, in truth, the\nexisting premises, wholly altered by geologic science, are no longer\nthose of Hume. The footprint on the sand--to refer to his happy\nillustration--does not now stand alone. Instead of one, we see many\nfootprints, each in turn in advance of the print behind it, and on a\nhigher level; and, founding at once on an acquaintance with the past,\nextended throughout all the periods of the geologist, and on that\ninstinct of our nature whose peculiar function it is to anticipate at\nleast one creation more, we must regard the expectation of \"new heavens\nand a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,\" as not unphilosophic,\nbut as, on the contrary, altogether rational and according to\nexperience.\n\nSuch is the bearing of geological science on two of the most important\nquestions that have yet been raised in the field of natural theology.\nNor does it bear much less directly on a controversy to which, during\nthe earlier half of the last century, there was no little importance\nattached in Britain, and which engaged on its opposite sides some of the\nfinest and most vigorous intellects of the age and country.\n\nThe school of infidelity represented by Bolingbroke, and, in at least\nhis earlier writings, by Soame Jenyns, and which, in a modified form,\nattained to much popularity through Pope's famous \"Essay,\" assigned to\nman a comparatively inconsiderable space in the system of the universe.\nIt regarded him as but a single link in a chain of mutual dependency,--a\nchain which would be no longer an entire, but a broken one, were he to\nbe struck out of it, but as thus more important from his position than\nfrom his nature or his powers. You will remember that one of the\nsections of Pope's first epistle to his \"good St. John\" is avowedly\ndevoted to show what he terms the \"absurdity of man's supposing himself\nthe final cause of the creation;\" and though this great master of\ncondensed meaning and brilliant point is now less read than he was in\nthe days of our grandfathers, you will all remember the elegant stanzas\nin which he states the usual claims of the species only to ridicule\nthem. It is human pride personified that he represents as exclaiming,--\n\n \"For me kind Nature wakes her genial power,\n Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower,\n Annual for me the grape, the rose, renew\n The juice nectarious and the balmy dew.\n For me the mine a thousand treasures brings;\n For me health gushes from a thousand springs;\n Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise;\n My footstool earth, my canopy the skies.\"\n\nYou will further remember how the poet, after thus reducing the claims\nand lowering the position of the species, set himself to show that man,\nviewed in relation to the place which he occupies, ought not to be\nregarded as an imperfect being. Man is, he said, as perfect as he ought\nto be. And, such being the case, the Author of all, looking, it would\nseem, very little after him, has just left him to take care of himself.\nA cold, unfeeling abstraction, like the gods of the old Epicurean, the\nGreat First Cause of this school is a being\n\n \"Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,\n A hero perish or a sparrow fall;\n Atoms or systems into ruin hurled,\n And now a bubble burst, and now a world.\"\n\nSuch, assuredly, was not that God of the New Testament whom the Saviour\nof mankind revealed to his disciples as caring for all his creatures of\nthe dust, but as caring most for the highest of all. \"Are not two\nsparrows,\" he said, \"sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall\nto the ground without your Father. Fear ye not, therefore; ye are of\nmore value than many sparrows.\"\n\nIt was the error of this ingenious but very unsolid school, that it\nregarded the mere _order_ of the universe as itself an end or final\ncause. It reasoned respecting creation, as if it would be true\nphilosophy to account for the origin and existence of some great city,\nsuch as the city of Washington in the United States, built, as we know,\nfor purely political purposes, by showing that,--as it was remarkable\nfor its order, for the rectilinear directness of its streets, and the\nrectangularity of its squares,--it must have been erected simply to be a\nperfect embodiment of regularity; and to urge further that, save in\ntheir character as component parts of a perfect whole, the House of\nRepresentatives and the mansion of the President were of no more\nintrinsic importance, or no more decidedly the _end_ of the whole, than\nany low tavern or outhouse in the lesser streets or lanes. The\ndestruction of either the outhouse or the House of Representatives would\nequally form a void in the general plan of the city, regarded as an\nadmirably arranged whole. And it was thus with the grand scheme of\ncreation; for,\n\n \"From nature's chain whatever link we strike,\n Tenth or tenth thousand, breaks the chain alike.\"\n\nNor is it in other than due keeping with such a view of creation, that\nits great Author should be represented as a cold abstraction, without\nlove or regard, and equally indifferent to the man and the sparrow, to\nthe atom and the planet. Order has respect to but the _relations_ of\nthings or of beings,--not to the things or beings themselves; order is\nthe _figure_ which, as mere etched points or strokes, they compose,--the\nlegend which, as signs or characters, they form; and who cares anything\nfor the component strokes or dots irrespective of the print, or for the\ncomponent letters or words apart from the writing? The \"equal eye,\" in\nsuch a scheme, would of necessity be an indifferent one. Against this\nstrange doctrine, though in some measure countenanced by the glosses of\nWarburton in his defence of Pope, the theologians protested,--none of\nthem, however, more vigorously than Johnson, in his famous critique on\nthe \"Free Inquiry\" of Soame Jenyns. Nor is it uninteresting to mark with\nwhat a purely instinctive feeling of the right some of the better poets,\nwhose \"lyre,\" according to Cowper, was their \"heart,\" protested against\nit too. Poor Goldsmith, when sitting a homeless vagabond on the slopes\nof the Alps, could exclaim in a greatly truer tone than that of his\npolished predecessor,--\n\n \"Creation's heir, the world, the world is mine!\"\n\nAnd in Cowper himself we find all Goldsmith's intense feeling of\nappropriation, that \"calls the delightful scenery all its own,\"\nassociated\n\n \"With worthy thoughts of that unvaried love\n That planned, and built, and still upholds, a world\n So clothed with beauty, for rebellious man.\"\n\nStrange to say, however, it is to the higher exponents of natural\nscience, and in especial to the geologists, that it has been left to\ndeal most directly with the sophistries of Bolingbroke and Pope.\n\nOken, a man quite as far wrong in some points as either the poet or his\nmaster, was the first to remark, and this in the oracular, enigmatical\nstyle peculiar to the German, that \"man is the sum total of all the\nanimals.\" Gifted, as all allow, with a peculiarly nice eye for detecting\nthose analogies which unite the animal world into a harmonious whole, he\nremarked, that in one existence or being all these analogies converge.\nEven the humbler students of the heavens have learned to find for\nthemselves the star of the pole, by following the direction indicated by\nwhat are termed the two pointer stars in the Great Bear. And to the eye\nof Oken all the groups of the animal kingdom formed a sphere of\nconstellations, each of which has its pointer stars, if I may so speak,\nturned towards man. Man occupies, as it were, the central point in the\ngreat circle of being; so that those lines which pass singly through\neach of the inferior animals stationed at its circumference, meet in\nhim; and thus, as the focus in which the scattered rays unite, he\nimparts by his presence a unity and completeness to creation which it\nwould not possess were he away. You will be startled, however, by the\nlanguage in which the German embodies his view; though it may be not\nuninstructive to refer to it in evidence of the fact that a man may be\n_intellectually_ on the very verge of truth, and yet for every moral\npurpose infinitely removed from it. \"Man,\" he says, \"is God manifest in\nthe flesh.\" And yet it may be admitted that there is a certain loose\nsense in which man _is_ \"God manifest in the flesh.\" As may be\nafterwards shown, he is God's _image_ manifested in the flesh; and an\nimage or likeness _is_ a manifestation or making evident of that which\nit represents, whether it be an image or likeness of body or of mind.\n\nNot less extraordinary, but greatly more sound in their application,\nare the views of Professor Owen,--supreme in his own special walk as a\ncomparative anatomist. We find him recognizing man as exemplifying in\nhis structure the perfection of that type in which, from the earliest\nages, nature had been working with reference to some future development,\nand as _therefore_ a foreordained existence. \"The recognition of an\nideal exemplar for the vertebrated animals proves,\" he says, \"that the\nknowledge of such a being as man must have existed before man appeared.\nFor the Divine mind that planned the archetype also foreknew all its\nmodifications. The archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh under\ndivers modifications, upon this planet, long prior to the existence of\nthose animal species that actually exemplify it.\" So far Owen. And not\nless wonderful is the conclusion at which Agassiz has arrived, after a\nsurvey of the geologic existences, more extended and minute, in at least\nthe ichthyic department, than that of any other man. \"It is evident,\" we\nfind him saying, in the conclusion of his recent work, \"The Principles\nof Zoology,\"[20] \"that there is a manifest progress in the succession of\nbeings on the surface of the earth. This progress consists in an\nincreasing similarity to the living fauna, and among the vertebrates,\nespecially in their increasing resemblance to man. But this connection\nis not the consequence of a direct lineage between the faunas of\ndifferent ages. There is nothing like parental descent connecting them.\nThe fishes of the Palaeozoic age are in no respect the ancestors of the\nreptiles of the Secondary age, nor does man descend from the mammals\nwhich preceded him in the Tertiary age. The link by which they are\nconnected is of a higher and immaterial nature; and their connection is\nto be sought in the view of the Creator himself, whose aim in forming\nthe earth, in allowing it to undergo the successive changes which\ngeology has pointed out, and in creating successively all the different\ntypes of animals which have passed away, _was to introduce man upon the\nsurface of our globe_. MAN IS THE END TOWARDS WHICH ALL THE ANIMAL\nCREATION HAS TENDED FROM THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST PALAEOZOIC\nFISHES.\" These, surely, are extraordinary deductions. \"In thy book,\"\nsays the Psalmist, \"all my members were written, which in continuance\nwere fashioned when as yet there was none of them.\" And here is natural\nscience, by the voice of two of its most distinguished professors,\nsaying exactly the same thing.\n\nOf the earliest known vertebrates,--the placoidal fishes of the Upper\nSilurian rocks,--we possess only fragments, which, however, sufficiently\nindicate, from their resemblance to the corresponding parts of an\nexisting shark,--the cestracion,--that they belonged to fishes furnished\nwith the two pairs of fins now so generally recognized as the homologues\nof the fore and hinder limbs in quadrupeds. With the second earliest\nvertebrates,--the ganoids of the Old Red Sandstone,--we are more\ndirectly acquainted, and know that they exhibited the true typical\nform,--a vertebral column terminating in a brain-protecting skull; and\nthat, in at least the acanth, celacanth, and dipterian families, they\nhad the limb-like fins. In the upper parts of the system the earliest\nreptiles leave the first known traces of the typical foot, with its five\ndigits. Higher still in one of the deposits of the Trias we are startled\nby what seems to be the impression of a human hand of an uncouth massive\nshape, but with the thumb apparently set in opposition, as in man, to\nthe other fingers; we next trace the type upwards among the wonderfully\ndeveloped reptiles of the Secondary periods; then among the mammals of\nthe Tertiary ages, higher and yet higher forms appear; the mute\nprophecies of the coming being become with each approach clearer,\nfuller, more expressive, and at length receive their fulfilment in the\nadvent of man. A double meaning attaches to the term type; and hence\nsome ambiguity in the writings which have appeared on this curious\nsubject. Type means a prophecy embodied in symbol; it means also what\nSir Joshua Reynolds well terms \"one of the general forms of nature,\"--a\npattern form, from which all others in the same class or family, however\nnumerous, are recognized as mere exceptions and aberrations. But in the\ngeologic series both meanings converge and become one. The form or\nnumber typical as the _general_ form or number, is found typical also as\na _prophecy_ of the form or number that came at length to be exemplified\nin the deputed lord of creation. Let us in our examples take typical\nnumbers, as more easily illustrated without diagrams than typical forms.\n\nThere are vertebrate animals of the second age of ichthyic existence,\nthat, like the _Pterichthys_ and _Coccosteus_, were furnished with but\ntwo limbs. The muraenidae of recent times have no more; at least one of\ntheir number, the muraena proper, wants limbs altogether; so also do the\nlampreys. The snakes are equally limbless, save that the boas and\npythons possess the rudiments of a single pair; and such also is the\ncondition, among the amphibia, of all the known species of Coecilia.\nAnd yet, notwithstanding these exceptional cases, the true typical\nnumber of limbs, as shown by a preponderating majority of the\nvertebrates of all ages of the world, is four. And this typical number\nis the human number. There is as certainly a typical number of digits\ntoo, as of the limbs which bear them. The exceptions are many. All the\nspecies of the horse genus possess but a single digit; the cattle family\npossess but two digits, the rhinoceros three digits, the hippopotamus\nfour digits; many animals, such as the dog and cat, have but four digits\non one pair of limbs and five on the other; whereas in some of the\nfishes the number of digits is singularly great,--from ten to twenty in\nmost species, and in the rays from eighty to a hundred. And yet, as\nshown in the rocks, in which, however, the aberrations appear early, the\ntrue typical number is five on both the fore and hinder limbs. And such\nis the number in man. There is also, in at least the mammalia, a typical\nnumber of vertebrae in the neck. The three-toed sloth has nine cervical\nvertebrae; the manati only six; but seven is the typical number. And\nseven is the human number also. Man, in short, is pre-eminently what a\ntheologian would term the antetypical existence,--the being in whom the\ntypes meet and are fulfilled. And not only do typical forms and numbers\nof the exemplified character meet in man, but there are not a few parts\nof his framework which in the inferior animals exist as but mere\nsymbols, of as little importance as dugs in the male animal, though they\nacquire significancy and use in him. Such, for instance, are the\nmany-jointed but moveless and unnecessary bones of which the stiff\ninflexible _fin_ of the dugong and the fore paw of the mole consist, and\nwhich exist in his arm as essential portions, none of which could be\nwanted, of an exquisitely flexible instrument. In other cases, the old\ntypes are exemplified serially in the growth and development of certain\nportions of his frame. Such is specially the case with that all\nimportant portion of it, the organ of thought and feeling. The human\nbrain is built up by a wonderful process, during which it assumes in\nsuccession the form of the brain of a fish, of a reptile, of a bird, of\na mammiferous quadruped; and, finally, it takes upon it its unique\ncharacter as a human brain. Hence the remark of Oken, that \"man is the\nsum total of all the animals;\" hence, too, a recognition of type in the\n_history_ of the successive vertebral periods of the geologist,\nsymbolical of the history of every individual man. It is not difficult\nto conceive how, on a subject of such complexity, especially if\napproached in an irreverent spirit, grave mistakes and misconceptions\nshould take place. Virgil knew just enough of Hebrew prophecy to\nmisapply, in his _Pollio_, to his great patron Octavius, those ancient\npredictions which foretold that in that age the Messiah was to appear.\nAnd I am inclined to hold, that in the more ingenious speculations of\nthe Lamarckians we have just a similar misapplication of what,\nemboldened by the views of Owen and Agassiz, I shall venture to term the\n_Geologic Prophecies_.\n\nThe term is new, but the idea which it embodies, though it at first\nexisted rather as a nice poetic instinct than as a scientifically based\nthought, is at least as old as the times of Herder and Coleridge. In a\npassage quoted from the former writer by Dr. M'Cosh, in his very\nmasterly work on typical forms, I find the profound German remarking of\nthe strange resemblances which pervade all nature, and impart a general\nunity to its forms, that it would seem \"as if on all our earth the\nform-abounding mother had proposed to herself but one type,--one\nproto-plasma,--according to which, and for which, she formed them all.\nKnow, then,\" he continues, \"what this form is. It is the identical one\nwhich man also wears.\" And the remark of Coleridge, in his \"Aids to\nReflection,\" is still more definite. \"Let us carry us back in spirit,\"\nhe says, \"to the mysterious week, the teeming work days of the Creator\n(as _they rose in_ VISION _before the eye of the inspired historian_) of\nthe operations of the heavens and of the earth, in the day that the\nLord God made the earth and the heavens. And who that watched their ways\nwith an understanding heart could, as the vision evolved still advanced\ntowards him, contemplate the filial and loyal bee, the home-building,\nwedded, and divorceless swallow, and, above all, the manifoldly\nintelligent ant tribes, with their commonwealths and confederacies,\ntheir warriors and miners, the husband folk that fold in their tiny\nflocks on the honey leaf, and the virgin sister with the holy instincts\nof maternal love detached and in selfless purity, and not say in\nhimself, Behold the shadow of approaching humanity, the sun rising from\nbehind in the kindling morn of creation?\" There is fancy here; but it is\nthat sagacious fancy, vouchsafed to only the true poet, which has so\noften proved the pioneer of scientific discovery, and which is in\nreality more sober and truthful, in the midst of its apparent\nextravagance, than the gravest cogitations of ordinary men. It is surely\nno incredible thing, that He who, in the dispensations of the human\nperiod, spake by type and symbol, and who, when He walked the earth in\nthe flesh, taught in parable and allegory, should have also spoken in\nthe geologic ages by prophetic figures embodied in the form and\nstructure of animals. Nay, what the poet imagined, though in a somewhat\nextreme form, the philosophers seem to be on the very eve of confirming.\nThe foreknown \"archetypal idea\" of Owen,--\"the immaterial link of\nconnection\" of all the past with all the present, which Agassiz resolves\ninto the foreordained design of the Creator,--will be yet found, I\ncannot doubt, to translate themselves into one great general truth,\nnamely, that the Palaeozoic, Secondary, and Tertiary dispensations of\ncreation were charged, like the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations of\ngrace, with the \"shadows of better things to come.\" The advent of man\nsimply as such was the great event prefigured during the old geologic\nages. The advent of that Divine Man \"who hath abolished death, and\nbrought life and immortality to light,\" was the great event prefigured\nduring the historic ages. It is these two grand events, equally portions\nof one sublime scheme, originated when God took counsel with himself in\nthe depths of eternity, that bind together past, present, and\nfuture,--the geologic with the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the\nChristian ages, and all together with that new heavens and new earth,\nthe last of many creations, in which there shall be \"no more death nor\ncurse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and his\nservants shall serve him.\"\n\n\"There is absurdity,\" said Pope, \"in man's conceiting himself the final\ncause of creation.\" Unless, however, man had the entire scheme of\ncreation before him, with the further partially known scheme of which\nbut a part constitutes the grand theme of revelation, how could he\npronounce on the absurdity? The knowledge of the geologist ascends no\nhigher than man. He sees all nature in the pre-Adamic past, pointing\nwith prophetic finger towards him; and on even the argument of\nHume,--just and solid within its proper limits,--he refuses to acquiesce\nin the unfounded inference of Pope. In order to prove the absurdity of\n\"man's conceiting himself the final cause of creation,\" proof of an\nulterior cause,--of a higher end and aim,--must he adduced; and of aught\nhigher than man, the geologist, as such, knows nothing. The long vista\nopened up by his science closes with the deputed lord of creation,--with\nman as he at present exists; and when, casting himself full upon\nrevelation, the vail is drawn aside, and an infinitely grander vista\nstretches out before him into the future, he sees man--no longer,\nhowever, the natural, but the Divine man--occupying what is at once its\nterminal point and its highest apex. Such are some of the bearings of\ngeologic science on the science of natural theology. Geology has\ndisposed effectually and forever of the oft-urged assumption of an\ninfinite series; it deals as no other science could have dealt with the\nassertion of the skeptic, that creation is a \"singular effect;\" it casts\na flood of unexpected light on the somewhat obsolete plausibilities of\nBolingbroke and Jenyns, that exhibits their utterly unsolid character;\nyet further, it exhibits in a new aspect the argument founded on design,\nand invests the place and standing of man in _creation_ with a peculiar\nsignificancy and importance, from its relation to the future. But on\nthis latter part of my subject--necessarily of considerable extent and\nmultiplicity, and connected rather with revealed than with natural\nreligion--I must not now expatiate. I shall, however, attempt laying\nbefore you, on some future evening, a few thoughts on this portion of\nthe general question, which you may at least find suggestive of others,\nand which, if they fail to elicit new truths, may have the effect of\nopening up upon an old truth or two a few fresh avenues through which to\nsurvey them. The character of man as a fellow-worker with his Creator in\nthe material province has still to be considered in the light of\ngeology. Man was the first, and is still the only creature of whom we\nknow anything, who has set himself to carry on and improve the work of\nthe world's original framer,--who is a planter of woods, a tiller of\nfields, and a keeper of gardens,--and who carries on his work of\nmechanical contrivance on obviously the same principles as those on\nwhich the Divine designer wrought of old, and on which he works still.\nIt may not be wholly unprofitable to acquaint ourselves, through\nevidence furnished by the rocks, with the remarkable fact, that the\nCreator imparted to man the Divine image before he united to man's the\nDivine nature.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE SIXTH.\n\nGEOLOGY IN ITS BEARINGS ON THE TWO THEOLOGIES.\n\n\nPART II.\n\nUp till the introduction of man upon our planet, the humbler creatures,\nhis predecessors, formed but mere figures in its various landscapes, and\nfailed to alter or affect by their works the face of nature. They were\nconspicuous, not from what they _did_, but from what they _were_. At a\nvery early period reefs of coral, the work of minute zoophytes, whitened\nthe shallows of the ocean, or encircled with pale, ever broadening\nframes, solitary islands green with the shrubs and trees of extinct\nfloras; but, though products of the animal world, they were not built up\nunder the direction of even an instinctive intelligence, but were as\nentirely the results of a _vegetative_ process of mere growth as the\nforests or reed brakes of the old Carboniferous savannahs. At a later\ntime an ant hill might be here and there descried, rearing its squat,\nbrown pyramid amid the recesses of some Oolitic forest; or, in a period\nstill more recent, the dam of the gigantic beaver might be seen\nextending its minute eye-like circlet of blue amid the windings of some\nbosky ravine of the Pliocene age; or existing as a little mound-skirted\npond, with the rude half-submerged _cottage_ of the creature, its\narchitect, rising beside it, on some rivulet of the Pleistocene. But how\ninconsiderable such works, compared with the wide extent of prospect in\nwhich they were included! How entirely inconspicuous rather, save when\nplaced in the immediate foreground of the pictures into whose\ncomposition they entered! Not until the introduction of man upon earth\ndo we find a creature whose works sensibly affect and modify the aspects\nof nature. But when man appears, how mighty the change which he effects!\nImmediately on his creation he takes under his care the vegetable\nproductions of use and show: it becomes his business to keep and dress a\ngarden. He next becomes a tiller of fields, then a planter of vineyards:\nhere he cuts down great forests; there he rears extensive woods. He\nmakes himself places of habitation; and busy cities spring up as the\ntrophies of his diligence and skill. His labors, as they grow upon the\nwaste, affect the appearance of vast continents; until at length, from\nmany a hill-top and tall spire, scarce a rood of ground can be seen on\nwhich he has not built, or sown, or planted, or around which lie has not\nerected his walls or reared his hedges. Man, in this great department of\nindustry, is what none of his predecessors upon the earth ever were,--\"a\nfellow-worker\" with the Creator. He is a mighty _improver_ of creation.\nWe recognize that as improvement which adapts nature more thoroughly to\nman's own necessities and wants, and renders it more pleasing both to\nhis sense of the aesthetic and to his more material senses also. He adds\nto the beauty of the flowers which he takes under his charge,--to the\ndelicacy and fertility of the fruits; the seeds of the wild grasses\nbecome corn beneath his care; the green herbs grow great of root or\nbulb, or bulky and succulent of top and leaf; the wild produce of nature\n_sports_ under his hand; the rose and lily broaden their disks and\nmultiply their petals; the harsh green crab swells out into a delicious\ngolden-rinded apple, streaked with crimson; the productions of his\nkitchen garden, strangely metamorphosed to serve the uses of his table,\nbear forms unknown to nature; an occult law of change and development\ninherent to these organisms meets in him with the developing instinct\nand ability, and they are regenerated under his surveillance. Nor is his\ninfluence over many of the animals less marked. The habits which he\nimparts to the parents become _nature_, in his behalf, in their\noffspring. The dog acquires, under his tutelage, the virtues of fidelity\nto a master and affection to a friend. The ox and horse learn to assist\nhim in the labors of the fields. The udders of the cow and goat distend\nbeneath his care far beyond the size necessary in the wild state, and\nsupply him with rich milk, and the other various products of the dairy.\nThe fleece of the sheep becomes finer of texture and longer of fibre in\nhis pens and folds; and even the indocile silkworm spins, in his\nsheltered conservatories, and among the mulberry trees which he has\nplanted, a larger, and brighter, and more glistening cocoon. Man is the\ngreat creature-worker of the world,--its one created being, that, taking\nup the work of the adorable Creator, carries it on to higher results and\nnobler developments, and finds a field for his persevering ingenuity and\nskill in every province in which his Maker had expatiated before him. He\nis evidently--to adopt and modify the remark of Oken--God's image\n\"manifest in the flesh.\"\n\nSurveyed from the special point of view furnished by this peculiar\nnature of man, unique in creation, all the past of our planet divides\ninto two periods;--the period, inclusive of every age known to the\ngeologist, during which only the Creator wrought; and the period during\nwhich man has wrought, and to which all human history belongs. In such a\nview we are presented with two sets of works,--those of the\nCreator-worker, and those of the creature-worker; and the vast fund of\nmaterials on which the natural theologian frames his arguments\ndemonstrative of design or contrivance, assumes a new significancy and\ninterest when employed as evidence that there exists a certain\ncorrespondence of nature and intellect between the two workers, human\nand Divine. The ability of accomplishing the same ends by the same\nmeans,--in other words, of thinking and acting in the same practical\ntract,--indicates a similarity, if not identity, of intellectual nature.\nIn the Chinese centre of civilization, for instance, printing,\ngunpowder, the mariner's compass, with the various chemical and\nmechanical arts of elegant life, were originated without concert with\nthe European centre of civilization, simply because in China, as in\nEurope, the same human faculties, prompted by the same tastes and\nnecessities, had expatiated in the same tracts of invention, and had, as\na consequence, educed the same results. I was much struck, when spending\nhalf an hour in a museum illustrative of the arts in China, by the\nidentity of these with our own, especially in the purely mechanical\ndepartments; and again, when similarly employed in that apartment\ndevoted, in the British Museum, to the domestic utensils of the ancient\nEgyptians. The identity of the more common contrivances which I\nwitnessed, with familiar contrivances in our own country, I regarded as\naltogether as conclusive of an identity of mind in the individuals who\nhad originated them, as if I had actually seen human creatures at work\non them all. One class of productions showed me that the potter's wheel\nand the turning lathe had been known and employed as certainly in China\nand ancient Egypt as in Britain. Another, that their weaving processes\nmust have been nearly the same. The Chinese know, for instance, as well\nas ourselves, that patterns can be delicately brought out,--as in the\ndamasks,--without the assistance of color, simply by exposing silken or\nflaxen fibre at different angles to the light; and they have fallen, as\ntheir work shows, on the right methods of producing it. And the\nEgyptians anticipated us in even our most homely household contrivances.\nThey even fermented their bread and trussed their fowls after the same\nfashion; and thus gave evidence, in these familiar matters, that they\nthought and contrived \"after the manner of men.\" Now, in acquainting\nmyself with the organisms of the geologic periods, I have been similarly\nbut more deeply impressed by what I must be permitted to term the\n_human_ cast and character of the contrivances which they exemplified.\nNot only could I understand the principles on which they were\nconstructed, but further, not a few of them had, I found, been actually\nintroduced into works of human invention ages ere they were discovered\nin the rock. What the great Creator-worker had originated in the\nPalaeozoic and Secondary periods, had been in after times originated by\nthe little creature-worker, wholly unaware that his contrivance had been\nanticipated, and was but a repetition of a previously executed design.\nIn the later geologic ages the organization of the various extinct\nanimals so nearly resembled that of the animals which still live, that\nwe may regard it as not inadequately represented by the illustrations of\nPaley. A few such exceptional contrivances appear among the mammals of\nthe Tertiary as that formed by the huge pickaxe-like tusks of the\nDinotherium, or a few such extraordinary modifications of the ordinary\nmammalian framework as that exhibited in the enormously massive pelvic\narches and hinder limbs of the Mylodon and Megatherium. But not until we\npass into the deposits of the Secondary period, and get among its\ncephalopoda, do we find a mechanism altogether unlike any with which we\nare acquainted among living organisms. As admirably shown by Buckland,\nthe partitions which separate into chambers all the whorls of the\nammonite except the outermost one, were exquisitely adapted to\nstrengthen, by the tortuous windings of their outer edges, a shell which\nhad to combine great lightness with great powers of resistance. Itself a\ncontinuous arch throughout, it was supported by a series of continuous\narches inside, somewhat resembling in form the groined ribs of the\nGothic roof, but which, unlike the ponderous stone work of the mediaeval\narchitects, were as light as they were strong. And to this combination\nof arches there was added, in the ribs and grooves of the shell, yet\nanother element of strength,--that which has of late been introduced\ninto iron roofs, which, by means of their corrugations,--ribs and\ngrooves like those of the ammonite,--are made to span over wide spaces,\nwithout the support of beams or rafters. Still more recently, the same\nprinciple has been introduced into metallic boats, which, when\ncorrugated, like the old ammonites, are found to be sufficiently strong\nto resist almost any degree of pressure without the wonted addition of\nan interior framework. Similar evidences of design appear in the other\nextinct molluscs peculiar to these geologic ages, such as the hamite\nand turrilite. The belemnite seems to have united the principle of the\nfloat to that of the sinker, as we see both united in some of our modern\nlife boats, which are steadied on their keel by one principle, and\npreserved from foundering by the other; or as we find them united by the\nboy in his mimic smack, which he hollows out and decks, in order to\nrender it sufficiently light, while at the same time he furnishes it\nwith a keel of lead, in order to render it sufficiently steady. The old\narticulata abound in marks of ingenious mechanical contrivance. The\ntrilobites were covered over back and head with the most exquisitely\nconstructed plate armor: but as their abdomens seem to have been soft\nand defenceless, they had the ability of coiling themselves round on the\napproach of danger, plate moving on plate with the nicest adjustment,\ntill the rim of the armed tail rested on that of the armed head, and the\ncreature presented the appearance of a ball defended at every point. In\nsome genera, as in Calymene, the tail consisted of jointed segments till\nits termination; in others, as in Illaenus, there was a great caudal\nshield, that in size and form corresponded to the shield which covered\nthe head; the segments of Calymene, from the flexibility of their\njoints, fitted close to the cerebral rim; while the same effect was\nproduced in the inflexible shields, caudal and cephalic, of Illaenus, by\ntheir exact correspondence, and the flexibility of the connecting rings,\nwhich enabled them to fit together like two equal-sized cymbals brought\ninto contact at every point by the hand. Nor were the ancient crinoids\nless remarkable for the amount of nice contrivance which their\nstructures exhibited, than the ancient molluscs or crustaceans. In their\ncalyx-like bodies, consisting always of many parts, we find the\nprinciple of the arch introduced in almost every possible form and\nmodification, and the utmost flexibility secured to their stony arms by\nthe amazing number of the pieces of which they were composed, and the\nnice disposition of the joints. In the Pentacrinites of the Secondary\nperiod (see Fig. 97) an immense spread of arms, about a thousand in\nnumber, and composed of about a hundred thousand separate pieces, had\nall the flexibility, though formed of solid lime, of a _drift_ of nets,\nand yet were so nicely jointed, tooth fitting into tooth in all their\nnumerous parts, and the whole so bound together by ligament, that, with\nall the flexibility, they had also all the toughness and tenacity, of\npieces of thread network. Human ingenuity, with the same purposes to\neffect, that is, the sweeping of shoals of swimming animals into a\ncentral receptacle, would probably construct a somewhat similar machine;\nbut it would take half a lifetime to execute one equally elaborate.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 94.\n\nAMMONITES HUMPHRIESIANUS.\n\n(_Oolite._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 95.\n\nENCRINITES MONILIFORMIS.\n\n(_Trias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 96.\n\nCUPRESSOCRINUS CRASSUS.\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 97.[21]\n\nPENTACRINUS FASCICULOSUS.\n\n(_Lias._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 98.\n\n_a_, CHAMFERED SCALES. (_Osteolepis._)\n\n_b_, IMBRICATED SCALES. (_Glyptolepis._)\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\nIn carefully examining, for purposes of restoration, some of the\nearliest ganoidal fishes, I was not a little impressed by the peculiar\nmechanical contrivances exhibited in their largely developed dermal\nskeletons. In some cases these contrivances were sufficiently simple,\nresembling those which we find exemplified in the humbler trades,\noriginated in comparatively unenlightened ages; and yet their simplicity\nhad but the effect of rendering the peculiarly _human_ cast of the mind\nexhibited in their production all the more obvious. The bony scales\nwhich covered fishes such as the Osteolepis and Diplopterus of the Old\nRed Sandstone, or the Megalichthys of the Coal Measures, were of\nconsiderable mass and thickness. They could not, compatibly with much\nnicety of finish, be laid over each other, like the thin horny scales of\nthe salmon or herring; and so we find them curiously fitted together,\nnot like slates on a modern roof, but like hewn stones on an ancient\none. There ran on the upper surface of each, along the anterior side and\nhigher end, a groove of a depth equal to half the thickness of the\nscale; and along the posterior side and lower end, on the under surface,\na sort of bevelled chamfer, which, fitting into the grooves of the\nscales immediately behind and beneath it, brought their surfaces to the\nsame line, and rendered the shining coverings of these strongly armed\nganoids as smooth and even as those of the most delicately coated fishes\nof the present day. In the scales of the Celacanth family the\narrangement was different. Though exceedingly massive in some of the\ngenera, they were imbricated, like those of the Pangolins; and were\nchiefly remarkable for the combination of contrivances which they\nexhibited for securing the greatest possible amount of strength from the\nleast possible amount of thickness. The scales of _Holoptychius\ngiganteus_ may be selected as representative of those of the family to\nwhich it belonged. It consisted of three plates, or rather, like the\nhuman skull, of two solid plates, with a _diploe_ or spongy layer\nbetween. The outer surface was curiously fretted into alternate ridges\nand furrows; and hence the name of the genus,--_wrinkled scale_; and\nthese imparted to the exterior plate on which they occurred, and which\nwas formed of solid bone, the strength which results from a corrugated\nor fluted surface. Cromwell, in commissioning a friend to send him a\nhelmet, shrewdly stipulated that it should be a \"fluted pot;\" and we\nfind that the Holoptychius had got the principle of the fluted pot\nexemplified in the outer plate of each of its scales, untold ages\nbefore. The spongy middle plate must, like the diploe of the skull, have\nserved to deaden the vibrations of a blow dealt from the outside. It was\na stratum of sand bags piled up in the middle of a plank rampart. Their\ninnermost table was formed, like the outer, of solid bone, but had a\ndifferent arrangement. It was properly not one, but several tables, in\neach of which the osseous fibres, spread out in the general plane of\nthe scale, lay at a diverse angle from those of the table immediately in\ncontact with it. The principle was evidently that of the double-woven\ncloth, or cloth of two incorporated layers, such as _moleskin_, in\nwhich, from the arrangement of the threads, what a draper would term the\n_tear_ of the one layer or fold lies at a different angle in the general\nfabric from that of the other. We are thus presented, in a single fossil\nscale little more than the eighth part of an inch in thickness, with\nthree distinct strengthening principles,--the principle of Cromwell's\n\"fluted pot,\"--the principle of a rampart lined with plank, and filled\nwith sand bags in the centre,--and the principle of the double-woven\nfabrics of the \"moleskin\" manufacturer.[22] The contrivances exemplified\nin the cuirass of the Pterichthys were scarce less remarkable. It was\nformed of bony plates, strongly arched above, but comparatively flat\nbeneath; and along both its anterior and posterior rims a sudden\nthickening of the plates formed a massive band, which served to\nstrengthen the entire structure, as transverse ribs of stone are found\nstrengthening Gothic vaults of the Norman age. The scale covered tail of\nthe creature issued from within the posterior rim, which formed around\nit a complete though irregular ring, arched above and depressed beneath;\nwhereas the anterior rim, to which the head was attached, was incomplete\nwhen separated from it. It was, in its detached state, an arch wanting\nthe keystone. A keystone, however, projected outwards from the occipital\nplate of the head; and, as it had to form at once the bond of\nconnection between the cerebral armature of the creature and its\ncuirass, and to complete the arch formed by the strengthening belt or\nrib of the latter, it curiously combined the principle of both the\ndovetail of the carpenter and the keystone of the mason. Viewed from\nabove, it was a dovetail, forming a strong attachment of the head to the\nbody; viewed in the transverse section, it was an efficient keystone,\nthat gave solidity and strength to the arched belt or rib. Both keystone\nand dovetail are comparatively simple contrivances; but I know not that\nthey have been united in the same piece, save in the very ancient\ninstance furnished by the strong bony plate which connected the helmet\nof the Pterichthys with its cuirass.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 99.\n\nSCALE OF HOLOPTYCHIUS GIGANTEUS.\n\n(Nat. size.)\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 100.\n\nSECTION OF SCALE OF HOLOPTYCHIUS.\n\n(Mag. eight diameters.)]\n\nA brief anecdote, yet further illustrative of the framework of this\nancient ganoid, may throw some additional light on what I have ventured\nto term the _human_ cast of the contrivances exhibited in the organisms\nof the old geologic ages. After carefully examining many specimens, I\npublished a restoration of both the upper and under side of Pterichthys\nfully fifteen years ago. The greatest of living ichthyologists, however,\nmisled by a series of specimens much less complete than mine, differed\nfrom me in my conclusions; and what I had represented as the creature's\nunder or abdominal side, he represented as its upper or dorsal side;\nwhile its actual upper side he regarded as belonging to another, though\nclosely allied, genus. I had no opportunity, as he resided on the\nContinent at the time, of submitting to him the specimens on which I had\nfounded; though, at once certain of his thorough candor and love of\ntruth, and of the solidity of my data, I felt confident that, in order\nto alter his decision, it was but necessary that I should submit to him\nmy evidence. Meanwhile, however, the case was regarded as settled\nagainst me; and I found at least one popular and very ingenious writer\non geology, after referring to my description of the Pterichthys, going\non to say that, though graphic, it was not correct, and that he himself\ncould describe it at least more truthfully, if not more vividly, than I\nhad done. And then there followed a description identical with that by\nwhich mine had been supplanted. Five years had passed, when one day our\ngreatest British authority on fossil fishes, Sir Philip Egerton, was\nstruck, when passing an hour among the ichthyic organisms of his\nprincely collection, by the appearance presented by a central plate in\nthe cuirass of the Pterichthys. It is of a lozenge form, and, occupying\nexactly such a place in the nether armature of the creature as that\noccupied by the lozenge shaped spot on the ace of diamonds, it comes in\ncontact with four other plates that lie around it, and represent, so to\nspeak, the white portions of the card. And Sir Philip now found, that\ninstead of lying over, it lay under, the four contiguous plates: they\noverlapped it, instead of being overlapped by it. This, he at once said,\non ascertaining the fact, cannot be the _upper_ side of the Pterichthys.\nA plate so arranged would have formed no proper protection to the\nexposed dorsal surface of the creature's body, as a slight blow would\nhave at once sent it in upon the interior framework; but a proper enough\none to the under side of a heavy swimmer, that, like the flat fishes,\nkept close to the bottom;--a character which, as shown by the massive\nbulk of its body, and its small spread of fin, must have belonged to the\nPterichthys. Sir Philip followed up his observations on the central\nplate by a minute examination of the other parts of the creature's\narmature; and the survey terminated in a recognition of the earlier\nrestoration,--set aside so long before,--as virtually the true one;--a\nrecognition in which Agassiz, when made acquainted with the nature of\nthe evidence, at once acquiesced. Now, here was there a question which\nhad been raised regarding the true mechanism of one of the oldest\nganoidal fishes, and settled erroneously on wrong data, again opened up,\nto be settled anew on one of the most obvious mechanical principles\nexemplified in the simple art of the slater or tiler. The argument of\nSir Philip amounted simply to this:--If the accepted restoration be a\ntrue one, then the Creator of the Pterichthys must have committed a\nmistake in mechanics which an ordinary slater would have avoided; but as\nthe Creator commits no such blunders, the mistake probably occurs in but\nthe restoration. I may mention, that the dorsal surface of this ancient\nfish had also its central plate,--a lozenge truncated at its two longer\nends; and that, moulded to meet the necessities of its position, it was\nnot flat, like the under one, but strongly arched; and that on four of\nits six sides it overrode by a squamose suture the lower plates with\nwhich it came in contact.\n\nThese are but humble illustrations of the designing principle, as\nexhibited of old; and yet they impress none the less strongly on that\naccount. Among the many contrivances of the Chinese Museum, to which I\nhave already referred, none seemed more to excite the curiosity of\nvisitors than a set of tall-backed, elaborately carved chairs,\nexceedingly like those which were used in our own country two centuries\nago, and which Cowper so exquisitely describes. For thousands of miles\nin the wide tract that spreads out between European Christendom and the\ngreat wall, the inhabitants squat upon mats or carpets, or loll on\ndivans; and the contrivance of the chair is unknown: it reappears in\nChina, however, and reappears, not as a mere seat or stool, but as, in\nevery bar and limb, the identical chair of Europe arrested a century or\ntwo back in its development. And every corresponding tenon and mortise\nexhibited by the Chinese and European examples of this simple piece of\nfurniture served more forcibly to show an identity of character in the\nminds which had originated them in countries so far apart, than the more\nelaborate contrivances which, though illustrative of the same principles\nof invention, were less easily understood. It is so with the more simple\nand familiar instances of adaptation furnished by the works of the\nCreator. We infer from them, more directly than from the complex\nmechanisms, that he who wrought of old after the manner of a man must\nhave, in his intellectual character, if I may so express myself, certain\nman-like qualities and traits. In all those works on Natural Theology\nthat treat, like the work of Paley, on the argument of design, the\nassumption of a certain unity of the intellectual nature of the Creator\nand creature is made, tacitly at least, the basis of all the reasonings;\nand it is in the cases in which the design is most simple that the\nargument is most generally understood. It is in the lower _skirts_ of\nthe Divine nature that we most readily trace the resemblance to the\nnature of man,--an effect, mayhap, of the narrow reach of our faculties\nin their present infantile state.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 101.\n\nSIGILLARIA GROESERI\n\n(_Coal Measures._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 102.\n\nFig. 103. Fig. 104.\n\nWHORLED SHELLS OF THE OLD RED SANDSTONE.[23]]\n\nBut the resemblance is not restricted to the constructive department.\nBoth in the Chinese collection and among the Egyptian antiquities\nexhibited in the British Museum, I found color as certainly as\nmechanical contrivance. And the color furnished not only a practical\nexample from both the early and the remote peoples of the same sort of\nchemical science as exists at the present time among ourselves in our\ndyeworks and pigment manufactories, but it also showed a certain\nidentity with our own of their sense of beauty. The Chinese satins are\ngorgeous with green, blue, yellow, scarlet, crimson, and purple, and\nhave fringes heavy with thread of gold. Gilding is as common among this\ndistant people as among ourselves, and at once shows a familiarity with\nthe art of the gold beater, and a sensibility to the beauty of a golden\nsurface; and in the painted ornaments I detected the rich tints of\nvermilion and crimson lake, with the mineral blues, yellows, and greens.\nIn the Egyptian department, though the blanching influences of three\nthousand years had dimmed the tints and tarnished the metals, I found\nevidence of the same regard to hue and lustre as exists still in China\nand among ourselves; all that now pleases the eye in London and Pekin\nhad pleased it in Thebes during the times of the earlier Pharaohs. And\njust as we infer from the mechanical contrivances of the Creative-Worker\nthat he possesses a certain identity of mind in the _constructive_\ndepartment with his creature-workers, and this upon the principle on\nwhich we infer an identity of mind between the creature-workers of\nChina, ancient Egypt, and our own country, seeing that their works are\nidentical, must we not also infer, on the same principle, that he\npossesses in the _aesthetic_ department a certain identity with them\nalso. True, this region of the beautiful, ever surrounded by an\natmosphere of obscure, ill-settled metaphysics, is greatly less clear\nthan that mechanical province of whose various machines, whether of\nDivine or human contrivance, it can be at least affirmed that machines\nthey _are_, and that they effect their purposes by contrivances of the\nsame or of resembling kinds. And yet the appearance in nature, age after\nage, of the same forms and colors of beauty which man, in gratifying his\ntaste for the lovely in shape and hue, is ever reproducing for himself,\ndoes seem to justify our inference of an identity of mind in this\nprovince also. The colors of the old geologic organisms, like those of\nthe paintings of ancient Egypt, are greatly faded. A few, however, of\nthe Secondary, and even Palaeozoic shells, still retain the rich\nprismatic hues of the original nacre. Many of the Tertiary division\nstill bear the distinctive painted spots. Some of the later fossil\nfishes, when first laid open in the rock, exhibit the pearly gleam that\nmust of old have lighted up the green depths of the water as they darted\nthrough. Not a few of the fossil corals preserve enough of their former\ncolor to impart much delicacy of tint to the marbles in which they\noccur. But it is chiefly in form, not in shade or hue, that we find in\nthe organisms of the geologic ages examples of that beauty in which man\ndelights, and which he is ever reproducing for himself. There is scarce\nan architectural ornament of the Gothic or Grecian styles which may not\nbe found existing as fossils in the rocks. The Ulodendron was sculptured\ninto gracefully arranged rows of pointed and closely imbricated leaves,\nsimilar to those into which the Roman architects fretted the torus of\nthe Corinthian order. The Sigillaria were fluted columns ornately\ncarved in the line of the channelled flutes; the Lepidodendra bore,\naccording to their species, sculptured scales, or lozenges, or egg-like\nhollows, set in a sort of frame, and relieved into knobs and furrows;\nall of them furnishing examples of a delicate diaper work, like that so\nadmired in our more ornate Gothic buildings, such as Westminster Abbey,\nor Canterbury and Chichester Cathedrals, only greatly more exquisite in\ntheir design and finish. The scroll shells, a very numerous section of\nthe class in the earlier ages, such as Maclurea, Euomphalus, Clymenia,\nand the great family of the ammonites, were volutes of varying\nproportions, but not less graceful than the ornament of similar\nproportions so frequently introduced into Greek and Roman architecture,\nand of which we have such prominent examples in the capitals of the\nIonic, Corinthian, and composite orders. In what is known as the modern\nIonic the spiral of the volute is not all on one plane; it is a\nEuomphalus: in the central volutes of the Corinthian the spiral is an\nopen one; it is a Lituite or Gyroceras: in the ancient Ionic it is\neither wholly flat, as in Planorbus or the upper side of Maclurea, or\nslightly relieved, as in the ammonites. There is no form of the volute\nknown to the architect which may not be found in the rocks, but there\nare many forms in the rocks unknown to the architect. Nor are the\nspire-like shells (see Fig. 105) less remarkable for the rich and varied\nstyle of their ornamentation than the whorled ones. They are spires,\npinnacles, turrets, broaches; ornate, in some instances, beyond the\nreach of the architect, and illustrative, in almost all, of his happiest\nforms and proportions. We detect among the fossils the germs of numerous\ndesigns developed in almost every department of art; but merely to\nenumerate them would require a volume. One form of the old classic lamp\nwas that of the nautilus; another, that of _Gyphaea incurva_; the zigzag\nmouldings of the Norman Gothic may be found in the carinated oysters of\nthe Greensand; the more delicate frettings of similar form which\nroughened the pillars of a somewhat later age occur on Conularia and the\ndorsal spines of Gyracanthus. The old corals, too, abound in ornamental\npatterns, which man, unaware of their existence at the time, devised\nlong after for himself. In an article on calico printing, which forms\npart of a recent history of Lancashire, there are a few of the patterns\nintroduced, backed by the recommendation that they were the most\nsuccessful ever tried. Of one of these, known as \"Lane's Net,\" there\nsold a greater number of pieces than of any other pattern ever brought\ninto the market. It led to many imitations; and one of the most popular\nof these answers line for line, save that it is more stiff and\nrectilinear, to the pattern in a recently discovered Old Red Sandstone\ncoral, the _Smithia Pengellyi_. The beautifully arranged lines which so\nsmit the dames of England, that each had to provide herself with a gown\nof the fabric which they adorned, had been stamped amid the rocks _eons_\nof ages before. And it must not be forgotten, that all these forms and\nshades of beauty which once filled all nature, but of which only a few\nfragments, or a few faded tints, survive, were created, not to gratify\nman's love of the aesthetic, seeing that man had no existence until long\nafter they had disappeared, but in meet harmony with the tastes and\nfaculties of the Divine Worker, who had in his wisdom produced them all.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 105.\n\nMURCHISONIA BIGRANULOSA.\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 106.\n\nCONULARIA ORNATA.\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 107.\n\nCALICO PATTERN.\n\n(_Manchester._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 108.\n\nSMITHIA PENGELLYI.\n\n(_Old Red Sandstone._)]\n\nYou will, I trust, bear with me should I seek, in depths where the light\nshed by science becomes obscure, to guide my steps by light derived from\nanother and wholly different source. In an assembly such as that which I\nhave now the honor of addressing, there must be many shades of religious\nopinion. I shall, however, assail no man's faith, but simply lay before\nyou a few deductions which, founded on my own, have supplied me with\nwhat I deem a consistent theory of the curious class of phenomena with\nwhich this evening we have been mainly dealing. First, then, I must hold\nthat we receive the true explanation of the _man_-like character of the\nCreator's workings ere man was, in the remarkable text in which we are\ntold that \"God made man in his own image and likeness.\" There is no\nrestriction here to moral quality: the moral image man had, and in large\nmeasure lost; but the intellectual image he still retains. As a\ngeometrician, as an arithmetician, as a chemist, as an astronomer,--in\nshort, in all the departments of what are known as the strict\nsciences,--man differs from his Maker, not in kind, but in degree,--not\nas matter differs from mind, or darkness from light, but simply as a\nmere portion of space or time differs from _all_ space or _all_ time. I\nhave already referred to mechanical contrivances as identically the same\nin the Divine and human productions; nor can I doubt that, not only in\nthe pervading sense of the beautiful in form and color which it is our\nprivilege as men in some degree to experience and possess, but also in\nthat perception of harmony which constitutes the _musical_ sense, and in\nthat poetic feeling of which Scripture furnishes us with at once the\nearliest and the highest examples, and which we may term the _poetic_\nsense, we bear the stamp and impress of the Divine image. Now, if this\nbe so, we must look upon the schemes of Creation, Revelation, and\nProvidence, not as schemes of mere adaptation to man's nature, but as\nschemes also specially adapted to the nature of God as the pattern and\noriginal nature. Further, it speaks, I must hold, of the harmony and\nunity of one sublime scheme, that, after long ages of immaturity,--after\nthe dynasties of the fish, the reptile, and the mammal should in\nsuccession have terminated,--man should have at length come upon the\nscene in the image of God; and that, at a still later period, God\nhimself should have come upon the scene in the form of man; and that\nthus all God's workings in creation should be indissolubly linked to God\nhimself, not by any such mere likeness or image of the Divinity as that\nwhich the first Adam bore, but by Divinity itself in the Second Adam; so\nthat on the rainbow-encircled apex of the pyramid of created being the\nSon of God and the Son of Man should sit enthroned forever in one\nadorable person. That man should have been made in the image of God\nseems to have been a meet preparation for God's after assumption of the\nform of man. It was perhaps thus secured that _stock_ and _graft_, if I\nmay venture on such a metaphor, should have the necessary affinity, and\nbe capable of being united in a single person. The false gods of the\nEgyptians assumed, it was fabled, the forms of brutes: it was the human\nform and nature that was assumed by the true God;--so far as we know,\nthe only form and nature that could have brought him into direct union\nwith at once the matter and mind of the universe which he had created\nand made,--with \"true body and reasonable soul.\" Yet further, I learn by\ninevitable inference from one of the more distinctive articles of my\ncreed, that as certainly as the dynasty of the fish was predetermined in\nthe scheme of Providence to be succeeded by the higher dynasty of the\nreptile, and that of the reptile by the still higher dynasty of the\nmammal, so it was equally predetermined that the dynasty of responsible,\nfallible man should be succeeded by the dynasty of glorified, immortal\nman; and that, in consequence, the present mixed state of things is not\na mere result, as some theologians believe, of a certain human act which\nwas perpetrated about six thousand years ago, but was, virtually at\nleast, the effect of a God-determined decree, old as eternity,--a decree\nin which that act was written as a portion of the general programme. In\nlooking abroad on that great history of life, of which the latter\nportions are recorded in the pages of revelation, and the earlier in the\nrocks, I feel my grasp of a doctrine first taught me by our Calvinistic\nCatechism at my mother's knee, tightening instead of relaxing. \"The\ndecrees of God are his eternal purposes,\" I was told, \"according to the\ncounsel of his will, whereby for his own glory he hath foreordained\nwhatsoever comes to pass.\" And what I was told early I still believe.\nThe programme of Creation and Providence, in all its successive periods,\nis of God, not of man. With the arrangements of the old geologic\nperiods it is obvious man could have had nothing to do: the primeval\nages of wondrous plants and monster animals ran their course without\ncounsel taken of him; and in reading their record in the bowels of the\nearth, and in learning from their strange characters that such ages\nthere were, and what they produced, we are the better enabled to\nappreciate the impressive directness of the sublime message to Job, when\nthe \"Lord answered him out of the whirlwind, and said, Where wast thou\nwhen I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast\nunderstanding.\" And I can as little regard the present scene of things\nas an ultimate consequence of what man had willed or wrought, as even\nany of the pre-Adamic ages. It is simply one scene in a foreordained\nseries,--a scene intermediate in place between the age of the\nirresponsible mammal and of glorified man; and to provide for the upward\npassage to the ultimate state, we know that, in reference to the\npurposes of the Eternal, he through whom the work of restoration has\nbeen effected was in reality what he is designated in the remarkable\ntext, \"The Lamb slain from the _foundations_ of the world.\" First in the\ncourse of things, man in the image of God, and next, in meet sequence,\nGod in the form of man, have been equally from all eternity\npredetermined actors in the same great scheme.\n\nI approach a profound and terrible mystery. We can see how in the\npre-Adamic ages higher should have succeeded lower dynasties. To be low\nwas not to be immoral; to be low was not to be guilt-stained and\nmiserable. The sea anemone on its half-tide rock, and the fern on its\nmossy hill-side, are low in their respective kingdoms; but they are,\nnotwithstanding, worthy, in their quiet, unobtrusive beauty, of the God\nwho formed them. It is only when the human period begins that we are\nstartled and perplexed by the problem of a lowness not innocent,--an\ninferiority tantamount to moral deformity. In the period of\nresponsibility, to be low means to be evil; and how, we ask, could a\nlowness and inferiority resolvable into moral evil have had any place in\nthe decrees of that Judge who ever does what is right, and in whom moral\nevil can have no place? The subject is one which it seems not given to\nman thoroughly to comprehend. Permit me, however, to remark in reply,\nthat in a sense so plain, so obvious, so unequivocally true, that it\nwould lead an intelligent jury, impannelled in the case, conscientiously\nto convict, and a wise judge righteously to condemn, all that is evil in\nthe present state of things man may as certainly have wrought out for\nhimself, as the criminals whom we see sentenced at every justiciary\ncourt work out for themselves the course of punishment to which they are\njustly subjected.\n\nIt has been well said of the Author of all by the poet, that, \"binding\nnature fast in fate,\" he \"left free the human will.\" And it is this\nfreedom or independency of will operating on an intellect moulded after\nthe image and likeness of the Divinity that has rendered men capable of\nbeing what the Scriptures so emphatically term \"fellow-workers with\nGod.\" In a humble and restricted sense, as I have already\nremarked,--humble and restricted, but in that restricted sense obviously\ntrue,--the surface of the earth far and wide testifies to this fact of\nfellowship in working. The deputed lord of creation, availing himself of\nGod's natural laws, does what no mere animal of the old geologic ages\never did, or ever could have done,--he adorns and beautifies the earth,\nand adds tenfold to its original fertility and productiveness. In this\nspecial sense, then, he is a fellow-worker with Him who, according to\nthe Psalmist, \"causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for\nthe service of man, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil\nthat maketh his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's\nheart.\" But it is in a greatly higher sense, and in reference to God's\nmoral laws, that he is fitted to be his fellow-worker in the Scriptural\nsense. And his proper employment in this department is the elevation and\ndevelopment, moral and intellectual, of himself and his fellow-men, both\nin adaptation to the demands of the present time, and in preparation for\na future state.\n\nAll experience, however, serves to show that in this paramount\ndepartment man greatly fails; nay, that he is infinitely less true to\nhis proper end and destiny than the beasts that perish to their several\ninstincts. And yet it may be remarked, that such of the lower animals as\nare guided by pure instinct are greatly more infallible within their\nproper spheres than the higher, half-reasoning animals. The mathematical\nbee never constructs a false angle; the sagacious dog is not\nunfrequently _out_ in his calculations. The higher the animal in the\nscale, the greater its liability to error. But it is not the less true,\nthat no fish, no reptile, no mammal, of the geologic or the recent ages,\never so failed in working out the purposes it was created to serve, as\nman has failed in working out _his_; further, in no creature save in man\ndoes there exist that war of the mind between appetite and duty of which\nthe Apostle so consciously complained. And we must seek an explanation\nof these twin facts in that original freedom of the will which, while it\nrendered man capable of being _of choice_ God's fellow-worker, also\nconferred on him an ability of choosing _not_ to work with God. And his\nchoice of not working with him, or of working against him, being once\nfreely made, we may see how, from man's very constitution and nature, as\nan intelligence united to matter that increases his kind from generation\nto generation in virtue of the original law, the ability of again\nworking with God might be forever destroyed. And thus man's general\ncondition as a lapsed creature may be as unequivocally a consequence of\nman's own act, as the condition of individuals born free, but doomed to\nslavery in punishment of their offences, is a consequence of _their_ own\nacts. A brief survey of the many-colored and variously-placed human\nfamily, as at present distributed on the earth, may enable us in some\ndegree to conceive of a matter which, involving, as it does, that master\nproblem of moral science, the origin of evil, seems, as I have said, not\nto be given to man fully to comprehend.\n\n\"The different races of mankind,\" says Humboldt, employing, let me\nremark, the language of the distinguished German naturalist Mueller, to\ngive expression to the view which he himself adopts,--\"the different\nraces of mankind are not different species of a genus, but forms of one\nsole species.\" \"The human species,\" says Cuvier, \"appears to be single.\"\n\"When we compare,\" says Pritchard, \"all the facts and observations which\nhave been heretofore fully established as to the specific instincts and\nseparate psychical endowments of all the distinct tribes of sentient\nbeings in the universe, we are entitled to draw confidently the\nconclusion, that all human races are of one species and one family.\"\n\"God hath made of one blood,\" said the Apostle Paul, in addressing\nhimself to the _elite_ of Athens, \"all nations, for to dwell on the face\nof all the earth.\" Such, on this special head, is the testimony of\nRevelation, and such the conclusion of our highest scientific\nauthorities. The question has, indeed, been raised in these latter\ntimes, whether each species of animals may not have been originally\ncreated, not by single pairs or in single centres, but by several pairs\nand in several centres, and, of course, the human species among the\nrest? And the _query_,--for in reality it amounts to nothing more,--has\nbeen favorably entertained on the other side of the Atlantic. On purely\nscientific grounds it is of course difficult to prove a negative in the\ncase, just as it would be difficult to prove a negative were the\nquestion to be, whether the planet Venus was not composed of quartz\nrock, or the planet Mars of Old Red Sandstone? But the portion of the\nproblem really solvable by science,--the identity of the human race\nunder all its conditions, and in all its varieties,--science _has_\nsolved. It has determined that all the various tribes of man are but\nforms of a single species. And in the definition of species,--waiving\nthe American _doubt_ until it shall at least become something more,--I\nam content to follow the higher authorities. \"We unite,\" says M. de\nCandolle, \"under the designation of a _species_, all those individuals\nthat mutually bear to each other so close a resemblance as to allow of\nour supposing that they may have proceeded originally from a single\nbeing or a single pair.\" \"A _species_,\" says Buffon, \"is a constant\nsuccession of individuals similar to and capable of reproducing each\nother.\" \"A _species_,\" says Cuvier, \"is a succession of individuals\nwhich reproduces and perpetuates itself.\"\n\nNow, all history and all tradition, so far as they throw light on the\nquestion at all, agree in showing that the centre in which the human\nspecies originated must have been somewhere in the temperate regions of\nthe East, not far distant from the Caucasian group of mountains. All the\nold seats of civilization,--that of Nineveh, Babylon, Palestine, Egypt,\nand Greece,--are spread out around this centre. And it is certainly a\ncircumstance worthy of notice, and surely not without bearing on the\n_physical_ condition of primeval humanity, that in this centre we find a\nvariety of the species which naturalists of the highest standing regard\nas fundamentally typical of the highest races of the globe. \"The\nnatives of the Caucasus,\" says Cuvier, \"are even now considered as the\nhandsomest on earth.\" And wherever man has, if I may so speak, _fallen_\nleast,--wherever he has retained, at least intellectually, the Divine\nimage,--this Caucasian type of feature and figure, with, of course,\ncertain national modifications, he also retains. It was developed in a\nremarkable degree among the old Greeks, as may be seen from the busts of\nsome of their handsomer men; and still more remarkably in their _beau\nideal_ of beauty, as exemplified in the statues of their gods. We see it\nalso, though dashed with a shade of severity, in the strong forms and\nstern features of monarchs that reigned of old in Nineveh and Babylon,\nas brought to light in their impressive effigies by the excavations of\nRawlinson and Layard. And further, though somewhat modified by the\nAfrican dash, we detect it in the colossal statues of Egypt. Nor, as\nshown by Egyptian paintings still fresh in color and outline, was it\nless traceable in the ancient Jewish countenance and figure. It is still\npalpable, too, amid all the minor peculiarities of national physiognomy,\nin the various peoples of Europe. We may see it in our own country,\nthough, as Sir Walter Scott truly tells us,--\n\n \"The rugged form may mark the mountain band,\n And harsher features and a mien more grave.\"\n\nIt walks, however, the boards of our Parliament House here in a very\nrespectable type of Caucasian man; and all agree that nowhere else in\nmodern Europe is it to be found more true to its original contour than\namong the high-bred aristocracy of England, especially among the female\nmembers of the class. Looking, then, at the entire evidence,--at the\nadmitted fact that the Circassians of the present day are an eminently\nhandsome people,--that the old Greeks, Ninevites, Egyptians, Jews,\nRomans, and with these all the modern nations of Europe, are but the\nvarieties of the central race that have retained in greatest perfection\nthe original traits,--I do not see how we are to avoid the conclusion\nthat this Caucasian type was the type of Adamic man. Adam, the father of\nmankind, was no squalid savage of doubtful humanity, but a noble\nspecimen of man; and Eve a soft Circassian beauty, but exquisitely\nlovely beyond the lot of fallen humanity.\n\n \"The loveliest pair\n That ever yet in love's embraces met:\n Adam, the goodliest man of men since born\n His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.\"\n\nI know not whether I should add what follows. It has been said that\nLuke, the \"beloved physician,\" was also a painter. It has been said that\nthat traditionary, time-honored form, which we at once recognize in the\npictures of the old masters as that of the Saviour of mankind, he in\nreality bore when he walked this earth in the flesh. I know not what\ndegree of probability attaches to the belief. I know not whether the\ntraditionary form be in reality the true one. This, however, I know,\nthat _if_ such was the form which the adorable Redeemer assumed when he\ntook to himself a real body and a reasonable soul, the second Adam, like\nthe first, exemplified, when upon earth, the perfect type of Caucasian\nman.\n\nLet me next remark, that the further we remove from the original centre\nof the race, the more degraded and sunk do we find the several varieties\nof humanity. We must set wholly aside, in our survey, the disturbing\nelement of modern emigration. Caucasian man has been pressing outwards.\nIn the backwoods of America, in Southern Africa, in Australia, and in\nthe Polynesian islands, the old Adamic type has been asserting its\nsuperiority, and annihilating before it the degraded races. But taking\ninto account merely the aboriginal varieties, it seems to be a general\nrule, that the further we remove in any direction from the Adamic\ncentre, the more animalized and sunk do we find the various tribes or\nraces. Contrary to the conceptions of the assertors of the development\nhypothesis, we ascertain, as we proceed outwards, that the course is not\none of progression from the low to the high, but of descent from the\nhigh to the low. Passing northwards, we meet, where the lichen-covered\nland projects into the frozen ocean, with the diminutive Laps, squat,\nungraceful, with their flat features surmounted by pyramidal skulls of\nsmall capacity, and, as a race, unfitted for the arts either of peace or\nwar. We meet also with the timid Namollas, with noses so flat as to be\nscarce visible in the women and children of the race; and with the\nswarthy Kamtschatkans, with their broad faces, protuberant bellies, and\nthin, ill-formed legs. Passing southwards, we come to the negro tribes,\nwith their sooty skins, broad noses, thick lips, projecting jawbones,\nand partially-webbed fingers. And then we find ourselves among the\nsqualid Hottentots, repulsively ugly, and begrimmed with filth; or the\nstill more miserable Bushmen. Passing eastwards, after taking leave of\nthe Persian and Indian branches of the Caucasian race, we meet with the\nsquat Mongolian, with his high cheek bones set on a broad face, and his\ncompressed, unintellectual, pig-like eyes; or encounter, in the Indian\nArchipelago or the Australian interior, the pitiably low Alforian races,\nwith their narrow, retreating foreheads, slim, feeble limbs, and\nbaboon-like faces. Or, finally, passing westward, we find the\nlarge-jawed, copper-colored Indians of the New World, vigorous in some\nof the northern tribes as animals, though feeble as men, but gradually\nsinking in southern America, as among the wild Caribs or spotted\nAraucans; till at the extremity of the continent we find, naked and\nshivering among their snows, the hideous, small-eyed, small-limbed,\nflat-headed Fuegians, perhaps the most wretched of human creatures. And\nall these varieties of the species, in which we find humanity \"fallen,\"\naccording to the poet, \"into disgrace,\" are varieties that have lapsed\nfrom the original Caucasian type. They are all the descendants of man as\nGod created him; but they do not exemplify man as God created him. They\ndo not represent, save in hideous caricature, the glorious creature\nmoulded of old by the hand of the Divine Worker. They are\nfallen,--degraded; many of them, as races, hopelessly lost. For all\nexperience serves to show, that when a tribe of men falls beneath a\ncertain level, it cannot come into competition with civilized man,\npressing outwards from his old centres to possess the earth, without\nbecoming extinct before him. Sunk beneath a certain level, as in the\nforests of America, in Van Dieman's Land, in New South Wales, and among\nthe Bushmen of the Cape, the experience of more than a hundred years\ndemonstrates that its destiny is extinction,--not restoration.\nIndividuals may be recovered by the labors of some zealous missionary;\nbut it is the fate of the race, after a few generations, to disappear.\nIt has fallen too hopelessly low to be restored. There remain curious\ntraces in the New World of these perished tribes. The Bible, translated\ninto an old Indian language, from which the devoted David Brainerd\ntaught so successfully a nation of Red Men, still exists; but it speaks\nin a dead tongue, which no one can now understand; for the nation to\nwhom he preached has become extinct. And Humboldt tells us, in referring\nto a perished tribe of South America, that there lived in 1806, when he\nvisited their country, an old parrot in Maypures, which could not be\nunderstood, because, as the natives informed him, it spoke the language\nof the Atures. Tribes of the aborigines of Australia have wholly\ndisappeared during the present generation; and I remember seeing it\nstated in a newspaper paragraph, which appeared a few years ago, that\nthe last male survivor of the natives of Tasmania was at that time in\nthe latter stages of consumption.\n\nBut if man, in at least the more degraded varieties of the race, be so\npalpably _not_ what the Creator originally made him, by whom, then, was\nhe made the poor lost creature which in these races we find him to be?\nHe was made what he is, I reply, by man himself; and this, in many\ninstances, by a process which we may see every day taking place among\nourselves in individuals and families, though happily, not in races.\nMan's nature again,--to employ the condensed statement of the poet,--has\nbeen bound fast in fate, but his will has been left free. He is free\neither to resign himself to the indolence and self-indulgence so natural\nto the species; or, \"spurning delights, to live laborious days;\"--free\neither to sink into ignorant sloth, dependent uselessness, and\nself-induced imbecility, bodily and mental, or to assert by honest labor\na noble independence,--to seek after knowledge as for hidden treasures,\nand, in the search, to sharpen his faculties and invigorate his mind.\nAnd while we see around us some men addressing themselves with stout,\nbrave hearts to what Carlyle terms, with homely vigor, their \"heavy job\nof work,\" and, by denying themselves many an insidious indulgence, doing\nit effectually and well, and rearing up well-taught families in\nusefulness and comfort, to be the stay of the future, we see other men\nyielding to the ignoble solicitations of appetite or of indolence, and\nbecoming worse than useless themselves, and the parents of ignorant,\nimmoral, and worse than useless families. The wandering vagrants of\nGreat Britain at the present time have been estimated at from fifteen to\ntwenty thousand souls; the hereditary paupers of England,--a vastly\nmore numerous class,--have become, in a considerable degree, a sept\ndistinct from the general community; and in all our large towns there\nare certain per centages of the population,--unhappily ever increasing\nper centages,--that, darkened in mind and embruted in sentiment, are\nwidely recognized as emphatically the dangerous classes of the\ncommunity. And let us remember that we are witnessing in these instances\nno new thing in the history of the species: every period since that of\nthe vagabond Cain has had its waifs and stragglers, who fell behind in\nthe general march. In circumstances such as obtained in the earlier ages\nof the human family, all the existing nomades and paupers of our country\nwould have passed into distinct races of men. For in the course of a few\ngenerations their forms and complexions would begin to tell of the\nself-induced degradation that had taken place in their minds; and in a\nfew ages more they would have become permanent varieties of the species.\nThere are cases in which not more than from two to three centuries have\nbeen found sufficient thoroughly to alter the original physiognomy of a\nrace. \"On the plantation of Ulster in 1611, and afterwards, on the\nsuccess of the British against the rebels in 1641 and 1689,\" says a\nshrewd writer of the present day, himself an Irishman, \"great multitudes\nof the native Irish were driven from Armagh and the south of Down, into\nthe mountainous tract extending from the Barony of Fleurs eastward to\nthe sea; on the other side of the kingdom the same race were exposed to\nthe worst effects of hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalizers of\nthe human race. The descendants of these exiles are now distinguished\nphysically by great degradation. They are remarkable for open,\nprojecting mouths, with prominent teeth and exposed gums; and their\nadvancing cheek bones and depressed noses bear barbarism on their very\nfront. In Sligo and northern Mayo the consequences of the two centuries\nof degradation and hardship exhibit themselves in the whole physical\ncondition of the people, affecting not only the features, but the frame.\nFive feet two inches on an average,--pot-bellied, bow-legged, abortively\nfeatured, their clothing a wisp of rags,--these spectres of a people\nthat were once well-grown, able-bodied, and comely, stalk abroad into\nthe daylight of civilization, the annual apparition of Irish ugliness\nand Irish want.\"\n\nSuch is man as man himself has made him,--not man as he came from the\nhand of the Creator. In many instances the degradation has been\nvoluntary; in others it has been forced upon families and races by the\niron hand of oppression; in almost all,--whether self-chosen by the\nparents or imposed upon them,--the children and the children's children\nhave, as a matter of inevitable necessity, been born to it. For,\nwhatever we may think of the Scriptural doctrine on this special head,\nit is a fact broad and palpable in the economy of nature, that parents\n_do_ occupy a federal position; and that the lapsed progenitors, when\ncut off from civilization and all external interference of a missionary\ncharacter, become the founders of a lapsed race. The iniquities of the\nparents are visited upon the children. And in all such instances it is\n_man_ left to the freedom of his own will that is the deteriorator of\nman. The doctrine of the Fall, in its purely theologic aspect, is a\ndoctrine which must be apprehended by faith; but it is at least\nsomething to find that the analogies of science, instead of running\ncounter to it, run in exactly the same line. It is one of the inevitable\nconsequences of that nature of man which the Creator \"bound fast in\nfate,\" while he left free his will, that the free will of the parent\nshould become the destiny of the child.\n\nBut the subject is one in which we can see our way as but \"through a\nglass darkly.\" Nay, it is possible that the master problem which it\ninvolves no created intelligence can thoroughly unlock. It has been well\nsaid, that the \"poet's heart\" is informed by a \"terrible sagacity;\" and\nI am at times disposed to regard Milton's conception of the perplexity\nof the fallen spirits, when reasoning on \"fixed fate, free will,\nforeknowledge absolute,\" and finding \"no end in wandering mazes lost,\"\nmuch rather as a sober truth caught from the invisible world, than as\nmerely an ingenious fancy. The late Robert Montgomery has rather\nunhappily chosen Satan as one of the themes of his muse; and in his long\npoem, designated in its second title \"Intellect without God,\" he has set\nthat personage a-reasoning in a style which, I fear, more completely\ndemonstrates the absence of God than the presence of intellect. It has,\nhowever, sometimes occurred to me, that a poet of the larger calibre,\nwho to the Divine faculty and vision added such a knowledge of geologic\nscience as that which Virgil possessed of the Natural History of his\ntime, or as that which Milton possessed of the general learning of\n_his_, might find, in a somewhat similar subject, the materials of a\npoem which \"posterity would not willingly let die.\" There is one of the\nsatirists justly severe on a class of critics\n\n \"Who, drily plain, without invention's aid,\n Write dull receipts how poems may be made.\"\n\nBut at some risk of rendering myself obnoxious to his censure, I shall\nattempt indicating at least the general scope and character of what the\nschoolmen might term a _possible_ poem; which, if vivified by the genius\nof some of the higher masters of the lyre, broad of faculty, and at once\ngreat poets and great men, might prove one precious boon more to the\nworld, suited, conformably to the special demands of these latter times,\nto\n\n \"assert Eternal Providence,\n And justify the ways of God to man.\"\n\nThere has been war among the intelligences of God's spiritual creation.\nLucifer, son of the morning, has fallen like fire from heaven; and our\npresent earth, existing as a half-extinguished hell, has received him\nand his angels. Dead matter exists, and in the unembodied spirits\nvitality exists; but not yet in all the universe of God has the vitality\nbeen united to the matter; animal life, to even the profound\napprehension of the fallen angel, is an inconceivable idea. Meanwhile,\nas the scarce reckoned centuries roll by, vacantly and dull, like the\ncheerless days and nights over the head of some unhappy captive, the\nmiserable prisoners of our planet become aware that there is a slow\nchange taking place in the condition of their prison-house. Where a low,\ndark archipelago of islands raise their flat backs over the thermal\nwaters, the heat glows less intensely than of old; the red fire bursts\nforth less frequently; the dread earthquake shakes more rarely; save in\na few centres of intenser action, the great deep no longer boils like a\npot; and though the heavens are still shut out by a gray ceiling of\nthick vapor, through which sun or moon never yet appeared, a less gloomy\ntwilight struggles at noonday through the enveloping cloud, and falls\nmore cheerfully than heretofore upon land and sea. At length there comes\na morning in which great ocean and the scattered islands declare that\nGod the Creator had descended to visit the earth. The hitherto\nverdureless land bears the green flush of vegetation; and there are\ncreeping things among the trees. Nor is the till now unexampled mystery\nof animal life absent from the sounds and bays. It is the highest\nintelligences that manifest the deepest interest in the works of the All\nWise. Nor can we doubt that on that morning of creative miracle, in\nwhich matter and vitality were first united in the bonds of a strange\nwedlock, the comprehensive intellect of the great fallen\nspirit--profound and active beyond the lot of humanity--would have found\nample employment in attempting to fathom the vast mystery, and in vainly\nasking what these strange things might mean.\n\nWith how much of wonder, as scene succeeded scene, and creation followed\ncreation,--as life sprang out of death, and death out of life,--must not\nthat acute Intelligence have watched the course of the Divine\nWorker,--scornful of spirit and full of enmity, and yet aware, in the\ninner depths of his intellect, that what he dared insultingly to\ndepreciate, he yet failed, in its ultimate end and purpose, adequately\nto comprehend! Standing in the presence of unsolved mystery, under the\nchill and withering shadow of that secret of the Lord which was not with\nhim, how thoroughly must he not have seen, and with what bitter\nmalignity felt, that the grasp of the Almighty was still upon him, and\nthat in the ever varying problem of creation, which, with all his\npowers, he failed to unlock, and which, as age succeeded age, remained\nan unsolved problem still, the Divine Master against whom he had\nrebelled, but from whose presence it was in vain to flee, emphatically\nspake to him, as in an after age to the patriarch Job, and, with the\nquiet dignity of the Infinite, challenged him either to do or to know!\n\"Shall he that coutendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that\nreproveth God, let him answer. Knowest thou the ordinances of Heaven? or\ncanst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?\" With what wild\nthoughts must that restless and unhappy spirit have wandered amid the\ntangled mazes of the old carboniferous forests! With what bitter\nmockeries must he have watched the fierce wars which raged in their\nsluggish waters, among ravenous creatures horrid with trenchant teeth,\nbarbed sting, and sharp spine, and enveloped in glittering armor of\nplate and scale! And how, as generation after generation passed away,\nand ever and anon the ocean rolled where the land had been, or the land\nrose to possess the ancient seats of the ocean,--how, when looking back\nupon myriads of ages, and when calling up in memory what once had been,\nthe features of earth seemed scarce more fixed to his view than the\nfeatures of the sky in a day of dappled, breeze-borne clouds,--how must\nhe have felt, as he became conscious that the earth was fast ripening,\nand that, as its foundations became stable on the abyss, it was made by\nthe Creator a home of higher and yet higher forms of existence,--how\nmust he have felt, if, like some old augur looking into the inner\nmysteries of animal life, with their strange prophecies, the truth had\nat length burst upon him, that reasoning, accountable man was fast\ncoming to the birth,--man, the moral agent,--man, the ultimate work and\nend of creation,--man, a creature in whom, as in the inferior animals,\nvitality was to be united to matter, but in whom also, as in no inferior\nanimal, responsibility was to be united to vitality! How must expectancy\nhave quickened,--how must solicitude have grown,--when, after the\ndynasty of the fish had been succeeded by the dynasty of the reptile,\nand that of the reptile by the dynasty of the sagacious mammal, a time\nhad at length arrived when the earth had become fixed and stable, and\nthe proud waves of ocean had been stayed,--when, after species and\ngenera in both kingdoms had been increased tenfold beyond the precedent\nof any former age, the Creative Hand seemed to pause in its working, and\nthe finished creation to demand its lord! Even at this late period, how\nstrange may not the doubts and uncertainties have been that remained to\ndarken the mind of the lost spirit! It was according to his\nexperience,--stretched backwards to the first beginnings of organic\nvitality, and coextensive, at a still earlier period, with God's\nspiritual universe,--that all _animals_ should die,--that all _moral\nagents_ should live. How, in this new creature,--this prodigy of\ncreation, who was to unite what never before had been united,--the\nnature of the animals that _die_ with the standing and responsibility of\nthe moral agents that _live_,--how, in this partaker of the double\nnature, was the discrepancy to be reconciled? How, in this matter, were\nthe opposite claims of life and death to be adjusted, or the absolute\n_immortality_, which cannot admit of degrees, to be made to meet with\nand shade into the _mortality_ which, let us extend the term of previous\nvitality as we may, must forever involve the antagonistic idea of final\nannihilation and the ceasing to be?\n\nAt length creation receives its deputed monarch. For, moulded by God's\nown finger, and in God's own likeness, man enters upon the scene, an\nexquisite creature, rich in native faculty, pregnant with the yet\nundeveloped seeds of all wisdom and knowledge, tender of heart and pure\nof spirit, formed to hold high communion with his Creator, and to\nbreathe abroad his soul in sympathy over all that the Creator had made.\nAnd yet, left to the freedom of his own will, there is a weakness in the\nflesh that betrays his earthly lineage. It is into the dust of the\nground that the living soul has been breathed. The son of the soil, who,\nlike the inferior animals, his subjects, sleeps and wakes, and can feel\nthirst and hunger, and the weariness of toil, and the sweets of rest,\nand who come under the general law, \"increase and multiply,\" promulgated\nof old to them, stands less firmly than the immaterial spirits stood of\nold; and yet even they rebelled against Heaven, and fell. There awakes a\ngrim hope in the sullen lord of the first revolt. Ages beyond tale or\nreckoning has this temple of creation been in building. Long have its\nmute prophecies in fishes and in creeping things, in bird and in beast,\ntold of coming man, its final object and end. And now there needeth but\none blow, and the whole edifice is destroyed, God's purposes marred and\nfrustrated, and this new favorite of earth dashed back to the dust out\nof which he was created, and brought, like the old, extinct races, under\nthe eternal law of death. Armed with the experience in evil of unsummed\nages, the Tempter plies his work: nor is it to low or ignoble appetites\nthat he appeals. It is to the newly-formed creature's thirst for\nknowledge; it is to his love stronger than death. The wiles of the Old\nSerpent prevail; man falls prostrate before him; creation trembles; and\nthen from amid the trees of the garden comes the voice of God. And lo!\nin an enigma mysterious and dark a new dispensation of prophecy begins.\nVictims bleed; altars smoke; the tabernacle arises amid the white tents\nof the desert; the temple ascends all glorious on the heights of Mount\nZion; prophet after prophet declares his message. At length, in the\nfulness of time, the Messiah comes; and, in satisfying the law, and in\nfulfilling all righteousness, and in bringing life and immortality to\nlight, abundantly shows forth that the terminal dynasty of all creation\nhad been of old foreordained, ere the foundations of the world, to\npossess for its eternal lord and monarch, not primeval man, created in\nthe image of God, but God, made manifest in the flesh, in the form of\nprimeval man. But how breaks on the baffled Tempter the sublime\nrevelation? Wearily did he toil,--darkly did he devise, and take, in his\ngreat misery, deep counsel against the Almighty; and yet all the while,\nwhile striving and resisting as an enemy, has he been wielded as a tool;\nwhen, glaring aloof in his proud rebellion, the grasp of the Omnipotent\nhas been upon him, and the Eternal Purposes have encompassed him, and he\nhas been working out, all unwittingly, the foreordained decree, \"For our\nGod maketh the wrath of the wicked to praise him, and the remainder\nthereof doth he restrain.\"\n\nBut enough, for the present, of the poems that might be. Permit me,\nhowever, to add, in the words of one of the most suggestive, and\ncertainly not least powerful, of English thinkers, that \"a fall of some\nsort or other,--the creation, as it were, of the non-absolute,--is the\nfundamental postulate of the moral history of man. Without this\nhypothesis,\" he adds, \"man is unintelligible,--with it every phenomenon\nis explicable. The mystery itself is too profound for human insight.\"\nSuch, in this matter, was the ultimate judgment of a man who in youth\nhad entertained very opposite views,--the poet Coleridge.\n\nIt has been said that the inferences of the geologist militate against\nthose of the theologian. Nay, not those of our higher geologists and\nhigher theologians,--not what our Murchisons and Sedgwicks infer in the\none field, with what our Chalmerses and Isaac Taylors infer in the\nother. Between the Word and the Works of God there can be no actual\ndiscrepancies; and the seeming ones are discernible only by the men who\nsee worst.\n\n \"Mote-like they flicker in unsteady eyes,\n And weakest his who best descries.\"\n\nThe geologist, as certainly as the theologian, has a province\nexclusively his own; and were the theologian ever to remember that the\nScriptures could not possibly have been given to us as revelations of\nscientific truth, seeing that a single scientific truth they never yet\nrevealed, and the geologist that it must be in vain to seek in science\nthose truths which lead to salvation, seeing that in science these\ntruths were never yet found, there would be little danger even of\ndifference among them, and none of collision. Nay, there is, I doubt\nnot, a time coming in which the Butlers and Chalmerses of the future\nwill be content to recognize the geologic field as that of their richest\nand most pregnant analogies. It is with the history of the pre-Adamic\nages that geology sets itself to deal; and by carefully conning the\nancient characters graven in the rocks, and by deciphering the strange\ninscriptions which they compose, it greatly extends the record of God's\ndoings upon the earth. And what more natural to expect, or rational to\nhold, than that the Unchangeable One should have wrought in all time\nafter one general type and pattern, or than that we may seek, in the\nhope of finding, meet correspondences and striking analogies between his\nrevealed workings during the human period, and his previous workings of\nold during the geologic periods,--correspondences and analogies suited\nto establish the identity of the worker, and, of course, from that\nidentity to demonstrate the authenticity of the revelation? Permit me to\nbring out, in conclusion, what I have often thought on this subject, but\nhave not been able so tersely to express, in a brief quotation from one\nof the most instructive works of the present age, the \"Method of the\nDivine Government,\" by the Rev. Dr. M'Cosh:--\"Science has a foundation,\"\nsays this solid thinker and accomplished writer, \"and so has religion.\nLet them unite their foundations, and the basis will be broader, and\nthey will be two compartments of one great fabric reared to the glory of\nGod. Let the one be the outer and the other the inner court. In the one\nlet all look, and admire, and adore; and in the other let those who have\nfaith kneel, and pray, and praise. Let the one be the sanctuary where\nhuman learning may present its richest incense as an offering to God,\nand the other, the holiest of all, separated from it by a veil now rent\nin twain, and in which, on a blood-sprinkled mercy seat, we pour out the\nlove of a reconciled heart, and hear the oracles of the living God.\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE SEVENTH.\n\nTHE NOACHIAN DELUGE.\n\n\nPART I.\n\nThere are events so striking in themselves or from their accompaniments,\nthat they powerfully impress the memories of children but little removed\nfrom infancy, and are retained by them in a sort of troubled\nrecollection ever after, however extended their term of life. Samuel\nJohnson was only two and a half years old when, in accordance with the\nbelief of the time, he was touched by Queen Anne for the \"Evil;\" but\nmore than seventy years after, he could call up in memory a dream-like\nrecollection of the lady dressed in a black hood, and glittering with\ndiamonds, into whose awful presence he had been ushered on that\noccasion, and who had done for the cure of his complaint all that\nlegitimate royalty could do. And an ancient lady of the north country,\nwho had been carried, when a child, in her nurse's arms, to witness the\nlast witch execution that took place in Scotland, could distinctly tell,\nafter the lapse of nearly a century, that the fire was surrounded by an\nawe-struck crowd, and that the smoke of the burning, when blown about\nher by a cross breeze, had a foul and suffocating odor. In this respect\nthe memory of infant tribes and nations seems to resemble that of\nindividuals. There are characters and events which impress it so\nstrongly, that they seem never to be forgotten, but live as traditions,\nsometimes mayhap very vague, and much modified by the inventions of an\nafter time, but which, in floating downwards to late ages, always bear\nabout them a certain strong impress of their pristine reality. They are\nshadows that have become ill defined from the vast distance of the\nobjects that cast them,--like the shadows of great birds flung, in a\nsummer's day, from the blue depths of the sky to the landscape far\nbelow,--but whose very presence, however diffused they may have become,\ntestifies to the existence of the remote realities from which they are\nthrown, and without which they could have had no being at all. The old\nmythologies are filled with shadowy traditions of this kind,--shadows of\nthe world's \"gray fathers,\"--which, like those shadows seen reflected on\nclouds by travellers who ascend lofty mountains, are exaggerated into\nthe most gigantic proportions, and bear radiant glories around their\nheads.\n\nThere is, however, one special tradition which seems to be more deeply\nimpressed and more widely spread than any of the others. The destruction\nof well nigh the whole human race, in an early age of the world's\nhistory, by a great deluge, appears to have so impressed the minds of\nthe few survivors, and seems to have been handed down to their children,\nin consequence, with such terror-struck impressiveness, that their\nremote descendants of the present day have not even yet forgotten it. It\nappears in almost every mythology, and lives in the most distant\ncountries, and among the most barbarous tribes. It was the laudable\nambition of Humboldt,--first entertained at a very early period of\nlife,--to penetrate into distant regions, unknown to the natives of\nEurope at the time, that he might acquaint himself, in fields of\nresearch altogether fresh and new, with men and with nature in their\nmost primitive conditions. In carrying out his design, he journeyed far\ninto the woody wilderness that surrounds the Orinoco, and found himself\namong tribes of wild Indians whose very names were unknown to the\ncivilized world. And yet among even these forgotten races of the human\nfamily he found the tradition of the deluge still fresh and distinct;\nnot confined to single tribes, but general among the scattered nations\nof that great region, and intertwined with curious additions, suggestive\nof the inventions of classic mythology in the Old World. \"The belief in\na great deluge,\" we find him saying, \"is not confined to one nation\nsingly,--the Tamanacs: it makes part of a system of historical\ntradition, of which we find scattered notions among the Maypures of the\ngreat cataracts; among the Indians of the Rio Erevato, which runs into\nthe Caura; and among almost all the tribes of the Upper Orinoco. When\nthe Tamanacs are asked how the human race survived this great\ndeluge,--'_the age of water_' of the Mexicans,--they say, a man and\nwoman saved themselves on a high mountain called Tamanacu, situated on\nthe banks of the Asiveru, and, _casting behind them over their heads_\nthe fruits of the mauritia palm-tree, they saw the seeds contained in\nthese fruits produce men and women, who re-peopled the earth. Thus,\"\nadds the philosophic traveller, \"we find in all simplicity, among\nnations now in a savage state, a tradition which the Greeks embellished\nwith all the charms of imagination.\" The resemblance is certainly very\nstriking. \"Quit the temple,\" said the Oracle to Deucalion and Pyrrha,\nwhen they had consulted it, after the great deluge, regarding the mode\nin which the earth was to be re-peopled,--\"vail your heads, unloose your\ngirdles, and throw behind your backs the bones of your grandmother.\"\nRightly interpreting what seemed darkest and most obscure in the reply,\nthey took \"stones of the earth,\" and, casting them behind them, the\nstones flung by Deucalion became men, and those by Pyrrha became women,\nand thus the disfurnished world was peopled anew. The navigator always\nregards himself as sure of his position when he has _two_ landmarks to\ndetermine it by, or when in the open ocean he can ascertain, not only\nhis latitude, but his longitude also. And this curious American\ntradition seems to have its two such marks,--its two bisecting lines of\ndetermination,--to identify it with the classic tradition of the Old\nWorld that refers evidently to the same great event.\n\nThere are other portions of America in which the tradition of the Flood\nis still more distinct than among the forests of the Orinoco. It is\nrelated by Herrera, one of the Spanish historians of America, that even\nthe most barbarous of the Brazilians had some knowledge of a general\ndeluge; that in Peru the ancient Indians reported, that many years\nbefore there were any Incas, all the people were drowned by a great\nflood, save six persons, the progenitors of the existing races, who were\nsaved on a float; that among the Mechoachans it was believed that a\nsingle family was preserved, during the outburst of the waters, in an\nark, with a sufficient number of animals to replenish the new world;\nand, more curious still, that it used to be told by the original\ninhabitants of Cuba, that \"an old man, knowing the deluge was to come,\nbuilt a great ship, and went into it with his family and abundance of\nanimals; and that, wearying during the continuance of the flood, he sent\nout a crow, which at first did not return, staying to feed on the dead\nbodies, but afterwards returned bearing with it a green branch.\" The\nresemblance borne by this last tradition to the Mosaic narrative is so\nclose as to awaken a doubt whether it may not have been but a mere\nrecollection of the teaching of some early missionary. Nor can its\ngenuineness now be tested, seeing that the race which cherished it has\nbeen long since extinct. It may be stated, however, that a similar\nsuspicion crossed the mind of Humboldt when he was engaged in collecting\nthe traditions of the Indians of the Orinoco; but that on further\nreflection and inquiry he dismissed the doubt as groundless. He even set\nhimself to examine whether the district was not a fossiliferous one, and\nwhether beds of sea shells, or deposits charged with the petrified\nremains of corals or of fishes, might not have originated among the\naborigines some mere myth of a great inundation sufficient to account\nfor the appearances in the rocks. But he found that the region was\nmainly a primary one, in which he could detect only a single patch of\nsedimentary rock, existing as an unfossiliferous sandstone. And so,\nthough little prejudiced in favor of the Mosaic record, he could not\navoid arriving at the conclusion, simply in his character as a\nphilosophic inquirer, who had no other object than to attain to the real\nand the true, that the legend of the wild Maypures and Tamanacs\nregarding a great destructive deluge was simply one of the many forms of\nthat oldest of traditions which appears to be well nigh coextensive with\nthe human family, and which, in all its varied editions, seems to point\nat one and the same signal event. Very varied some of these editions\nare. The inhabitants of Tahiti tell, for instance, that the Supreme God,\na long time ago, being angry, dragged the earth through the sea, but\nthat by a happy accident _their_ island broke off and was preserved; the\nIndians of Terra Firma believe, that when the great deluge took place,\none man, with his wife and children, escaped in a canoe; and the Indians\nof the North American lakes hold, that the father of all their tribes\nbeing warned in a dream that a flood was coming, built a raft, on which\nhe preserved his family, and pairs of all the animals, and which drifted\nabout for many months, until at length a new earth was made for their\nreception by the \"Mighty Man above.\"\n\nIn that widely extended portion of the Old World over which Christianity\nhas spread in its three great types,--Greek, Romish, and\nProtestant,--and in the scarce less extended portion occupied by the\nfollowers of Mohammed, the Scriptural account of the deluge, or the\nimperfect reflection of it borrowed by the Koran, has, of course,\nsupplanted the old traditions. But outside these regions we find the\ntraditions existing still. One of the sacred books of the Parsees\n(representatives of the ancient Persians) records, that \"the world\nhaving been corrupted by Ahriman the Evil One, it was thought necessary\nto bring over it a universal flood of waters, that all impurity might be\nwashed away. Accordingly the rain came down in drops as large as the\nhead of a bull, until the earth was wholly covered with water, and all\nthe creatures of the Evil One perished. And then the flood gradually\nsubsided, and first the mountains, and next the plains, appeared once\nmore.\" In the Scandinavian Edda, between whose wild fables and those of\nthe sacred books of the Parsees there has been a resemblance traced by\naccomplished antiquaries such as Mallet, the tradition of the deluge\ntakes a singularly monstrous form. On the death of the great giant Ymir,\nwhose flesh and bones form the rocks and soils of the earth, and who was\nslain by the early gods, his blood, which now constitutes the ocean,\nrushed so copiously out of his wounds, that all the old race of the\nlesser giants, his offspring, were drowned in the flood which it\noccasioned, save one; and he, by escaping on board his bark with his\nwife, outlived the deluge. The tradition here is evidently allegorized,\nbut it is by no means lost in the allegory.\n\nSir William Jones, perhaps the most learned and accomplished man of his\nage (such at least was the estimate of Johnson), and the first who\nfairly opened up the great storehouse of eastern antiquities, describes\nthe tradition of the deluge as prevalent also in the vast Chinese\nempire, with its three hundred millions of people. He states that it was\nthere believed that, just ere the appearance of Fohi in the mountains, a\nmighty flood, which first \"flowed abundantly, and then subsided, covered\nfor a time the whole earth, and separated the higher from the lower age\nof mankind.\" The Hindu tradition, as related by Sir William, though\ndisfigured by strange additions, is still more explicit. An evil demon\nhaving purloined the sacred books from Brahma, the whole race of men\nbecame corrupt except the seven Nishis, and in especial the holy\nSatyavrata, the prince of a maritime region, who, when one day bathing\nin a river, was visited by the god Vishnu in the shape of a fish, and\nthus addressed by him:--\"In seven days all creatures who have offended\nme shall be destroyed by a deluge; but thou shalt be secured in a\ncapacious vessel, miraculously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds of\nmedicinal herbs, and esculent grain for food, and, together with the\nseven holy men, your respective wives, and pairs of all animals, enter\nthe ark without fear: then shalt thou know God face to face, and all thy\nquestions shall be answered.\" The god then disappeared; and after seven\ndays, during which Satyavrata had conformed in all respects to the\ninstructions given him, the ocean began to overflow the coasts, and the\nearth to be flooded by constant rains, when a large vessel was seen\ncoming floating shore-wards on the rising waters; into which the Prince\nand the seven virtuous Nishis entered, with their wives, all laden with\nplants and grain, and accompanied by the animals. During the deluge\nVishnu preserved the ark by again taking the form of a fish, and tying\nit fast to himself; and when the waters had subsided, he communicated\nthe contents of the sacred books to the holy Satyavrata, after first\nslaying the demon who had stolen them. It is added, however, that the\ngood man having, on one occasion long after, by \"the act of destiny,\"\ndrunk mead, he became senseless, and lay asleep naked, and that Charma,\none of three sons who had been born to him, finding him in that sad\nstate, called on his two brothers to witness the shame of their father,\nand said to them, What has now befallen? In what state is this our sire?\nBut by the two brothers,--more dutiful than Charma,--he was hidden with\nclothes, and recalled to his senses; and, having recovered his\nintellect, and perfectly knowing what had passed, he cursed Charma,\nsaying, \"Thou shalt be a servant of servants.\" It would be difficult\ncertainly to produce a more curious legend, or one more strikingly\nillustrative of the mixture of truth and fable which must ever be looked\nfor in that tradition which some are content to accept even in religion\nas a trustworthy guide. In ever varying tradition, as in those difficult\nproblems in physical science which have to be wrought out from a\nmultitude of differing observations, it is, if I may so express myself,\nthe mean result of the whole that must be accepted as approximately the\ntrue one. And the mean result of those dim and distorted recollections\nof the various tribes of men which refer to the Flood is a result which\nbears simply to this effect,--that in some early age of the world a\ngreat deluge took place, in which well nigh the whole human family was\ndestroyed.\n\nThe ancient traditions which have come down to us embalmed in classic\nliterature form but a small portion of what seems once to have existed\nin the wide region now overspread by Christianity and Mohammedanism. A\nsecond deluge, more fatal to at least the productions of the human mind\nthan the first had been, overspread the earth during what are known as\nthe Middle Ages; and so signal was the wreck which it occasioned, that\nof seven heathen writers[24] whose testimony regarding the Flood\nJosephus cites as corroborative of his own, not one has descended in his\nwritings to these later times. We learn, however, from the Jewish\nhistorian, that one of their number, Berosus, was a Chaldean; that two\nof the others, Hieronymus and Manetho, were Egyptians; and that a third,\nNicolaus, whose history he quotes, was a citizen of Damascus. \"There\nis,\" said this latter writer, in his perished history, \"a great mountain\nin Armenia, over Minyas, called Baris, upon which it is reported that\nmany who fled at the time of the deluge were saved; and that one who was\ncarried in an ark came on shore on the top of it; and that the remains\nof the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man,\"\nadded this forgotten writer, \"about whom Moses, the legislator of the\nJews, wrote.\" The works of the Chaldean, Berosus, have long since been\nlost, all save a few extracts preserved by the Patristic writers. One of\nthese, however, which embodies the Chaldean tradition of the Flood, is\nvery remarkable. Like the Scandinavian legend, it represents the\nantediluvians as giants, all of whom, save one, became exceedingly\nimpious and depraved. \"But there was one among the giants,\" says\nBerosus, \"that reverenced the gods, and was more wise and prudent than\nall the rest. His name was Noa; he dwelt in Syria, with his three sons,\nSem, Japet, Chem, and their wives, the great Tidea, Pandora, Noela, and\nNoegla. This man, fearing the destruction which, he foresaw from the\nstars, would come to pass, began, in the seventy-eighth year before the\ninundation, to build a ship covered like an ark. Seventy-eight years\nfrom the time he began to build this ship, the ocean of a sudden broke\nout, and all the inland seas and the rivers and fountains bursting from\nbeneath (attended by the most violent rains from heaven for many days),\noverflowed all the mountains; so that the whole human race was buried in\nthe waters, except Noa and his family, who were saved by means of the\nship, which, being lifted up by the waters, rested at last upon the top\nof the Gendyae or Mountain, on which, it is reported, there now\nremaineth some part, and that men take away the bitumen from it, and\nmake use of it by way of charm or expiation, to avoid evil.\" A more\ngeneral Assyrian tradition, somewhat different in its details, also\nsurvives.[25] The god Chronus, it was said, appeared in a vision to\nXisuthrus, the tenth king of Babylon; and, warning him that on a certain\nday there would be a great flood upon the earth, by which mankind would\nbe destroyed, he enjoined him to build a vessel, and to bring into it\nhis friends and relatives, with everything necessary to sustain life,\nand all the various animals, birds, and quadrupeds. In obedience to the\ncommand, the king built a vessel about three quarters of a mile in\nlength and half a mile in breadth, which he loaded with stores and the\ndifferent kinds of animals; and into which, on the day of the flood, he\nhimself entered, accompanied by his wife and children, and all his\nfriends. The flood broke out. After, however, accomplishing its work of\ndestruction, it abated; and the king sent out birds from the vessel,\nwhich, at first finding no food or place of rest, returned to him; but\nwhich, when, after the lapse of some days, he sent them forth again,\ncame back to him with their feet tinged with mud. On a third trial they\nreturned no more; upon which, judging that the surface of the earth was\nlaid dry, he made an opening in the vessel, and, looking forth, found it\nstranded on a mountain of the land of Armenia.\n\nThere seems to exist no such definite outline of the Egyptian tradition\nreferred to by Josephus as that preserved of the Chaldean one. Plato, In\nhis \"Timaeus,\" makes the Egyptian priest whom he introduces as\ndiscoursing with Solon, to attribute that clear recollection of a remote\nantiquity which survived in Egypt, to its comparative freedom from those\ngreat floods which had at various times desolated Greece, and destroyed\nthe memory of remote events by the destruction of the people and their\nrecords; and Bacon had evidently this passage in view when he poetically\nremarked, in his magnificent essay on the \"Vicissitude of Things,\" that\n\"the great winding sheets that bury all things in oblivion are\ntwo,--deluges and earthquakes; from which two destructions is to be\nnoted,\" he adds, \"that the remnant of people that happen to be preserved\nare commonly ignorant and mountainous people, that can give no account\nof the time past.\" Even in Egypt, however, the recollection of the\ndeluge seems to have survived, though it lay entangled amid what seem to\nbe symbolized memories of unusual floodings of the river Nile. \"The Noah\nof Egypt,\" says Professor Hitchcock, in his singularly ingenious essay\n(Historical and Geological Deluges Compared), \"appears to have been\nOsiris. Typhon, a personification of the ocean, enticed him into an ark,\nwhich, being closed, he was forced to sea; and it was a curious fact,\nthat he embarked on the seventeenth day of the month Athyr,--the very\nday, most probably, when Noah entered the ark.\" The classical tradition\nof Greece, as if the events whence it took its rise had been viewed\nthrough a multiplying glass, appears to have been increased from one to\nmany. Plutarch enumerates no fewer than five great floods; and Plato\nmakes his Egyptian priest describe the Greek deluges as oft repeated and\nnumerous. There was the flood of Deucalion, the flood of Ogyges, and\nseveral other floods; and no little time and learning have been wasted\nin attempting to fix their several periods. But, lying far within the\nmythologic ages,--the last of them to which any determining\ncircumstances are attached, in the days of that Prometheus who stole\nfire from heaven, and was chained by Jupiter to Mount Caucasus,--it\nappears greatly more probable that the traditions respecting them should\nbe the mere repeated and re-repeated echoes of one signal event, than\nthat many wide-spread and destructive floods should have taken place in\nthe obscure, fabulous ages of Grecian story, while not one such flood\nhas happened during its two thousand five hundred years of authentic\nhistory. Nor is it difficult to conceive how such repetitions of the\noriginal tradition _should_ have taken place. The traditions of the same\nevent preserved by tribes living in even the same tract of country come\nin course of time considerably to differ from each other in their\nadjuncts and circumstances; those, for instance, of the various tribes\nof the Orinoco do so; and should these tribes come to be fused\nultimately into one nation, nothing seems more probable than that their\nvarying editions, instead of being also fused together, should remain\ndistinct, as the recollections of separate and independent catastrophes.\nAnd thus the several deluges of Grecian mythology may in reality\ntestify, not to the occurrence of several floods, but to the existence\nmerely of several independent tribes, among whom the one great tradition\nhas been so altered and modified ere they came to possess a common\nliterature, that when at length they became skilful enough to place it\non record, it appeared to them not as one, but as many. The admirable\nreflection of Humboldt suggested by the South American traditions seems,\nincidentally at least, to bear out this view. \"Those ancient traditions\nof the human race,\" he says, \"which we find dispersed over the whole\nsurface of the globe, like the relics of a vast shipwreck, are highly\ninteresting in the philosophical study of our own species. How many\ndifferent tongues belonging to branches that appear totally distinct\ntransmit to us the same facts! The traditions concerning races that have\nbeen destroyed, and the renewal of nature, scarcely vary in reality,\nthough every nation gives them a local coloring. In the great\ncontinents, as in the smallest islands of the Pacific Ocean, it is\nalways on the loftiest and nearest mountain that the remains of the\nhuman race have been saved; and this event appears the more recent in\nproportion as the nations are uncultivated, and as the knowledge they\nhave of their own existence has no very remote date.\" And it seems at\nleast not improbable, that the several traditions of apparently special\ndeluges,--deluges each with its own set of circumstances, and from which\nthe progenitors of one nation were saved on a hill-top, those of another\non a raft, and those of yet another in an ark or canoe, and which in one\ninstance destroyed only giants, and had in another the loss which they\noccasioned repaired by date-stones, and in yet another by stones of the\nearth,--should come to be regarded among a people composed of various\ntribes, and but little accustomed to sift the evidence on which they\nfounded, rather as all diverse narratives of diverse events, than as in\nreality but varied accounts of one and the same tremendous catastrophe.\n\nTaking it for granted, then, that the several Greek traditions refer to\nbut one great event, let us accept that which records what is known as\nthe flood of Deucalion, as more adequately representative of the general\ntype of its class, especially in the edition given by Lucian (in his\nwork \"De Dea Syria\"), than any of the others. \"The present world,\" says\nthis writer, \"is peopled from the sons of Deucalion. In respect to the\nformer brood, they were men of violence, and lawless in their dealings;\nthey regarded not oaths, nor observed the rites of hospitality, nor\nshowed mercy to those who sued for it. On this account they were doomed\nto destruction; and for this purpose there was a mighty eruption of\nwater from the earth, attended with heavy showers from above, so that\nthe rivers swelled and the sea overflowed, till the whole earth was\ncovered with a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deucalion alone was\npreserved, to people the world. This mercy was shown him on account of\nhis justice and piety. His preservation was effected in this manner:--He\nput all his family, both his sons and their wives, into a vast ark which\nhe had provided, and he then went into it himself. At the same time,\nanimals of every species,--boars, horses, lions, serpents,--whatever\nlived upon the face of the earth,--followed him by pairs; all which he\nreceived into the ark, and experienced no evil from them.\" Such is the\ntradition of Deucalion, as preserved by Lucian. It is added by his\ncontemporary Plutarch, that \"Deucalion, as his voyage was drawing to a\nclose, sent out a dove, which coming in a short time back to him,\nindicated that the waters still covered the earth; but which on a second\noccasion failed to return; or, as some say, returned to him with\nmud-stained feet, and thus intimated the abatement of the flood.\" It\ncannot, I think, be rationally doubted that we have in this ancient\nlegend one other tradition of the Noachian Deluge. Even as related by\nOvid, with all the license of the poet, we find in it the great leading\ntraits that indicate its parentage. I quote from the vigorous\ntranslation of Dryden.\n\n \"Impetuous rain descends;\n Nor from his patrimonial heaven alone\n Is Jove content to pour his vengeance down;\n But from his brother of the seas he craves\n To help him with auxiliary waves.\n Then with his mace the monarch struck the ground;\n With inward trembling earth received the wound,\n And rising streams a ready passage found.\n Now seas and earth were in confusion lost,--\n A world of waters, and without a coast.\n A mountain of tremendous height there stands\n Betwixt the Athenian and Boeotian lands:\n Parnassus is its name, whose forky rise\n Mounts through the clouds, and mates the lofty skies.\n High on the summit of this dubious cliff,\n Deucalion, wafting, moored his little skiff:\n He, with his wife, were only left behind\n Of perished man; they two were human kind:\n The most upright of mortal men was he,--\n The most serene and holy woman she.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 109.\n\nAPAMAEAN MEDAL.]\n\nSuch are some of the traditions of that great catastrophe which overtook\nthe human family in its infancy, and made so deep an impression on the\nmemories of the few awe-struck survivors, that the race never forgot it.\nEre the dispersal of the family it would have of course existed as but\none unique recollection,--a single reflection on the face of an unbroken\nmirror. But the mirror has since been shattered into a thousand pieces;\nand we now find the object, originally but one, pictured in each broken\nfragment, with various degrees of distinctness, according to the various\ndegrees of injury received by the reflecting medium. _Picture_, too,\nscarce less certainly than language spoken and written, testifies to the\nwide extent of the tradition. Its symbols are found stamped on coins of\nold classical Greece; they have been traced amid the ancient\nhieroglyphics of Egypt, recognized in the sculptured caves of Hindustan,\nand detected even in the far west, among the picture writings of Mexico.\nThe several glyphic representatives of the tradition bear, like its\nvarious written or oral editions, a considerable resemblance to each\nother. Even in the rude paintings of the old Mexican, the same leading\nidea may be traced as in the classic sculpture of the Greek. On what is\nknown to antiquaries as the Apamaean medal, struck during the reign of\nPhilip the elder, we find the familiar name of _Noe_ inscribed on a\nfloating chest or ark, within which a man and woman are seen seated, and\nto which a bird on the wing is represented as bearing a branch.[26] And\nin an ancient Mexican painting, figured by Humboldt, \"the man and woman\nwho survived the age of water\" are shown similarly inclosed in a\nleaf-tufted box, or hollow trunk of a tree; while a gigantic\nfemale,--Matalcueje, the goddess of water,--is seen pouring down her\nfloods around them, and upon an overwhelmed human figure, representative\napparently of the victims of the catastrophe. All is classical in the\nforms of the one representation, and uncouth in those of the other. They\nbear the same sort of _artistic_ relation to each other that the rude\nTamanac tradition bears, in a _literary_ point of view, to the well\nconstructed story and elegant verse of Ovid; but they are charged\napparently with the same meaning, and shadow forth the same event.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 110.\n\nOLD MEXICAN PICTURE.\n\n(_Humboldt._)]\n\nThe tradition of the Flood may, I repeat, be properly regarded as\nuniversal; seeing there is scarce any considerable race of man among\nwhich, in some of its many forms, it is not to be found. Now, it has\nbeen argued by some of the older theologians, with a not very cogent\nlogic, that the universality of the tradition establishes the\nuniversality of the Flood,--that where the tradition _is to be found_,\nthe Flood _must have been_;--an argument which would have force if it\ncould also be shown that each tribe had had its own Noah, saved by ark,\nraft, or canoe, or on some tall mountain summit, in the region in which\nhis descendants continued to reside; but of no force whatever if the\nNoah of the race was but one, and if the scene of his danger and\ndeliverance was restricted, as of necessity it must have been in that\ncase, to a single locality. Further, if, as we believe, there was but\none Noah,--if, according to the Scriptural account, condensed into a\nsingle sentence by the Apostle, only \"eight souls\" were saved in the\ngreat catastrophe of the race,--there could have existed no human\ntestimony to determine whether the exterminating deluge that occasioned\ntheir destruction was a universal deluge, or merely a partial one. It\ncould not be known by men shut up in an ark, nor even though from a mast\ntop they could have swept the horizon with a telescope, whether the\nwaters that spread out on every side of them, covering the old familiar\nmountains, and occupying the entire range of their vision, extended all\naround the globe, or found their limits some eight or ten hundred miles\naway. The point is one respecting which, as certainly as respecting the\ncreation of the world itself, or of the world's inhabitants, there could\nhave existed no human _witness-bearing_: contemporary man, left to the\nunassisted evidence of his senses, _must_ of necessity have been\nignorant of the extent of the deluge. True, what man could never have\nknown of himself, God could have told him, and in many cases _has_ told\nhim; but then, God's revelations have in most instances been made to\neffect exclusively moral purposes; and we know that those who have\nperilously held that, along with the moral facts, definite physical\nfacts, geographic, geologic, or astronomical, had also been imparted,\nhave almost invariably found themselves involved in monstrous error. And\nin this matter of the Flood, though it be a fact of great moral\nsignificancy that God in an early period of the human history destroyed\nthe whole race for their wickedness,--all save one just man and his\nfamily,--it is not in the least a matter of moral significancy whether\nor no the deluge by which the judgment was effected covered not only the\nparts of the earth occupied by man at the time, but extended also to\nTerra del Fuego, Tahiti, and the Falkland Islands. In fine, though the\nquestion whether the Noachian deluge was universal, or merely partial,\nis an interesting question in physics, it is in no higher degree a moral\none than those questions which relate to the right figure or age of the\nearth, or to the true motions of the heavenly bodies. And it will be\nfound that the only passages in Scripture which refer to this strictly\nphysical subject, instead of determining the geographic extent of the\nFlood, serve only to raise a question regarding their own extent of\nmeaning.\n\nIt is known to all students of the sacred writings, that there is a\nnumerous class of passages in both the Old and New Testaments in which,\nby a sort of metonymy common in the East, a considerable part is spoken\nof as the whole, though in reality often greatly less than a moiety of\nthe whole. Of this class are the passages in which it is said, that on\nthe day of Pentecost there were Jews assembled at Jerusalem \"out of\n_every nation under heaven_;\" \"that the gospel was preached to _every\ncreature under heaven_;\" that the Queen of Sheba came to hear the wisdom\nof Solomon from the \"_uttermost parts of the earth_;\" that God put the\ndread and fear of the children of Israel upon the nations that were\n\"_under the whole heaven_;\" and that \"_all countries_ came into Egypt to\nJoseph to buy corn.\" And of course the universally admitted existence\nof such a class of passages, in which words are _not_ to be accepted in\ntheir rigidly literal meanings, but with certain great modifications,\nrenders the task of determining and distinguishing such passages from\nothers in which the meaning is definite and strict, not only legitimate,\nbut also laudable; and justifies us in inquiring whether those passages\ndescriptive of the Flood or its effects, in which it is said that the\n\"waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth,\" so that \"_all_ the high\nhills that were under _the whole heavens_ were covered,\" or that \"_all_\nflesh died that moved upon the earth,\" belong to their number or no.\nThere are some instances in which the Scriptures themselves reveal the\ncharacter and limit the meaning of the metonymic passages. They do so\nwith respect to the passage already quoted regarding the stranger Jews\nassembled in Jerusalem at the Pentecostal feast,--\"out of every nation\nunder heaven.\" For further on we read that these Jews had come from but\nthe various countries extending around Judea, as far as Italy on the one\nhand, and the Persian Gulf on the other;--an area large, indeed, but\nscarce equal to a one fiftieth part of the earth's surface. But there is\nno such explanation given to limit or restrict most of the other\npassages; the modifying element must be sought for outside the sacred\nvolume,--in ancient history or ancient geography. The reader must, for\ninstance, acquaint himself with the progress of discovery in early ages,\nor the boundaries of the Roman Empire under the first Caesars, ere he can\nform a probable conjecture regarding the extent of that \"all the earth\"\nwhich sought the presence of Solomon, or a correct estimate respecting\nthe limits of that \"all the world\" which Caesar Augustus could have\ntaxed. And to this last class, which fail to explain themselves, the\npassages respecting the Flood evidently belong. Like the passages cited,\nand, with these, almost all the texts of Scripture in which questions\nof physical science are involved, the limiting, modifying, explaining\nfacts and circumstances must be sought for in that outside region of\nsecular research, historic and scientific, from which of late years so\nmuch valuable biblical illustration has been derived, and with which it\nis so imperatively the duty of the Church to keep up an acquaintance at\nleast as close and intimate as that maintained with it by her gainsayers\nand assailants.\n\nThat the Noachian deluge might have been but partial, not universal, was\nheld, let me here remark, by distinguished theologians in our own\ncountry, at least as early as the seventeenth century. It was held, for\ninstance, by the learned biblical commentator, old Matthew Poole, whom\nwe find saying, in his Synopsis on Genesis, that \"it is not to be\nsupposed that the entire globe of the earth was covered with water;\" for\n\"where,\" he adds, \"was the need of overwhelming those regions in which\nthere were no human beings?\" It was held also by that distinguished\nProtestant churchman of the reign of Charles II., Bishop Stillingfleet,\nwhom Principal Cunningham of Edinburgh well describes, in his elaborate\nedition of the Bishop's work, \"The Doctrines and Practices of the Church\nof Rome,\" as a divine of \"great talents and prodigious learning.\" \"I\ncannot see,\" says the Bishop, in his \"Origines Sacra,\" \"any urgent\nnecessity from the Scriptures to assert that the Flood did spread over\nall the surface of the earth. That all mankind, those in the ark\nexcepted, were destroyed by it, is most certain, according to the\nScriptures. The Flood was universal as to mankind; but from thence\nfollows no necessity at all of asserting the universality of it as to\nthe globe of the earth, unless it be sufficiently proved that the whole\nearth was peopled before the Flood, which I despair of ever seeing\nproved.\" It was not, however, until the comparatively recent times in\nwhich the belief entertained by Poole and Stillingfleet was adopted and\nenforced by writers such as Dr. Pye Smith, and Professor Hitchcock of\nthe United States, that there was any show of argument displayed against\nthe theory of a partial deluge which would now be deemed worthy of\nconsideration. And these modern objections may be found ingeniously\narrayed by the late Dr. John Kitto, in his \"Daily Bible Illustrations,\"\npublished only six years ago (in 1850), and by the learned Dr. William\nHamilton of Mobile, in his \"Friend of Moses,\" published in 1852. Both\nthese writers, however, virtually agree with their opponents in holding\nthat the strict meaning of the terms employed by Moses in describing the\ndeluge is to be determined on considerations apart from the mere\nphilological ones. After marshalling his objections to the theory of a\nlocal flood, Dr. Kitto goes on to say, \"We yield our judgment to what\nappears to us the _force of these arguments_ as to the _meaning_ of\nScripture;\" and we find Dr. Hamilton prefacing his objections as\nfollows:--\"Were the mere universality of some of the terms employed in\nthe Mosaic narrative the _sole_ ground of objection to the hypothesis of\na _local_ inundation only in the days of Noah, that hypothesis might\nperhaps be deemed admissible. But there are,\" he adds, \"other and more\nserious difficulties attending it.\" Let us, then, briefly examine these\nsupposed difficulties and objections; and as they have been better and\nmore amply stated by Dr. Kitto than by any other writer with whom I am\nacquainted,--for Dr. Hamilton takes up rather the arguments in favor of\na universal, than the objections against a merely partial flood,--let us\ntake them as they occur in his writings, especially in the excellent\nwork now before me,--his \"Daily Bible Illustrations.\" It will scarce be\nsuspected that such an accomplished writer, who did so much for\nBiblical Illustration, and whose admirable Pictorial Bible formed, with\nbut four works more, what Chalmers used to term with peculiar emphasis\nhis \"Biblical Library,\"[27] would do injustice to any cause, or any line\nof argument which he adopted, if it was in reality a good and sound one.\n\nIt may be well, however, not to test too rigidly the value of the\nremark,--meant to be at least of the nature of argument,--when we find\nhim saying that \"a plain man sitting down to read the Scripture account\nof the deluge would have no doubt of its universality.\" Perhaps not. But\nit is at least equally certain, that plain men who set themselves to\ndeduce from Scripture the figure of the planet we inhabit had as little\ndoubt, until corrected by the geographer, that the earth was a great\nplane,--not a sphere; that plain men who set themselves to acquire from\nScripture some notion of the planetary motions had no doubt, in the same\nway, until corrected by the astronomer, that it was the earth that\nrested, and the sun that moved round it; and that plain men who have\nsought to determine from Scripture the age of the earth have had no\ndoubt, until corrected by the geologist, that it was at most not much\nmore than six thousand years old. In fine, when plain men, who,\naccording to Cowper, \"know, and know no more, their Bible true,\" have in\nperhaps every instance learned from it what it was in reality intended\nto teach,--the way of salvation,--it seems scarce less certain, that in\nevery instance in which they have sought to deduce from it what it was\n_not_ intended to teach,--the truths of physical science,--they have\nfallen into extravagant error. And as any question which, bearing, not\non the punitory extent and ethical consequences of the Flood, but merely\non its geographic limits and natural effects, is not a moral, but a\npurely physical question, it would be but a fair presumption, founded on\nthe almost invariable experience of ages, that the deductions from\nScripture of the \"plain men\" regarding it would be, not true, but false\ndeductions. Of apparently not more real weight and importance is the\ndoctor's further remark, that there seems, after all, to be a marked\ndifference between the terms in which the universality of the deluge is\nspoken of, and the terms employed in those admittedly metonymic passages\nin which the whole is substituted for a part. \"What limitation,\" he\nasks, \"can we assign to such a phrase as this:--'all the high hills that\nwere UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVENS were covered?' If here the phrase had been,\n'upon the face of the whole earth,' we should have been told that 'the\nwhole earth' had sometimes the meaning of 'the whole land;' but, as if\ndesignedly to obviate such a limitation of meaning, we have here the\nlargest phrase of universality which the language of man\naffords,--'under the whole heavens!'\" So far Dr. Kitto. But his argument\nseems to be not more valuable in this case than in the other. It was\nupon the nations that were \"UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVENS\" that Deity\nrepresented himself as putting the fear and dread of the children of\nIsrael; but he would be certainly a very \"plain man\" who would infer\nfrom the universality of a passage so evidently metonymic, that that\nfear extended to the people of Japan on the one hand, or to the Red\nIndians of the Rocky Mountains on the other. The phrase \"_under the\nwhole heavens_\" seems to be but coextensive in meaning with the phrase\n\"upon the face of the whole earth.\" The \"whole earth\" is evidently\ntantamount to the whole terrestrial floor,--the \"whole heavens,\" to the\nwhole celestial roof that arches over it; and on what principle the\nwhole terrestrial floor is to be deemed less extensive than the floor\nunder the whole celestial roof, really does not appear. Further, nothing\ncan be more certain than that both the phrases contrasted by Dr. Kitto\nare equally employed in the metonymic form.\n\nWhen, however, the doctor passes to argument based upon natural science,\nwe find what he adduces worthy of our attention, were it but for the\ninquiries which it suggests. \"If the deluge were but local,\" we find him\nsaying, \"what was the need of taking _birds_ into the ark; and among\nthem birds so widely diffused as the raven and the dove? A deluge which\ncould overspread the region which these birds inhabit could hardly have\nbeen less than universal. If the deluge were local, and all the birds of\nthese kinds in that district perished,--though we should think they\nmight have fled to the uninundated regions,--it would have been useless\nto encumber the ark with them, seeing that the birds of the same species\nwhich survived in the lands not overflowed would speedily replenish the\ninundated tract as soon as the waters subsided.\" It will be found that\nthe reasoning here is mainly based upon an error in natural science,\ninto which even naturalists of the last century, such as Buffon, not\nunfrequently fell, and which was almost universal among the earlier\nvoyagers and travellers,--the error of confounding as identical the\nmerely allied birds and beasts of distant countries, and of thus\nassigning to _species_ wide areas in creation which in reality they do\nnot occupy. The grouse, for instance, is a widely spread genus, or\nrather _family_; for it consists of more genera than one. It is so\nextensively present over the northern hemisphere, that Siberia, Norway,\nIceland, and North America, have all their grouse,--the latter\ncontinent, indeed, from five to eight different kinds; and yet so\nrestricted are some of the species of which they consist, that, were the\nBritish islands to be submerged, one of the best known of the\nfamily,--the red grouse, or moor-fowl (_Lagopus Scoticus_),--would\ndisappear from creation. This bird, which, rated at its money value, is\none of the most important in Europe,--for the barren moors which it\nfrequents in the Highlands of Scotland alone are let every season almost\nentirely for its sake for hundreds of thousands of pounds,--is\nexclusively a British bird; and, unless by miracle a new migratory\ninstinct were given to it, a complete submersion of the British islands\nwould secure its destruction. If the submergence amounted to but a few\nhundred miles in lateral extent, the moor-fowl would to a certainty not\nseek the distant uninundated land. Nor is it at all to be inferred, that\nin a merely local but wide spread deluge, birds occupying a more\nextensive area than that overspread by the Flood would, according to Dr.\nKitto, \"speedily replenish the inundated tract as soon as the waters had\nsubsided.\" The statement must have been hazarded in ignorance of the\npeculiar habits of many of the non-migratory birds. Up till about the\nmiddle of the last century, the capercailzie, or great cock of the\nwoods, was a native of Scotland. It was exterminated, however, about the\ntime of the last Rebellion, or not long after: the last specimen seen\namong the pine forests of Strathspey was killed, it is said, in the year\n1745: the last specimen seen among the woods of Strathglass survived\ntill the year 1760. Pennant relates that he saw in 1769 a specimen,\nprobably a stuffed one, that had been killed shortly before in the\nneighborhood of Inverness. But from at least that time the species\ndisappeared from the British islands; and, though it continued to exist\nin Norway, did not \"replenish the tracts from which it had been\nextirpated.\" The late Marquis of Breadalbane was at no small cost and\ntrouble in re-introducing the species, and to some extent he succeeded;\nbut the capercailzie is, I understand, still restricted to the\nBreadalbane woods. I have seen the golden eagle annihilated as a species\nin move than one district of the north of Scotland; nor, though it still\nexists in other parts of the kingdom, and is comparatively common among\nthe mountains of Norway, have I known it in any instance to spread anew\nover the tracts from which it had been extirpated. So much for the\ngeneral reasonings of Dr. Kitto. Further, we find him stating, that a\ndeluge which could overspread the region inhabited by birds so widely\ndiffused as the raven and the dove, could hardly have been less than\nuniversal. The doctor, however, ought to have known that the _dove_ is a\n_family_, not a _species_. All the American species of doves, for\nexample, differ from the six European species, three of which are to be\nfound in Scotland. Of even the American passenger pigeons (_Ectopistes\nmigratoria_), which occur in such numbers in their native country as\nactually to eclipse, during their migratory flights, the light of day,\nonly a single straggler,--the one whose chance visit has been recorded\nby Dr. Fleming,--seems to have been ever seen in Britain. And the East\nhas also its own peculiar species, unknown to Europe. The golden-green\npigeons and the great crowned pigeons of the Indian isles are never seen\nin northern and western latitudes, save in stuffed specimens in a\nmuseum. The Vinago pigeons, with their vividly bright plumes, though\nthey exist in several species, are all restricted to the woods of the\ntorrid zone. Even the collared dove of Africa and the Levant rarely\nvisits, and then only as a straggler, the western and northern parts of\nEurope. The blue-capped turteline pigeon is restricted, as a species, to\nthe island of Celebes; the blue and green turteline pigeon is a native\nof New Guinea; the Cape turtle occurs in but the southern parts of\nAfrica; the Nicobar ground pigeon in but the Indian Archipelago; the\nmagnificent fruit pigeon in the eastern parts of Australia; and the\ncrowned goura pigeon, the giant of its family, in the Molucca Islands.\nNo single species of dove seems to be so widely spread but that it might\nbe exterminated in a merely partial deluge; and of course conjecture may\nin vain weary itself in striving to determine what that particular\nspecies was which Noah sent forth as a messenger from the ark, or in\ninquiring what was the extent of the area which it occupied? The common\nraven is more widely spread than any single species of pigeon. Even the\nraven, however, seems restricted to the northern hemisphere. India and\nSouthern Africa have both their ravens; but the species differ from each\nother, and from the widely spread northern one. It is a question whether\neven the pied raven of the Faroe Isles be not a distinct bird from the\nblack raven of our own country: if not an independent species, it is at\nleast a very remarkable variety. Further, when extirpated in a district,\nit is found that, as in the case of the capercailzie and the golden\neagle, the neighboring regions in which the raven continues to exist\nfail for ages to furnish a fresh supply. There are counties in England\nin which the raven is now never seen; and I am acquainted with a\ndistrict in the north of Scotland from which, when a pair that were\nknown to breed for more than a century in a tall cliff were destroyed by\nthe fowler, the species disappeared.[28] Such, when examined, are the\narguments drawn by Dr. Kitto from natural science; nor is he in any\ndegree happier when he resorts to arguments more restrictedly physical.\n\"If,\" we find him saying, \"the waters of the Deluge rose fifteen cubits\nabove all the mountains of the countries which the raven and the dove\ninhabit, _the level must have been high enough to give universality to\nthe Deluge_.\" The only point here not already dealt with,--for I have\njust shown that certain species of the dove and the raven might have of\nnecessity been inmates of the ark, though the Flood had been only a\npartial one,--is that which refers to the submergence of the hills over\nat least an extensive tract, and to the inference, evident in the\npassage, that if lofty mountains were covered in one portion of the\nglobe, mountains of similar altitude must have been equally covered in\nevery other portion of it.\n\nThe inference here seems to be founded on a common but altogether\nmistaken view of some of the grandest operations of nature with which\nmodern science has brought us acquainted. It has been well remarked,\nthat when two opposing explanations of extraordinary natural phenomena\nare given,--one of a simple and seemingly common sense character, the\nother complex and apparently absurd,--it is almost always safer to adopt\nthe apparently absurd than the seemingly common sense one. Dr. Kitto's\n\"plain man,\" yielding to the dictates of what he would deem common\nsense,--which, of course, in questions of natural science is tantamount\nto common nonsense,--would be sure to go wrong. And we find the remark\nnot inaptly illustrated by the now well established fact, that while the\nmedium level of the ocean is one of the most fixed lines in nature, the\nlevel of the great continents, with their table-lands and mountains, is\nan ever fluctuating line. It may seem strange that land should be less\nstable than water. We see the tide rising and falling twice every\ntwenty-four hours, and the rock ever remaining in its place;--we speak\nof the fixed earth and the unstable sea. And yet, while we have no\nevidence whatever that the sea level has changed during at least the\nages of the Tertiary formations, and absolutely know that it could not\nhave varied more than a few yards, or at most a few fathoms, we have\ndirect evidence that during that time great mountain chains, many\nthousand feet in height, such as the Alps, have arisen from the bottom\nof the ocean, and that great continents have sunk beneath it and\ndisappeared. The larger part of northern Europe and America have been\ncovered by the sea since our present group of shells began to exist; and\nit seems not improbable that the lower portion of the valley of the\nJordan was depressed to its present low level of thirteen hundred feet\nbeneath the Mediterranean since the times of the deluge. On several\nparts of the coasts of Britain and Ireland the voyager can look down\nthrough the clear sea, in depths to which the tide never falls, on the\nremains of submerged forests; and it is a demonstrable fact, that even\nduring the present age there are certain extensive tracts of land which\nhave sunk beneath the sea level, while certain other extensive tracts\nhave been elevated over it. In 1819, a wide expanse of country in the\ndelta of the Indus, containing fully two thousand square miles of flat\nmeadow, was converted by a sudden depression of the land, accompanied by\nan earthquake, into an inland sea; and the tower of a small fort, which\noccupied nearly the middle of the sunken area, and on which many of the\ninhabitants of a neighboring village succeeded in saving themselves, may\nstill be seen raising its shattered head over the surface,--the only\nobject visible in a waste of waters of which the eye fails to determine\nthe extent. About three years after this event, a tract of country,\ninterposed between the foot of the Andes and the Pacific, more than\nequal in area to all Great Britain, was elevated from two to seven feet\nover its former level, and rocks laid bare in the sea, which the pilots\nand fishermen of the coast had never before seen. On the Indian coast\nthe sea _seemed_ to be rising at nearly the same time when it _appeared_\nto be falling on the American one; and on the latter such was the actual\nimpression entertained by the people. It is stated by Sir Charles Lyell,\nin his \"Elements,\" that he was informed by Mr. Cruickshanks, an English\nbotanist who resided in Chili at the time, \"that it was the general\nbelief of the fishermen and inhabitants, _not_ that the land had risen,\nbut that the ocean had permanently retreated.\" But if it had retreated\nfrom the Chilian shore, how could it have risen on the Indian one? In\nlike manner the sea appears to be receding from the north-eastern shores\nof Sweden at the rate of nearly four vertical feet in the century; while\nit seems to be advancing on the western coasts of Greenland at\napparently a rate more considerable, though there the ratio of its rise\nhas not been marked with equal care. It seems to be rising on even the\nSwedish province of Scania; while all the time, however, the actual\nmotion,--upwards in one region, downwards in another,--is in the solid\nearth,--not in the unstable water, which merely serves as a sort of\nhydrostatic _level_, to indicate this fact of subsidence or elevation in\nthe land. And of course all the reasoning, founded on mere appearances,\nthat would reverse the process by assigning permanency to the level of\nthe land, and fluctuation to that of the sea, would lead to inevitable\nerror.\n\nLet us, for the illustration's sake, suppose that the British islands\nhad been the scene of the Deluge; and that it had been occasioned by a\ngradual depression in the earth's surface of about fifteen hundred miles\nin length, a thousand miles in breadth, five thousand feet in depth in\nits centre, and which gradually trended all around towards the sides.\nSuch a depression would form a scarce appreciable inequality on the\nsurface of even a three feet globe; in a twelve inch globe it might be\nrepresented by the abrasion of a small patch of the varnish; nor would\nit have in nature one sixth the depth, or one sixteenth the area, of the\nbed of the Atlantic Ocean. Let us suppose further, that it had been\nproduced by an equable sinking of the surface, prolonged for forty days\nat the rate of one hundred and twenty-five feet per day,--a motion not\nequal to that of the minute-hand of a clock whose dial plate measures\ntwo feet in diameter. Further, let us suppose that a thoroughly\nintelligent man,--let us say Dr. Kitto himself,--secure from all\npersonal danger in an ark perched on some such commanding eminence as\nArthur's Seat, had been a witness of the catastrophe; and that, instead\nof having merely to reason respecting it after the lapse of more than\nfour thousand years, he had been enabled to bear testimony regarding it\nfrom the evidence of his senses. In the first place, let me remark that\nthe sinking or downward motion of the earth's crust would be altogether\ninappreciable by sense; in the next, that the depression, even when it\nhad reached its acme, would in no sensible degree affect the contour of\nsurrounding objects. Even at the end of the forty days, when the five\nthousand feet of depression had been reached, the gradient of\ndeclination across the sunken area would not exceed _ten_ feet per mile,\nand across the larger diameter would amount to but _six feet eight\ninches_ per mile. Of course, at the end of the twentieth day the\ngradients would be represented by but one half these sums, and would be\naltogether inappreciable in the landscape; the hills would seem quite as\nhigh as before, and the valleys not more profound. The only sensible\nsign felt or visible of what was taking place would be simply a\npersistent rising of the sea at somewhat less than twice its rate of\nflow during stream tides. Ocean, as if forgetful of its ancient bounds,\nwould continue to encroach upon the land. On the second day the greater\npart of what is now the site of Edinburgh would be covered; on the\nseventh day the tide would have reached the vessel perched on the top of\nthe hill now known as Arthur's Seat; on the sixteenth day the highest\npeak of the Pentlands would have disappeared; and in nine days more the\ndistant summit of Ben Lomond. From the roof of the slowly drifting ark\nnothing would then have appeared save a shoreless ocean. But it would\nhave taken yet other eleven days ere the proud crest of Ben Nevis, the\nhighest land in the British islands, would have been submerged; and the\neve of the fortieth day would have seen it covered by little more than\nfive hundred feet of water. An actual witness, in such circumstances,\nhowever intelligent, could have but testified to the persistent rise of\nthe sea, accompanied mayhap by rain and tempest; he could but tell how\nthat for many days together it had been flood without ebb, as if the\nfountains of the great deep had been broken up; and that at length he\nwas encompassed by what seemed a shoreless ocean. But he would certainly\ndepart perilously from his position as a witness-bearer, were he to\nargue, that when his ark had begun to float on a hill eight hundred feet\nin height, all hills upon the surface of the globe of a corresponding\naltitude must have been also covered; or that, from what was in reality\nbut a local depression, a universal deluge might be legitimately\ninferred. His error would be of the same nature (though of course\nimmensely greater) as that of the native of Chili who held, that\nbecause the ocean had retreated from the coasts of his own country, it\nhad of necessity also retreated from the delta of the Indus; or as that\nof the inhabitant of Cutch who held, that as the sea had risen high over\nhis native districts, it had also of necessity overflowed the coasts of\nChili and Aracan.\n\nDr. Kitto brings forward but one other objection to a Flood only\npartial, and that the one virtually disposed of by Bishop Stillingfleet\nin the terminal half of a short sentence. The Bishop \"despaired,\" as he\nwell might, \"of ever seeing it proved that the whole earth had been\npeopled before the Deluge.\" \"It has been much urged of late,\" says Dr.\nKitto, \"that the Deluge was not universal, but was confined to a\nparticular region, which man inhabited. It may be freely admitted that,\nseeing the object of the Flood was to drown mankind, there was no need\nthat it should extend beyond the region of man's habitation. But this\ntheory necessarily assigns to the world before the Flood a lower\npopulation, and a more limited extension of it, than we are prepared to\nconcede.\" He then goes on to argue, that, as the species increased very\nrapidly immediately after the Deluge, it must have increased in a ratio\nat least equally rapid before that catastrophe took place. But how\ngratuitous the assumption! It would be quite as safe to infer, that as\nthe human race multiplied greatly in Ireland during the first half of\nthe present century, it must have also multiplied greatly in Italy, a\nmuch finer country, during the first half of the fifth century, or in\nthe wealthier portions of Kurdistan during the first half of the\nthirteenth. Ere applying, however, the Irish ratio of increase to either\nthe Italy of thirteen hundred years ago, or to the Kurdistan of five\nhundred years ago, it would surely be necessary to take into account the\nimportant fact, that these were the ages of Zingis Khan and of Attila;\nof Zingis Khan, who, on possessing himself of the three capitals of the\none country, coolly butchered four millions three hundred and\nforty-seven thousand persons, their inhabitants; and of that Attila,\n\"the scourge of God,\" who used to say, more especially in reference to\nthe other country, that \"whenever his horse-hoofs had once trod, the\ngrass never afterwards grew,\" and before whose ravages the human race\nseemed melting away. The terms in which the great wickedness of the\nantediluvians is described indicate a period of violence and\noutrage;--the age which preceded the Flood was an age of \"giants\" and of\n\"mighty men,\" and of \"men of renown,\"--forgotten Attilas, Alarics, and\nZingis Khans, mayhap,--\"giants of mighty bone and bold emprise,\" who\nbecame famous for their \"infinite manslaughter,\" and the thousands whom\nthey destroyed. Such is decidedly the view which the brief Scriptural\ndescription suggested to the poets; and certainly, when a question comes\nto be one of guess work, no other class of persons guess half so\nsagaciously as they. It has not unfrequently occurred to me,--and in a\nquestion of this kind one suggestion may be quite as admissible as\nanother,--that the Deluge may have been more a visitation of mercy to\nthe race than of judgment. Even in our own times, as happened in New\nZealand during the present century, and in Tahiti about the close of the\nlast, tribes restricted to one tract of country, when seized by the\nmadness of conquest, have narrowly escaped extermination. We know that\nin some instances better have been destroyed by worse races,--that the\nmore refined have at times yielded to the more barbarous,--yielded so\nentirely, that all that survived of vast populations and a comparatively\nhigh civilization have been broken temples, and great burial mounds\nlocked up in the solitudes of deep forests; and further, that whole\npeoples, exhausted by their vices, have sunk into such a state of\ndepression and decline, that, unable any longer to supply the inevitable\nwaste of nature, they have dropt into extinction. And such may have been\nthe condition of the human race during that period of portentous evil\nand violence which preceded the deluge. We know that the good came at\nlength to be restricted to a single family; and even the evil, instead\nof being numbered, as now, by hundreds of millions, may have been\ncomprised in a few thousands, or at most a few hundred thousands, that\nwere becoming fewer every year, from the indulgence of fierce and evil\npassions, in a time of outrage and violence. The Creator of the race may\nhave dealt with it on this occasion of judgment, as a florist does with\nsome decaying plant, which he cuts down to the ground in order to secure\na fresh shoot from the root. At all events, the _proof_ of an\nantediluvian population at once enormously great and very largely spread\nmust rest with those who hold, with Dr. Kitto, that its numbers and\nextent were such as to militate against the probability of a deluge\nmerely partial; and any such proof we may, with the good old Bishop of\nWorcester, well \"despair of ever seeing\" produced. Even admitting,\nhowever, for the argument's sake, that the inhabitants of the Old World\nmay have been as numerous as those of China are now,--a number estimated\nby the recent authorities at more than three hundred and fifty\nmillions,--and the admission is certainly greatly larger than there is\nargument enough on the other side to extort,--a comparatively partial\ndeluge would have been sufficient to secure their destruction. In short,\nit may be fairly concluded, that if there be a show of reason against\nthe theory of a flood merely local, it has not yet been exhibited. Even\nDr. Kitto, with all his ingenuity and learning, has failed to array\nagainst it arguments of any real weight or cogency; and in my next\naddress I may be perhaps able to show you that the objections which, on\nthe other hand, bear against the antagonist hypothesis, are at once\nsolid and numerous. I may be mistaken in my estimate; but for some years\npast I have regarded them as altogether insurmountable.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE EIGHTH.\n\nTHE NOACHIAN DELUGE.\n\nPART II.\n\n\nA century has not yet gone by since all the organic remains on which the\nscience of Palaeontology is now founded were regarded as the wrecks of a\nuniversal deluge, and held good in evidence that the waters had\nprevailed in every known country, and risen over the highest hills.\nIntelligent observers were not wanting at even an earlier time who\nmaintained that a temporary flood could not have occasioned phenomena so\nextraordinary. Such was the view taken by several Italian naturalists of\nthe seventeenth century, and in Britain by the distinguished\nmathematician Hooke, the contemporary, and in some matters rival, of\nNewton. But the conclusions of these observers, now so generally\nadopted, were regarded both in Popish and Protestant countries as but\nlittle friendly to Revelation; and so strong was the opposite opinion,\nand so generally were petrifactions regarded as so many proofs of a\nuniversal deluge, that Voltaire felt himself constrained, first in his\nDissertation drawn up for the Academy at Bologna, and next in his\narticle on shells in the Philosophical Dictionary, to take up the\nquestion as charged with one of the evidences of that Revelation which\nit was the great design of his life to subvert. And with an unfairness\ntoo characteristic of his sparkling but unsolid writings, we find him\narguing, that all fossil shells were either those of fresh water lakes\nand rivers evaporated during dry seasons, or of land snails developed in\nunusual abundance during wet ones; or that they were shells which had\nbeen dropped from the hats of pilgrims on their way from the Holy Land\nto their homes; or that they were shells that had gone astray from\ncabinets and museums; or, finally, that they were not shells at all, but\nmere shell-like forms, produced by some occult process of nature in the\nbowels of the earth. In fine, in order to destroy the credibility of the\nNoachian deluge, the brilliant Frenchman exhausted every expedient in\nhis attempts to neutralize that Palaeontologic evidence on which\ngeologists now found some of their most legitimate conclusions. But he\nonly succeeded, instead, in producing compositions of which every\nsentence contains either an absurdity or an untruth, and in raising a\nreaction against the special school of infidelity which he had founded,\nthat at length bore it down. He wrote in the middle of the Paris basin,\nwith its multitude of fossil shells and bones; and, when penning his\narticle for the Encyclopaedia, he had, he tells us, a boxful of the\nshell-charged soil of the Faluns of Touraine actually before him; but\nthe deluge had to be put down, whatever the nature or bearing of the\nfacts; and so he could find in either no evidence of a time when the sea\nhad covered the land. He found, instead, only \"some mussels, because\nthere were ponds in the neighborhood.\" As for the \"spiral petrifactions\ntermed _cornu ammonis_,\" of which the Jurassic Alps are full, they were\nnot nautili, he said; they could be nothing else than reptiles; seeing\nthat reptiles take almost always the form of a spiral when not in\nmotion; and it was surely more likely, that when petrified they should\nstill retain the spiral disposition, than that \"the Indian Ocean should\nhave long ago overflowed the mountains of Europe.\" Were there not,\nhowever, real shells of the Syrian type in France and Italy? Perhaps\nso. But ought \"we not to recollect,\" he asked, \"the numberless bands of\npilgrims who carried their money to the Holy Land, and brought back\nshells? or was it preferable to think that the sea of Joppa and Sidon\nhad covered Burgundy and Milanais?\" As for the seeming shells of the\nless superficial deposits, \"Are we sure,\" he inquired, \"that the soil of\nthe earth cannot produce fossils?\" Agate in some specimens contains its\napparent sprigs of moss, which, we know, never existed as the vegetable\nthey resemble; and why should not the earth have, in like manner,\nproduced its apparent shells? Or are not many of these shells mere lake\nor river petrifactions?--one never sees among them \"true marine\nsubstances\"!! \"If there _were_ any, why have we never seen bones of sea\ndogs, sharks, and whales?\"!!! And thus he ran on, in the belief\napparently that he had to deal with but an ignorant priesthood, too\nlittle acquainted with the facts to make out a case against him in\nbehalf of the Mosaic narrative, and whom at least, should argument fail\nhim, he could vanquish with a joke.\n\nThere was, however, a young German, who had not at the time quite made\nup his mind either for the French school or against it, who was no\nuninterested reader of Voltaire's disquisitions on fossil shells. And\nthis young man was destined to be in the coming age what the Frenchman\nhad been in the closing one,--the leading mind of Europe. He, too, had\nbeen looking at fossils; and having no case to make out either for or\nagainst Moses, or any one else, he had received in a fair and candid\nspirit the evidence with which they were charged. And the gross\ndishonesty of Voltaire in the matter formed so decided a turning point\nwith him, that from that time forward he employed his great influence in\nbearing down the French school of infidelity, as a school detestably\nfalse and hollow;--a warning, surely, to all, whether they stand up for\nRevelation or against it, of the danger of being, like the witty\nFrenchman, \"wicked overmuch.\" \"To us youths,\" says Goethe, in his\nAutobiography, \"with our German love of truth and nature, the factious\ndishonesty of Voltaire, and the perversion of so many worthy subjects,\nbecame more and more annoying, and we daily strengthened ourselves in\nour aversion from him. He could never have done with degrading religion\nand the sacred books for the sake of injuring priestcraft, as he called\nit; and thus produced in me many an unpleasing sensation. But when I now\nlearned, that to weaken the tradition of a Deluge, he had denied all\npetrified shells, and only admitted them as _lusus naturae_, he entirely\nlost my confidence; for my own eyes had on the Baschberg plainly enough\nshown me that I stood on the bottom of an old dried-up sea, among the\n_exuviae_ of its ancient inhabitants. These mountains had certainly been\nonce covered with waves,--whether before or during the Deluge did not\nconcern me: it was enough that the valley of the Rhine had been a\nmonstrous lake,--a bay extending beyond the reach of eyesight: out of\nthis I was _not_ to be talked. I thought much more of advancing in the\nknowledge of lands and mountains, let what would be the result.\" I know\nnot in the whole history of opinion a more instructive passage than\nthis. Little could Voltaire have known what he was in reality doing, or\nhow egregiously he was overreaching himself, when, in laboring to bear\ndown the evidence borne by fossils to the ancient upheavals and\ncataclysms, he suffered himself to make use of assertions and arguments\nso palpably unfair. And those who employ, in their zeal against the\ngeologists, what is still exceedingly common,--the Voltairean style of\nargument,--especially if they employ it in what they deem the behalf of\nreligion, might do well to inquire whether they are not in some little\ndanger of producing the Voltairean result.\n\nNo man acquainted with the general outlines of Palaeontology, or the true\nsuccession of the sedimentary formations, has been able to believe,\nduring the last half century, that any proof of a general deluge can be\nderived from the _older_ geologic systems,--Palaeozoic, Secondary, or\nTertiary. It has been held, however, by accomplished geologists, within\neven the last thirty years, that such proof might be successfully sought\nfor in what are known as the superficial deposits. Such was the belief\nof Cuvier,--a man who, even in geologic science, which was certainly not\nhis peculiar province, exerted a mighty influence over the thinking of\nother men. \"I agree with MM. Deluc and Dolomieu in thinking,\" we find\nhim saying, in his widely famed \"Theory of the Earth,\" \"that if anything\nin geology be established, it is, that the surface of our globe has\nundergone a great and sudden revolution, the date of which cannot be\nreferred to a much earlier period than five or six thousand years ago.\"\nBut from the same celebrated work we learn that Cuvier held that this\nsudden catastrophe,--occasioned, as he supposed, by an elevation of the\nsea bottom and a submergence of the previously existing land,--had _not_\nbeen universal; seeing he could entertain the belief that the three\ngreat races of the human family,--Ethiopian, Mongolian, and\nCaucasian,--had all escaped from it in several directions. In referring\nto the marked peculiarities of the Mongolian race, so very distinct from\nthe Caucasian, he merely intimates, that he was \"tempted to believe\ntheir ancestors and ours had escaped the great catastrophe on different\nsides;\" but in dwelling on the still more marked peculiarities of the\nNegroes, we find him explicitly stating, that, \"all their characters\nclearly show that they had escaped from the overwhelming deluge at\nanother point than the Caucasian and Altaic races; from which they had\nperhaps been separated,\" he adds, \"for a long time previous to the\noccurrence of that event.\" For a season, geologists of high standing in\nour own country, such as Buckland and Conybeare, followed Cuvier so far\nas to hold, that the superficial deposits bore evidence everywhere of a\ngreat cataclysm, the last of the geologic catastrophes; and which might\nbe identified, they believed, with the Noachian Deluge. Against this\nview one of the most distinguished of Scottish naturalists, Dr. John\nFleming, raised a vigorous protest as early as the year 1826, and\nconclusively showed that no temporary flood could have produced the\nexisting appearances. And so thoroughly were his facts and reasonings\nconfirmed by subsequent discovery, that the geologists of name who had\nacquiesced, wholly or in part, in the Cuvierian view, read in succession\ntheir recantations: Dr. Buckland in especial, who had written most\nlargely on the subject, and committed himself most thoroughly, did so a\nvery few years after: nor does the hypothesis of Cuvier appear to have\nbeen since adopted by any writer of scientific reputation. Instead,\ntherefore, of contending with arguments or inferences which there are\nnow no parties in the field to maintain, I shall briefly refer to a few\nof the leading characteristics of those superficial deposits on which\nthe abandoned conclusions were originally based, and show, in the\npassing, that they are not such as a temporary deluge could have\nproduced.\n\nThe superficial deposits include what is known as the mammaliferous\ncrag, the drift, the boulder and brick clays, the stratified sands and\ngravels, the travelled rocks, the oesars, and moraines of the _higher_\nlatitudes. For it is a fact very significant in its bearings on the\ndiluvial controversy, that it is in the higher latitudes in both\nhemispheres that these peculiar deposits are chiefly to be found. They\nhave been traced in Patagonia in the one hemisphere, from the southern\nlimits of the country to the forty-first degree of south latitude; and\nin Europe in the other, to the fortieth; and in America to even the\nthirty-eighth degree of north latitude. But in the great belt, nearly\neighty degrees in breadth, which, encircling the globe from east to\nwest, includes with the torrid the warmer portions of the temperate\nzones, they have scarce any existence at all, or exist at least in\ndifferent forms and exceedingly reduced proportions. The superficial\ndeposits, in their most characteristic conditions, are deposits of the\ncolder portions of the globe, and in many parts indicate that there\nprevailed during their formation a much severer climate than now obtains\nin the regions in which they occur. The shells which they contain in\nBritain, for instance, though almost all of existing species, are many\nof them such as are not now to be found in the British seas, but in seas\nabout ten degrees further to the north; and there is evidence that the\nline of perpetual snow must have descended at the time to a lower level\nthan that attained by our second-class hills, and that almost every\nHighland valley had its glacier. They represent, too, vast periods of\ntime;--earlier periods, during which the land gradually sank, till only\nits higher eminences were uncovered, and great floats of icebergs went\ncareering over its submerged plains and lower hills; and later periods,\nduring which the land as gradually arose, after apparently many pauses\nand oscillations, until at length, when it had reached a level scarce\neighty feet higher than that which it at present maintains, the climate\nsoftened, and the glaciers which had formed in the later times among its\nhills ultimately disappeared. Beds of sea-shells of the boreal type,\nthat belong to those ice ages, may be still found occupying the places\nin which they had lived and died, many miles inland, and hundreds of\nfeet over the sea level. Boring shells, such as the pholodadidae, may be\ndetected far out of sight of the ocean, still occupying the cells which\nthey had scooped out for themselves in hard limestone or yielding shale;\nand serpula and nuliporate encrustations may be seen still adhering to\nrocks raised to giddy elevations over the sea. The group of mammals,\nhowever, which lived during this period, and to whose abundant tusks and\nskeletons one of its older deposits (the mammaliferous crag) owes its\nname, was marked by so peculiar a character, that evidence of a\nuniversal deluge has been often sought for in their remains. The\ngroup,--that which immediately preceded the animals of our own times,\nand included not a few of the indigenous species which still inhabit our\ncountry,--was chiefly remarkable for containing many genera, all of\nwhose existing species are exotic. It had its great elephant, its two\nspecies of rhinoceros, its hippopotamus, its hyaena, its tiger, and its\nmonkey; and much ingenious calculation has been employed by writers such\nas Granville Penn, in attempting to show how these remains might have\nbeen transported from the intertropical regions during the Flood, not\nonly to Britain, but even to the northern wastes of Siberia,--a voyage\nof from four to five thousand miles. There are instances on record in\nwhich the bodies of the drowned have been drifted from ninety to a\nhundred and fifty miles from the spot where they had been first\nsubmerged; but they have always been found, in these cases, in a\ncondition of sad mutilation and decay; whereas the carcass of the\nancient elephant which was discovered, a little ere the commencement of\nthe present century, locked up in ice in Siberia, three thousand six\nhundred miles from where elephants now live, was in such a state of\nexcellent keeping, that the bears and dogs fed upon its flesh. It seems\na significant circumstance too, that the remains of these fossil\nelephants, tigers, and hyaenas, should be associated in even our own\ncountry with those of well known northern species,--with the remains of\nthe reindeer, of the red deer, of the Lithuanian auroch, of the European\nbeaver, of the European wolf, of the wild cat, the fox, and the otter.\nWriters, however, such as Mr. Penn, got over both difficulties. He\nshowed, for instance, how a ship had once run across the Atlantic under\nbare poles, during an almost continued hurricane, at the rate of two\nhundred and eighty-eight miles in twenty-four hours,--nearly the rate at\nwhich the great American steamers cross the same ocean now; and why, he\nasked, might not the carcasses of elephants have drifted northwards at\nan equal rate on the tides of the deluge? And as for the mixed character\nof the group with which these remains are found associated, _that_ was\nexactly what Mr. Penn would have expected in the circumstances. It was\nthe result of a tumultuary flood, which had brought together in our\nnorthern region the floating carcasses of the animals of all climates,\nto sink in unwonted companionship, when putrefaction had done its work,\ninto the same deposits. He had, however, unluckily overlooked the fact,\nthat comparative anatomy is in reality a science; and further, that it\nis a science of which men such as Cuvier and Owen know a great deal more\nthan the men who never studied it, however respectable. It is the\nrecorded decision of these great anatomists,--a decision which has been\nmany times tested and confirmed,--that the northern species of elephant,\nrhinoceros, tiger, and hyaena, were entirely different from the\nintertropical species; that they differed from them very considerably\nmore than the ass differs from the horse, or the dog from the wolf; and\nthat, while there is a preponderating amount of evidence to show that\nthey were natives of the countries in which their remains are now found,\nthere is not a shadow of evidence to show that they had ever lived, or\n_could_ have lived, in an intertropical country. Of the northern\nelephant, it is positively known, from the Siberian specimen, that\nit was covered, like many other sub-arctic animals, with long\nhair, and a thick crisp undergrowth of wool, about three inches in\nlength,--certainly not an intertropical provision; and so entirely\ndifferent was it in form from either of the existing species, African or\nIndian, that a child could be taught in a single lesson to distinguish\nit by the tusks alone. In fine, the assumption that challenges the\nremains of the old Pleistocene carnivora and pachydermata as those of\nintertropical species brought northwards by a universal deluge, is about\nas well based and sound as if it challenged the bones of foxes\noccasionally found in our woods for the remains of dogs of Aleppo or\nAskalon brought into Britain by the Crusaders, or as if it pronounced a\ndead ass to be one of the cavalry horses of the fatal charge of\nBalaklava, transported to England from the Crimea as a relic of the\nfight. The hypothesis confounds as a species the Rosinante of Quixote\nwith the Dapple of Sancho Panza, and frames its argument on the mistake.\n\nThat this extinct group of animals inhabited for ages the countries in\nwhich their remains are now embedded, is rendered evident by their great\nnumbers in some localities, and from their occurrence in various states\nof preservation, and in beds of various ages. The five hundred mammoths\nwhose tusks and grinders were dragged up in thirteen years by the oyster\ndredgers of the Norfolk coast from a tract of submerged drift, could not\nall have been contemporary in a small corner of England, but must have\nrepresented several generations. And of course the two thousand\ngrinders brought up from the exposed surface of the drift must have\nborne but a small proportion to the thousands still dispersed throughout\nthe entire depth of the deposit. Any argument, however, founded on the\nmere numbers of these elephantine tusks and grinders, and which evaded\nthe important question of species, might be eluded, however unfairly, by\nthe assertors of a universal deluge. Floods certainly do at times\naccumulate, in great heaps, bodies of the same specific gravity; and why\nmight not a universal flood have accumulated on this special tract of\ndrift, the carcasses of many elephants? But it will be found greatly\nmore difficult to elude the ingenious argument on the general question\nof Professor Owen. Next, perhaps, to the extinct elephant, one of the\nmost numerous animals of this ancient group was the great Irish elk,\n_Megaceros Hibernicus_, a creature that, measured to the top of its\nenormous antlers, stood ten feet four inches in height, and exceeded in\nbulk and size the largest horses. Like all other species of the deer\nfamily, the creature annually shed and renewed its horns; \"and a male\ndeer may be reckoned,\" says Professor Owen, \"to have left about eight\npairs of antlers, besides its bones, to testify its former existence\nupon the earth. But as the female has usually no antlers, our\nexpectations might be limited to the discovery of four times as many\npairs of antlers as skeletons in the superficial deposits of the\ncountries in which such deer have lived and died. The actual proportion\nof the fossil antlers of the great extinct species of British Pliocene\ndeer (which antlers are proved by the form of their base to have been\nshed by the living animals) to the fossil bones of the same species, is\nsomewhat greater than in the above calculation. Although, therefore, it\nmay be contended that the swollen carcass of a drowned exotic deer might\nbe borne along a diluvial wave to a considerable distance, and its\nbones ultimately deposited far from its native soil, _it is not credible\nthat all the solid shed antlers of such species of deer could be carried\nby the same cause to the same distance_; or that any of them could be\nrolled for a short distance, with other heavy debris of a mighty\ntorrent, without fracture and signs of friction. But the shed antlers of\nthe large extinct species of deer found in this island and in Ireland\nhave commonly their parts or branches entire as when they fell; and the\nfractured specimens are generally found in caves, and _show marks of the\nteeth of the ossivorous hyaenas_ by which they had been gnawed; thus at\nthe same time revealing the mode in which they were introduced into\nthose caves, and _proving the contemporaneous existence in this island\nof both kinds of mammalia_.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 111.\n\nMEGACEROS HIBERNICUS.\n\n(_Irish Elk._)]\n\nBut the contents of the bone caves, consisting in large part of the\nextinct mammals, ought of themselves to be decisive in this question. As\nthe opening of the Kirkdale cavern is only about four feet each way, a\ndiluvial wave, charged with the wreck of the lower latitudes, could\nscarce have washed into such an orifice any considerable number of the\nintertropical animals. And yet there has been found in this cave,--with\nthe teeth of a very young mammoth, of a very great tiger, of a\ntiger-like animal whose genus is extinct, of a rhinoceros, and of a\nhippopotamus,--the fragmentary remains of from two to three hundred\nhyaenas. Further, even supposing, what is impossible, that a diluvial\nwave had swept them all from the tropics into the four-feet hole, on\nwhat principle is it to be explained that the bones thus washed into the\ncave should be all gnawed bones, even those of the hyaenas themselves,\nwhereas the bones of the same creatures found in the mammaliferous\ndeposits of the country bear no marks of teeth? Mr. Granville Penn,\nhowever, gets over the difficulty of the cave, which is hollowed, I may\nmention, in a limestone of the Oolitic series, inclosing the ammonite\nand belemnite, by asserting that its mammaliferous contents may be\n_somewhat older than itself_! The limestone existed, he holds, as but a\nmere unformed pulp at the time the intertropical animals came floating\nnorthwards: they sank into it; the gasses evolved during putrefaction\nblew up the plastic lime above them into a great oblong bubble,\nsomewhat as a glass-blower blows up a bottle; and hence the Kirkdale\ncavern, with its gnawed bones and its amazing number of teeth. And\ncertainly a _geologic_ argument of this ingenious character has one\nsignal advantage,--it is in no danger whatever of being answered by the\ngeologists. Mr. Penn, in a second edition of his work, expressed some\nsurprise that an Edinburgh Reviewer should have merely stated his\n_argument_ without replying to it!!\n\nBut I need not dwell on the arguments for a universal deluge which have\nbeen derived from the superficial deposits. They all belong to an\nimmature age of geologic science, and are of no value whatever. Let us\npass rather to the consideration of the facts and arguments which\nmilitate against the universality of the catastrophe.\n\nThe form and dimensions of Noah's ark are definitely given in the sacred\nrecord. It seems to have been a great oblong box, somewhat like a wooden\ngranary, three stories high, and furnished with a roof apparently of the\nordinary angular shape, but with a somewhat broader ridge than common;\nand it measured three hundred cubits in length, fifty cubits in breadth,\nand thirty cubits in height. A good deal of controversy has, however,\narisen regarding the cubit employed; some holding, with Sir Walter\nRaleigh, and most of the older theologians, such as Shuckford and Hales,\nthat the Noachian cubit was what is known as the common or natural\ncubit, \"containing,\" says Sir Walter, \"one foot and a half, or a length\nequal to that of the human fore-arm measured from the sharp of the elbow\nto the point of the middle finger;\" others contending that it was the\npalm-cubit, \"which taketh,\" adds my authority, \"one handful more than\nthe common;\" yet others, the royal or Persian cubit of twenty-one\ninches; and so on; for there are, it seems, five several kinds of cubit\nto choose from, all differing each from the others. The controversy is\none in which there is exceeding little footing for any party. I am\ninclined, however, to adopt, with Raleigh and Hales, the _natural_\ncubit, for the following reason. The given dimensions of the ark form\nthe oldest example of measurement of which we have any record; and all,\nor almost all, the older and simpler standards of measure bear reference\nto portions of the human frame. There is the span, the palm, the\nhand-breadth, the thumb-breadth (or inch), the hair-breadth, and the\n_foot_. The simple fisherman on our coasts still measures off his\nfathoms by stretching out both his arms to the full; the village\nsempstress still tells off her cloth-breadths by finger-lengths and\n_nails_; the untaught tiller of the soil still estimates the area of his\nlittle field by _pacing_ along its sides. Man's first and most obvious\nexpedient, when he sets himself to measure, is to employ his own person\nas his standard; and the first or common cubit was a measure of this\nnatural description equal in length to the extended fore-arm and hand.\nAll the other cubits were artificial compounds of after introduction;\nand so, in the absence of direct evidence on the point, I accept the\nmost natural and oldest cubit as in all probability the one employed in\nthe oldest recorded piece of cubit measurement. And the ark, if measured\nby the common or natural cubit, must have been a vessel four hundred and\nfifty feet in length, seventy-five feet in breadth, and forty-five feet\nin height. Dr. Kitto, however, though we find him remarking that in\ncomputations of Scripture measures the cubit may be regarded as half a\nyard (Sir Walter's estimate), adopts, in his own computation of the size\nof the ark, without assigning any reason why, the palm-cubit, or cubit\nof twenty-one inches and nearly nine lines (21.888 inches); and, waving\nall controversy on the question, let us, for the argument's sake, admit\nthe larger measure. Let us,--however much inclined to hold with Raleigh,\nShuckford, and Hales,--agree with Dr. Kitto that the ark was five\nhundred and forty-seven feet in length, by ninety-one feet in breadth.\nSuch dimensions, multiplied by three, the number of stories in the\nvessel, would give an area equal to about one seventh that of the great\nCrystal Palace of 1851. Or, to take a more definite illustration from\nthe same vast building, the area of the three floors of the ark, taken\ntogether, would fall short by about twenty-eight thousand square feet of\nthat of the northern gallery of the Palace, which measured one thousand\neight hundred and forty-eight feet in length, by ninety-six feet in\nbreadth. And thus, yielding to our opponents their own large\nmeasurements, let us now see whether the non-universality of the deluge\ncannot be fairly predicated from the dimensions of the ark.\n\nI may first remark, however, that measures so definite as those given by\nMoses (definite, of course, if we waive the doubt regarding the cubit\nemployed) were effectual in setting the arithmeticians to work in all\nages of the Church, in order to determine whether all the animals in the\nworld, by sevens and by pairs, with food sufficient to serve them for a\ntwelvemonth, could have been accommodated in the given space. It was a\nsort of stock problem, that required, it was thought, no very high\nattainments to solve. Eighty years have not yet passed since kind old\nSamuel Johnson, in writing to little Miss Thrale a nice little letter,\nrecommending her to be a good girl, and to mind her arithmetic, advised\nher to try the ark problem. \"If you can borrow 'Wilkins' Real\nCharacter,'\" we find him saying to the young lady, \"a folio which\nperhaps the booksellers can let you have, you will have a very curious\ncalculation, _which you are qualified to consider_, to show that Noah's\nark was capable of holding all the known animals of the world, with\nprovision for all the time in which the earth was under water.\"\nUnluckily, however, though the dimensions of the ark were known, the\nanimals of the world were not; and so the question, in at least one of\nits terms, had to be very frequently restated. Let us take it as we find\nit presented (drawn, however, from a much older source), in Sir Walter\nRaleigh's magnificent \"History of the World.\" \"If in a ship of such\ngreatness,\" says this distinguished man, \"we seek room for eighty-nine\ndistinct species of beasts, or, lest any should be omitted, for a\nhundred several kinds, we shall easily find place both for them and for\nthe birds, which in bigness are no way answerable to them, and for meat\nto sustain them all. For there are three sorts of beasts whose bodies\nare of a quantity well known; the beef, the sheep, and the wolf; to\nwhich the rest may be reduced by saying, according to Aristotle, that\none elephant is equal to four beeves, one lion to two wolves, and so of\nthe rest. Of beasts, some feed on vegetables, others on flesh. There are\none-and-thirty kinds of the greater sort feeding on vegetables, of which\nnumber only three are clean, according to the law of Moses, whereof\nseven of a kind entered into the ark, namely, three couples for breed,\nand one odd one for sacrifice; the other eight-and-twenty kinds were\n'taken by two of each kind; so that in all there were in the ark\none-and-twenty great beasts clean, and six-and-fifty unclean; estimable\nfor largeness as ninety-one beeves; yet, for a supplement (lest,\nperhaps, any species be omitted), lot them be valued as a hundred and\ntwenty beeves. Of the lesser sort feeding on vegetables were in the ark\nsix-and-twenty kinds, estimable, with good allowance for supply, as\nfourscore sheep. Of those which devour flesh were two-and-thirty kinds,\nanswerable to threescore and four wolves. All these two hundred and\neighty beasts might be kept in one story or room of the ark, in their\nseveral cabins; their meat in a second; the birds and their provision in\na third, with space to spare for Noah and his family, and all their\nnecessaries.\" Such was the calculation of the great voyager Raleigh,--a\nman who had a more practical acquaintance with _stowage_ than perhaps\nany of the other writers who have speculated on the capabilities of the\nark; and his estimate seems sober and judicious. It will be seen,\nhowever, that from the vast increase in our knowledge of the mammals\nwhich has taken place since the age in which the \"History of the World\"\nwas written, the calculation which embraced all the eighty-nine known\nanimals of that time would embrace those of but a single centre of\ncreation now; and that the estimate of Sir Walter tells, in consequence,\non the side, not of a universal, but of a partial deluge.\n\nAs man extended his acquaintance with the mammals, he found their number\ngreatly increasing on his hands. Button, like Raleigh, though a\nprofessed naturalist, and a writer of admirable genius, had no very\ndistinct notions of species. He was inclined to question whether even\nthe ass might not be merely a degraded horse; and confounded many of the\nmammals of the New World with their representative congeners in the Old.\nAnd yet, in summing up his history of the mammaliferous division, he\ncould state, that though it included descriptions of \"a hundred and\nthirty-four different species of creatures that suckled their young,\nmany of which had not been observed or described before,\" it was\nnecessarily incomplete, as there were still others to add to the list,\nfor whose history there existed no materials. At the same time he\nremarked, however, that the \"number of quadruped animals whose existence\nis certain and well established does not amount to more than two\nhundred on the surface of the known world.\" Yet here was the extreme\nestimate made by Raleigh, with what he deemed large allowance for the\nunknown animals, fairly doubled; and under the hands of more\ndiscriminating naturalists, and in the inevitable course of discovery,\nthe number has so enormously increased, that the \"eighty-nine distinct\nspecies\" known to the great voyager have been represented during the\nlast thirty years by the one thousand mammals of Swainson's estimate,\nthe one thousand one hundred and forty-nine mammals of Charles\nBonaparte's estimate, the one thousand two hundred and thirty mammals of\nWinding's estimate, and the one thousand five hundred mammals of Oken's\nestimate. In the first edition of the admirable \"Physical Atlas\" of\nJohnston (published in 1848) there are one thousand six hundred and\ntwenty-six different species of mammals enumerated; and in the second\nedition (published in 1856), one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight\nspecies. And to this very extraordinary advance on the eighty-nine\nmammals of Raleigh, and the two hundred mammals of Buffon, we must add\nthe six thousand two hundred and sixty-six birds of Lesson, and the six\nhundred and fifty-seven reptiles of Charles Bonaparte; or at\nleast,--subtracting the sea snakes, and perhaps the turtles, as fitted\nto live outside the ark,--his six hundred and _forty-two_ reptiles.[29]\n\nSuch is the number of the known vertebrates, exclusive of the fishes,\nwith which in this question we have now to deal. Still, however, there\nare a few lingering theologians, some of them very intelligent men, who\ncontinue to regard the ark as quite big enough for them all. Dr.\nHamilton of Mobile, for instance, after fairly stating Swainson's\nestimate, namely, one thousand mammalia, six thousand birds, and one\nthousand five hundred reptiles and amphibiae, goes on to say, that \"it\nmust not be forgotten, that of all these, the vastly greater proportion\nare small; and that numbers of them could be placed together in the same\ncompartment of the ark.\" This, however, permit me to say with all\nrespect, is not meeting the real difficulty. No doubt many of the birds\nare small,--many of the reptiles are small,--many even of the mammals\nare small,--many small animals were known in the days of Raleigh, and\na much greater number of small animals are known now; but the question\nproper to the case seems to be, What proportions do both the large\nand the small animals now known bear to the large and small animals\nknown in the days of Raleigh or Buffon; and how much additional\naccommodation-room would they require during their supposed voyage of a\ntwelvemonth? There are two different ways in which the list of the\nknown animals has been increased, especially of the known mammals. They\nhave been increased in a certain appreciable proportion by _discovery_;\nand as discovery has been made chiefly in islands,--for the great\ncontinents had been previously known,--and as the mammals of islands, as\nhas been well remarked by Cuvier, are usually small, of this appreciable\nproportion the bulk is comparatively not great. The great kangaroo\n(_Macropus giganteus_), though the inhabitant of an island which ranks\namong the continents, would not much exceed in bulk, tried by Raleigh's\nquaint scale of measurement, a sheep and a half, or at most two sheep;\nand yet I know not that discovery in the islands has added a larger\nanimal to the previously known ones than the great kangaroo. Mr.\nWaterhouse, when he published, in 1841, his \"History of the\nMarsupialia,\" reckoned up one hundred and five distinct species of\npouched animals; and eighteen species more,--in all one hundred and\ntwenty-three,--have been since added to the order. With the exception of\nan opossum or two, all these marsupiata may be regarded as discoveries\nmade since the time of Buffon; most of them, as I have said, are small.\nAnd such, generally, has been the nature of the revelations made during\nthe last seventy years by positive _discovery_. It is not, however, by\ndiscovery, but by scientific scrutiny into the true nature and\ndistinctions of species, that the recent enormous increase in the number\nof the known mammals has mainly taken place. And in these cases it will\ngenerally be found that the new species, which had been previously\nconfounded with some old ones, so nearly resemble the latter in bulk, as\nwell as aspect, as to justify in some degree the mistake. Let us take\ntwo of the greatest animals as examples,--the elephant and the\nrhinoceros. Buffon confounded the African with the Asiatic elephant. We\nnow know that they represent two well marked species, _Elephas\nAfricanus_ and _Elephas Indicus_; and that an ark which contained the\nancestors of all the existing animals would require to have its _two_\npair of elephants, not the one pair only which would have been deemed\nsufficient eighty years ago. Again, with respect to the rhinoceros,\nBuffon was acquainted with the single horned animal, and had _heard_ of\nthe animal with two horns; and so, though by no means certain that the\n\"_variety_ was constant,\" he yet held that \"two distinct species might\npossibly be established.\" But we now know that there are six species of\nrhinoceros (seven, according to the \"Physical Atlas,\")--_Rh. Indicus_,\n_Rh. Javanus_, _Rh. Sumatrensis_, _Rh. Africanus_, _Rh. simus_, and _Rh.\nketloa_; and that, instead of _possibly_ four, at least twelve, or more\nprobably fourteen, animals of the genus would require, on the hypothesis\nof a universal deluge, to have been accommodated in the ark. Buffon even\nheld that the bison of America might be identical with not simply the\nauroch of Europe, which it closely resembles, but with even the European\nox, which it does _not_ resemble. But it is now known, that while the\nEuropean aurochs are provided by nature with but fourteen pairs of ribs,\nthe American bison is furnished with fifteen. Of each of the ruminants\nthat divide the hoof, there were _seven_ introduced into the ark; and it\nmay be well to mark how, even during the last few years, our\nacquaintance with this order of animals has been growing, and how\ngreatly the known species, in their relation to human knowledge, have in\nconsequence increased. In 1848 (in the first edition of the \"Physical\nAtlas\") Mr. Waterhouse estimated the oxen at thirteen species; in 1856\n(in the second edition) he estimates them at twenty. In 1848 he\nestimated the sheep at twenty-one species; in 1856 he estimates them at\ntwenty-seven. In 1848 he estimated the goats at fourteen species; in\n1856 he estimates them at twenty. In 1846 he estimated the deer at\nthirty-eight species; in 1856 he estimates them at fifty-one. In short,\nif, excluding the lamas and the musks as doubtfully _clean_, tried by\nthe Mosaic test, we but add to the sheep, goats, deer, and cattle, the\nforty-eight species of unequivocally _clean_ antelopes, and multiply the\nwhole by seven, we shall have as the result a sum total of one thousand\none hundred and sixty-two individuals,--a number more than four times\ngreater than that for which Raleigh made provision in the ark, and\nconsiderably more than twice greater than that provided for by the\nstudents of Buffon. Such is the nature and amount of the increase which\nhas taken place during the last half century in the mammaliferous fauna.\nIn so great a majority of cases has it increased its _bulk_ in the ratio\nin which it has increased its numbers, that if one ark was not deemed\nmore than sufficient to accommodate the animal world known to the French\nnaturalist of eighty years ago, it would require at least from five to\nsix arks to accommodate the animal world known in the present day.\n\nEven in the days of Buffon, however, and at a still earlier period, the\nark, regarded as a natural means of preservation from death by\n_drowning_, was usually coupled, in the case of at least the carnivorous\nanimals, with certain miraculous provisions against death by _starving_.\nIt seems to have been generally taken for granted, that the flesh-eating\nanimals, when introduced to the shelter of the ark, entirely changed the\nnature indicated by their form of teeth, the character of their\nstomachs, and the shortness of their bowels, and fed, for the time they\nremained in it, exclusively on vegetable substances, which, in ordinary\ncircumstances, their lacteals could not have converted into chyle.\nCertain figurative expressions in Scripture taken literally, which refer\nto a class of wild animals whose real destiny is rather, it would seem,\nto be extirpated than to be changed, coupled with the belief, now no\nlonger tenable, that there was a time, ere man had sinned, when there\nwas no death among the inferior creatures, and of course no eaters of\nflesh, rendered the belief easy of reception; but it involved a miracle\nnowhere recorded; and the burden of the proof that such a miracle\nactually took place in the circumstances lies of necessity on the\nassertors of a universal deluge. Further, of even the creatures that\nlive on vegetables, many are restricted in their food to single plants,\nwhich are themselves restricted to limited localities and remote regions\nof the globe. Dr. Hamilton has not referred, in his list of animals, to\nthe insects,--a class which, though they were estimated in 1842 to\nconsist of no fewer than five hundred and fifty thousand species, might\nyet be accommodated in a comparatively limited space. But how\nextraordinary an amount of miracle would it not require to bring them\nall together into any one centre, or to preserve them there! Many of\nthem, like the myriapoda and the thysanura, have no wings, and but\nfeeble locomotive powers; many of them, such as the ephemera and the\nmale ants, live after they have got their wings only a few hours, or at\nmost a few days; and there are myriads of them that can live upon but\nsingle plants that grow in very limited botanic centres. Even supposing\nthem all brought into the ark by miracle as eggs, what multitudes of\nthem would not, without the exertion of further miracle, require to be\nsent back to their proper habitats as wingless grubs, or as insects\nrestricted by nature to a few days of life! Or, supposing the eggs all\nleft in their several localities to lie under water for a twelvemonth\namid mud and debris,--though certain of the hardier kinds might survive\nsuch treatment, by miracle alone could the preponderating majority of\nthe class be preserved. And be it remembered, that the expedient of\nhaving recourse to supposititious miracle in order to get over a\ndifficulty insurmountable on every natural principle, is not of the\nnature of argument, but simply an evidence of the want of it. Argument\nis at an end when supposititious miracle is introduced.\n\nBut the very inadequate size of the ark, though a conclusive proof that\nall, or nearly all, the progenitors of our existing animals could not\nhave harbored within it from any general cataclysm, does not furnish a\nstronger argument against the possibility of any such assemblage, than\nthe peculiar manner in which we now find these animals distributed over\nthe earth's surface. Linnaeus held, early in the last century, that all\ncreatures which now inhabit the globe had proceeded originally from some\nsuch common centre as the ark might have furnished; but no zoologist\nacquainted with the distribution of species can acquiesce in any such\nconclusion now. We now know that every great continent has its own\npeculiar fauna; that the original centres of distribution must have\nbeen, not one, but many; further, that the areas or circles around these\ncentres must have been occupied by their pristine animals in ages long\nanterior to that of the Noachian Deluge; nay, that in even the latter\ngeologic ages, they were preceded in them by animals of the same general\ntype. There are fourteen such areas or provinces enumerated by the later\nnaturalists. It may be well, however, instead of running any risk of\nlosing ourselves amid the less nicely defined provinces of the Old\nWorld, to draw our illustrations from two and a half provinces of later\ndiscovery, whose limits have been rigidly fixed by nature. \"The great\ncontinents,\" says Cuvier, \"contain species peculiar to each; insomuch\nthat whenever large countries of this description have been discovered,\nwhich their situation had kept isolated from the rest of the world, the\nclass of quadrupeds which they contained has been found extremely\ndifferent from any that had existed elsewhere. Thus, when the Spaniards\nfirst penetrated into South America, they did not find a single species\nof quadruped the same as any of Europe, Asia, or Africa. The puma, the\njaguar, the tapir, the cabiai, the lama, the vicuna, the sloths, the\narmadilloes, the opossums, and the whole tribe of sapajous, were to them\nentirely new animals, of which they had no idea. Similar circumstances\nhave recurred in our own time, when the coasts of New Holland and the\nadjacent islands were first explored. The various species of kangaroo,\nphascolomys, dasyurus, and perameles, the flying phalangers, the\nornithorynchi, and echidnae, have astonished naturalists by the\nstrangeness of their conformations, which presented proportions contrary\nto all former rules, and were incapable of being arranged under any of\nthe systems then in use.\" New Zealand, though singularly devoid of\nindigenous mammals and reptiles,--for the only native mammal seems to be\na peculiar species of rat, and the only native reptile a small, harmless\nlizard,--has a scarce less remarkable fauna than either of these great\ncontinents. It consists almost exclusively of birds, some of them so ill\nprovided with wings, that, like the _wika_ of the natives, they can only\nrun along the ground. And it is a most significant fact, that both in\nthe two great continents and the New Zealand islands there existed, in\nthe later geologic ages, extinct faunas that bore the peculiar generic\ncharacters by which their recent ones are still distinguished. The\nsloths and armadilloes of South America had their gigantic predecessors\nin the enormous megatherium and mylodon, and the strongly armed\nglyptodon; the kangaroos and wombats of Australia had their extinct\npredecessors in a kangaroo nearly twice the size of the largest living\nspecies, and in so huge a wombat, that its bones have been mistaken for\nthose of the hippopotamus; and the ornithic inhabitants of New Zealand\nhad their predecessors in the monstrous birds, such as the dinornis, the\naptornis, and the palapteryx,--wingless creatures like the ostrich,\nthat stood from six to twelve feet in height. In these several regions\ntwo _generations_ of species of the genera peculiar to them have\nexisted,--the recent generation by whose descendants they are still\ninhabited, and the extinct gigantic generation, whose remains we find\nlocked up in their soils and caves. But how are such facts reconcileable\nwith the hypothesis of a universal deluge?\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 112.\n\nMYLODON ROBUSTUS.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 113.\n\nGLYPTODON CLAVIPES.]\n\nThe deluge was an event of the existing creation. Had it been universal,\nit would either have broken up all the diverse centres, and substituted\none great general centre instead,--that in which the ark rested; or\nelse, at an enormous expense of miracle, all the animals preserved by\n_natural_ means by Noah would have had to be returned by _supernatural_\nmeans to the regions whence by means _equally supernatural_ they had\nbeen brought. The sloths and armadilloes,--little fitted by nature for\nlong journeys,--would have required to be ferried across the Atlantic to\nthe regions in which the remains of the megatherium and glyptodon lie\nentombed; the kangaroo and wombat, to the insulated continent that\ncontains the bones of the extinct macropus and phalcolomys; and the New\nZealand birds, including its heavy flying quails and its wingless\nwood-hen, to those remote islands of the Pacific in which the skeletons\nof _Palapteryx ingens_ and _Dinornus giganteus_ lie entombed. Nor will\nit avail aught to urge, with certain assertors of a universal deluge,\nthat during the cataclysm, sea and land changed their places, and that\nwhat is now land had formed the bottom of the antediluvian ocean, and,\n_vice versa_, what is now sea had been the land on which the first human\ninhabitants of the earth increased and multiplied. No geologist who\nknows how very various the ages of the several table-lands and mountain\nchains in reality are could acquiesce in such an hypothesis; our own\nScottish shores,--if to the term of the existing we add that of the\nancient coast line,--must have formed the limits of the land from a time\nvastly more remote than the age of the deluge. But even supposing, for\nthe argument's sake, the hypothesis recognized as admissible, what, in\nthe circumstances of the case, would be gained by the admission? A\ncontinuous tract of land would have stretched,--when all the oceans were\ncontinents and all the continents oceans,--between the South American\nand the Asiatic coasts. And it is just possible that, during the hundred\nand twenty years in which the ark was in building, a pair of sloths\nmight have crept by inches across this continuous tract, from where the\nskeletons of the great megatheria are buried, to where the great vessel\nstood. But after the Flood had subsided, and the change in sea and land\nhad taken place, there would remain for them no longer a roadway; and\nso, though their journey outwards might, in all save the impulse which\nled to it, have been altogether a natural one, their voyage homewards\ncould not be other than miraculous. Nor would the exertion of miracle\nhave had to be restricted to the transport of the _remoter_ travellers.\nHow, we may well ask, had the Flood been universal, could even such\nislands as Great Britain and Ireland have ever been replenished with\nmany of their original inhabitants? Even supposing it possible that\nanimals, such as the red deer and the native ox _might_ have swam across\nthe Straits of Dover or the Irish Channel, to graze anew over deposits\nin which the bones and horns of their remote ancestors had been entombed\nlong ages before, the feat would have been surely far beyond the power\nof such feeble natives of the soil as the mole, the hedgehog, the shrew,\nthe dormouse, and the field-vole.\n\nDr. Pye Smith, in dealing with this subject, has emphatically said, that\n\"all land animals having their geographical regions, to which their\nconstitutional natures are congenial,--many of them being unable to\nlive in any other situation,--we cannot represent to ourselves the idea\nof their being brought into one small spot from the polar regions, the\ntorrid zone, and all the other climates of Asia, Africa, Europe, and\nAmerica, Australia, and the thousands of islands,--their preservation\nand provision, and the final disposal of them,--without bringing up the\nidea of miracles more stupendous than any that are recorded in\nScripture. The great decisive miracle of Christianity,\" he adds,--\"the\nresurrection of the Lord Jesus,--sinks down before it.\" And let us\nremember that the preservation and redistribution of the land animals\nwould demand but a portion of the amount of miracle absolutely necessary\nfor the preservation, in the circumstances, of the entire fauna of the\nglobe. The fresh water fishes, molluscs, crustacea, and zoophytes, could\nbe kept alive in a universal deluge only by miraculous means. It has\nbeen urged that, though the living individuals were to perish, their\nspawn might be preserved by natural means. It must be remembered,\nhowever, that even of some fishes whose proper habitat is the sea, such\nas the salmon, it is essential for the maintenance of the species that\nthe spawn should be deposited in fresh water, nay, in running fresh\nwater; for in still water, however pure, the eggs in a few weeks addle\nand die. The eggs of the common trout also require to be deposited in\nrunning fresh water; while other fresh water fishes, such as the tench\nand carp, are reared most successfully in still, reedy ponds. The fresh\nwater fishes spawn, too, at very different seasons, and the young remain\nfor very different periods in the egg. The perch and grayling spawn in\nthe end of April or the beginning of May; the tench and roach about the\nmiddle of June; the common trout and powan in October and November. And\nwhile some fishes, such as the salmon, remain from ninety to a hundred\ndays in the egg, others, such as the trout, are extruded in five weeks.\nWithout special miracle the spawn of all the fresh water fishes could\nnot be in existence _as such_ at one and the same time; without special\nmiracle it could not maintain its vitality in a universal deluge; and\nwithout special miracle, even did it maintain its vitality, it could not\nremain in the egg state throughout an entire twelvemonth, but would be\ndeveloped into fishes of the several species to which it belonged at\nvery different periods. Further, in a universal deluge, without special\nmiracle vast numbers of even the salt water animals could not fail to be\nextirpated; in particular, almost all the molluscs of the littoral and\nlaminarian zones. Nor would the vegetable kingdom fare greatly better\nthan the animal one. Of the one hundred thousand species of known\nplants, few indeed would survive submersion for a twelvemonth; nor would\nthe seeds of most of the others fare better than the plants themselves.\nThere are certain hardy seeds that in favorable circumstances maintain\ntheir vitality for ages; and there are others, strongly encased in\nwater-tight shells or skins, that have floated across oceans to\ngerminate in distant islands; but such, as every florist knows, is not\nthe general character of seeds; and not until after many unsuccessful\nattempts, and many expedients had been resorted to, have the more\ndelicate kinds been brought uninjured, even on shipboard, from distant\ncountries to our own. It is not too much to hold that, without special\nmiracle, at least three fourths of the terrestrial vegetation of the\nglobe would have perished in a universal deluge that covered over the\ndry land for a year. Assuredly the various vegetable centres or\nregions,--estimated by Schouw at twenty-five,--bear witness to no such\ncatastrophe. Still distinct and unbroken, as of old, either no effacing\nflood has passed over them, or they were shielded from its effects at an\nexpense of miracle many times more considerable than that at which the\nJews were brought out of Egypt and preserved amid the nations, or\nChristianity itself was ultimately established.[30]\n\nThere is, however, a class of learned and thoroughly respectable\ntheologians who seem disposed to accept rather of any amount of\nunrecorded miracle, than to admit of a merely partial deluge,\ncoextensive with but the human family. \"Were the difficulty attending\nthis subject tenfold greater, and seemingly beyond all satisfactory\nexplanation,\" says Dr. William Hamilton, \"if I yet find it recorded in\nthe Book of Revelation, that in the deluge '_every living thing in which\nis the breath of life perished, and Noah only remained alive, and they\nwhich were with him in the ark_,' I could still believe it implicitly,\nsatisfied that the difficulty of explanation springs solely from the\nimperfection of human knowledge, and not from any limitation in the\npower or the wisdom of God, nor yet from any lack of trustworthiness in\nthe document given us in a revelation from God,--a document given to men\nby the hands of Moses, the learned, accomplished, and eminently devout\nJewish legislator.\" Here again, however, Dr. Hamilton seems to have\nmistaken the question actually at issue. The true question is, not\nwhether or no Moses is to be believed in the matter, but whether or no\nwe in reality understand Moses. The question is, whether we are to\nregard the passages in which he describes the Flood as universal, as\nbelonging to the very numerous metonymic texts of Scripture in which a\npart--sometimes a not very large part--is described as the whole, or to\nregard them as strictly and severely literal. Or, in other words,\nwhether we are, with learned and solid divines of the olden time, such\nas Poole and Stillingfleet, and with many ingenious and accomplished\ndivines of the passing age, such as the late Dr. Pye Smith and the Rev.\nProfessor Hitchcock, to regard these passages as merely metonymic; or,\nwith Drs. Hamilton and Kitto, to regard them as strictly literal, and to\ncall up in support of the literal reading an amount of supposititious\nmiracle, compared with which all the recorded miracles of the Old and\nNew Testaments sink into insignificance. The controversy does not lie\nbetween Moses and the naturalists, but between the _readings_ of\ntheologians such as Matthew Poole and Stillingfleet on the one hand, and\nthe _readings_ of theologians such as Drs. Hamilton and Kitto on the\nother. And finding all natural science arrayed against the conclusions\nof the one class, and in favor of those of the other, and believing,\nfurther, that there has been always such a marked economy shown in the\nexercise of miraculous powers, that there has never been more of miracle\nemployed in any one of the dispensations than was needed,[31] I must\nhold that the theologians who believe that the deluge was but\ncoextensive with the moral purpose which it served are more in the\nright, and may be more safely followed, than the theologians who hold\nthat it extended greatly further than was necessary. It is not with\nMoses or the truth of revelation that our controversy lies, but with the\nopponents of Stillingfleet and of Poole.\n\nTo only one of the other arguments employed in this controversy need I\nat all refer. The cones of volcanic craters are formed of loose\nincoherent scoriae and ashes, and, when exposed, as in the case of\nsubmarine volcanoes, such as Graham's Island and the islands of Nyoe and\nSabrina, to the denuding force of waves and currents, they have in a few\nweeks, or at most a few months, been washed completely away. And yet in\nvarious parts of the world, such as Auvergne in central France, and\nalong the flanks of Aetna, there are cones of long extinct or long\nslumbering volcanoes, which, though of at least triple the antiquity of\nthe Noachian deluge, and though composed of the ordinary incoherent\nmaterials, exhibit no marks of denudation. According to the calculations\nof Sir Charles Lyell, no devastating flood could have passed over the\nforest zone of Aetna during the last twelve thousand years,--for such is\nthe antiquity which he assigns to its older lateral cones, that retain\nin integrity their original shape; and the volcanic cones of Auvergne,\nwhich inclose in their ashes the remains of extinct animals, and present\nan outline as perfect as those of Aetna, are deemed older still. Graham\nIsland arose out of the sea early in July, 1831; in the beginning of the\nfollowing August it had attained to a circumference of three miles, and\nto a height of two hundred feet; and yet in less than three months from\nthat time the waves had washed its immense mass down to the sea level;\nand in a few weeks more it existed but as a dangerous shoal. And such\ninevitably would have been the fate of the equally incoherent cone-like\ncraters of Aetna and Auvergne during the seven and a half months that\nintervened between the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep\nand the reappearance of the mountain-tops, had they been included within\nthe area of the deluge. It is estimated that even the newer Auvergne\nlavas are as old as the times of the Miocene. It is at least a\ndemonstrable fact, that the slow action of streams had hollowed them in\nseveral places into deep chasms nearly two thousand years ago; for the\nremains of Roman works of about that age survive, to show that they had\nthen, as now, to be spanned over by bridges, and that baths had been\nerected in their denuded recesses; and yet the craters out of which\nthese lavas had flowed retain well nigh all their original sharpness of\noutline. No wave ever dashed against their symmetrically sloping sides.\nNow, I have in no instance seen the argument derivable from this class\nof facts fairly met. The supposed mistake of the Canonico Recupero, or\nrather of Brydone, who argued that the \"lowest of a series of seven\ndistinct lavas of Aetna, most of them covered by thick intervening beds\nof rich earth, must have been fourteen thousand years old,\" has been\noften referred to in the controversy. Brydone or the Canon mistook, it\nhas been said, beds of brown ashes, each of which might have been\ndeposited during a single shower, for beds of rich earth, each of which\nwould have taken centuries to form. The oldest of the series of lava\nbeds, therefore, instead of being fourteen thousand, might be scarce\nfourteen hundred years old. And if Brydone or the Canon were thus\nmistaken in their calculations, why may not the modern geologists be\nalso mistaken in theirs? Now, altogether waiving the question as to\nwhether the ingenious traveller of eighty-six years ago was or was not\nmistaken in his estimate,--for to those acquainted with geologic fact in\ngeneral, or more particularly with the elaborate descriptions of Aetna\ngiven during the last thirty years by Elie de Beaumont, Hoffmann, and\nSir Charles Lyell, the facts of Brydone, in their bearing on either the\nage of the earth or the age of the mountain, can well be\nspared,--waiving, I say, the question whether the traveller was in\nreality in mistake, I must be permitted to remark, that the concurrent\ntestimony of geologists cannot in fairness be placed on the same level\nas the testimony of a man who, though accomplished and intelligent, was\nnot only no geologist, but who observed and described ere geology had\nany existence as a science. Further, I must be allowed to add, that\ngeology _is_ now a science; and that individuals unacquainted with it in\nits character as such place themselves in positions greatly more\nperilous than they seem to think, when they enter on the field of\nargument with men who for many years have made it a subject of special\nstudy. It is not by \"bidding down\" the age of the extinct or quiescent\nvolcanoes by a species of blind haggling, or by presuming mistake in the\ncalculations regarding them, simply because mistakes are possible and\nhave sometimes been made, that that portion of the cumulative evidence\nagainst a universal deluge which they furnish is to be neutralized or\nset aside. The argument on the general question _is_ a cumulative one;\nand while many of its component portions are of themselves so\nconclusive, that only supposititious miracle, and not presentable\nargument, can be arrayed against them, its aggregate force seems wholly\nirresistible. In passing, however, from the facts and reasonings that\nbear against the hypothesis of a universal deluge, to indicate in a few\nsentences both the possible mode in which a merely partial flood might\nhave taken place, and the probable extent of area which it covered, I\nshall have to remove from very strong to comparatively weak\nground,--from what can be maintained as argument, to what can at best be\nbut offered as conjecture.\n\nThere is a remarkable portion of the globe, chiefly in the Asiatic\ncontinent, though it extends into Europe, and which is nearly equal to\nall Europe in area, whose rivers (some of them, such as the Volga, the\nOural, the Sihon, the Kour, and the Amoo, of great size) do not fall\ninto the ocean, or into any of the many seas which communicate with it.\nThey are, on the contrary, all _turned inwards_, if I may so express\nmyself; losing themselves, in the eastern parts of the tract, in the\nlakes of a rainless district, in which they supply but the waste of\nevaporation, and falling, in the western parts, into seas such as the\nCaspian and the Aral. In this region there are extensive districts still\nunder the level of the ocean. The shore line of the Caspian, for\ninstance, is rather more than eighty-three feet beneath that of the\nBlack Sea; and some of the great flat steppes which spread out around\nit, such as what is known as the Steppe of Astracan, have a mean level\nof about thirty feet beneath that of the Baltic. Were there a\ntrench-like strip of country that communicated between the Caspian and\nthe Gulf of Finland to be depressed beneath the level of the latter sea,\nit would _so open up the fountains of the great deep_ as to lay under\nwater an extensive and populous region, containing the cities of\nAstracan and Astrabad, and many other towns and villages. Nor is it\nunworthy of remark, surely, that one of the depressed steppes of this\npeculiar region is known as the \"Low Steppe of the Caucasus,\" and forms\nno inconsiderable portion of the great recognized centre of the human\nfamily. The Mount Ararat on which, according to many of our\ncommentators, the ark rested, rises immediately on the western edge of\nthis great hollow; the Mount Ararat selected as the scene of that event\nby Sir Walter Raleigh, certainly not without some show of reason, lies\nfar within it. Vast plains, white with salt, and charged with sea\nshells, show that the Caspian Sea was at no distant period greatly more\nextensive than it is now. In an outer region, which includes the vast\ndesert of Khiva, shells also abound; but they seem to belong, as a\ngroup, rather to some of the later Tertiary eras than to the recent\nperiod. It is quite possible, however, that,--as on parts of the western\nshores of our own country, where recent marine deposits lie over marine\ndeposits of the Pleistocene age, while a terrestrial deposit,\nrepresentative of an intervening paroxysm of upheaval, lies between,--it\nis possible, I say, that in this great depressed area, the region\ncovered of old by a Tertiary sea, which we know united the Sea of Aral\nwith the Caspian, and rolled over many a wide steppe and vast plain, may\nhave been again covered for a brief period (after ages of upheaval) by\nthe breaking in of the great deep during that season of judgment when,\nwith the exception of one family, the whole human race was destroyed. It\nseems confirmatory of this view, that during even the historic period,\nat least one of the neighboring inland seas, though it belongs to a\ndifferent system from that of the Caspian and the Aral, covered a vastly\ngreater area than it does now,--a consequence, apparently, of a more\nconsiderable depression in the Caucasian region than at present exists.\nHerodotus, as quoted by Cuvier in his \"Theory of the Earth,\" represents\nthe Sea of Azoff as equal in extent to the Euxine.\n\nWith the known facts, then, regarding this depressed Asiatic region\nbefore us, let us see whether we cannot originate a theory of the\nDeluge free from at least the palpable monstrosities of the older ones.\nLet us suppose that the human family, still amounting to several\nmillions, though greatly reduced by exterminating wars and exhausting\nvices, were congregated in that tract of country which, extending\neastwards from the modern Ararat to far beyond the Sea of Aral, includes\nthe original Caucasian centre of the race: let us suppose that, the hour\nof judgment having at length arrived, the land began gradually to sink,\nas the tract in the run of Cutch sank in the year 1819, or as the tract\nin the southern part of North America, known as the \"sunk country,\" sank\nin the year 1821: further, let us suppose that the depression took place\nslowly and equably for forty days together, at the rate of about four\nhundred feet per day,--a rate not twice greater than that at which the\ntide rises in the Straits of Magellan, and which would have rendered\nitself apparent as but a persistent inward flowing of the sea: let us\nyet further suppose, that from mayhap some volcanic outburst coincident\nwith the depression, and an effect of the same deep seated cause, the\natmosphere was so affected, that heavy drenching rains continued to\ndescend during the whole time, and that, though they could contribute\nbut little to the actual volume of the flood,--at most only some five or\nsix inches per day,--they at least _seemed_ to constitute one of its\nmain causes, and added greatly to its terrors, by swelling the rivers,\nand rushing downwards in torrents from the hills. The depression, which,\nby extending to the Euxine Sea and the Persian Gulf on the one hand, and\nto the Gulf of Finland on the other, would open up by three separate\nchannels the fountains of the great deep, and which included, let us\nsuppose, an area of about two thousand miles each way, would, at the end\nof the fortieth day, be sunk in its centre to the depth of sixteen\nthousand feet,--a depth sufficiently profound to bury the loftiest\nmountains of the district; and yet, having a gradient of declination of\nbut sixteen feet per mile, the contour of its hills and plains would\nremain apparently what they had been before,--the doomed inhabitants\nwould see but the water rising along the mountain sides, and one refuge\nafter another swept away, till the last witness of the scene would have\nperished, and the last hill-top would have disappeared. And when, after\na hundred and fifty days had come and gone, the depressed hollow would\nhave begun slowly to rise,--and when, after the fifth month had passed,\nthe ark would have grounded on the summit of Mount Ararat,--all that\ncould have been seen from the upper window of the vessel would be simply\na boundless sea, roughened by tides, now flowing outwards, with a\nreversed course, towards the distant ocean, by the three great outlets\nwhich, during the period of depression, had given access to the waters.\nNoah would of course see that \"the fountains of the deep were stopped,\"\nand \"the waters returning from off the earth continually;\" but whether\nthe Deluge had been partial or universal, he could neither see nor know.\nHis prospect in either case would have been equally that described by\nthe poet Bowles:--\n\n \"The mighty ark\n Rests upon Ararat; but nought around\n Its inmates can behold, save o'er the expanse\n Of boundless waters the sun's orient orb\n Stretching the hull's long shadow, or the moon\n In silence through the silver-curtained clouds\n Sailing, as she herself were lost and left\n In hollow loneliness.\"\n\nLet me further remark, that in one important sense a partial Flood, such\nas the one of which I have conceived as adequate to the destruction, in\nan early age, of the whole human family, could scarce be regarded as\nmiraculous. Several of our first geologists hold, that some of the\nformidable cataclysms of the remote past may have been occasioned by the\nsudden upheaval of vast continents, which, by displacing great bodies of\nwater, and rolling them outwards in the character of enormous waves,\ninundated wide regions elevated hundreds of feet over the sea level, and\nstrewed them over with the rock boulders, clays, gravels, and organic\ndebris of deep sea bottoms. And these cataclysms they regard as\nperfectly natural, though of course very unusual, events. Nor would the\ngradual depression of a continent, or, as in the supposed case, of a\nportion of a continent, be in any degree less natural than the sudden\nupheaval of a continent. It would, on the contrary, be much more\naccording to experience. Nay, were such a depression and elevation of\nthe great Asiatic basin to take place during the coming twelvemonth as\nthat of which I have conceived as the probable cause of the Deluge,\nthough the geologists would have to describe it as beyond comparison the\nmost remarkable oscillation of level which had taken place within the\nhistoric period, they would certainly regard it as no more miraculous\nthan the great earthquake of Lisbon, or than that exhibition of the\nvolcanic forces which elevated the mountain of Jorullo in a single night\nsixteen hundred feet over the plain. And why have recourse, in\nspeculating on the real event of four thousand years ago, to\nsupposititious miracle, if an event of apparently the same kind would\nnot be regarded as miraculous now? May we not in this matter take our\nstand beside the poet, who, when recognizing a Providence in the great\nCalabrian earthquake, and in the overwhelming wave by which it was\naccompanied, pertinently inquired of the skeptics,--\n\n \"Has not God\n Still wrought by means since first he made the world?\n _And did he not of old employ his means\n To drown it?_ What is his creation less\n Than a capacious reservoir of means,\n Formed for his use, and ready at his will?\"\n\nThe revelation to Noah, which warned him of a coming Flood, and taught\nhim how to prepare for it, was evidently miraculous: the Flood itself\nmay have been purely providential. But on this part of the subject I\nneed not dwell. I have accomplished my purpose if I have shown, as was\nattempted of old by divines such as Stillingfleet and Poole, that there\n\"seems to be no reason why the Deluge should be extended beyond the\noccasion of it, which was the corruption of man,\" but, on the contrary,\nmuch reason against it; and that, on the other hand, a Flood restricted\nand partial, and yet sufficient to destroy the race in an early age,\nwhile still congregating in their original centre, cannot be regarded as\nby any means an incredible event. The incredibility lies in the mere\nhuman glosses and misinterpretations in which its history has been\nenveloped. Divested of these, and viewed in its connection with those\nwonderful traditions which still float all over the world regarding it,\nit forms, not one of the stumbling-blocks, but one of the evidences, of\nour faith; and renders the exercise a not unprofitable one, when,\naccording to the poet,--\n\n \"Back through the dusk\n Of ages Contemplation turns her view,\n To mark, as from its infancy, the world\n Peopled again from that mysterious shrine\n That rested on the top of Ararat.\"\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE NINTH.\n\nTHE DISCOVERABLE AND THE REVEALED.\n\n\nIt seems natural, nay, inevitable, that false revelations, which have\ndescended from remote, unscientific ages, should be committed to a false\nscience. Natural phenomena, when of an extraordinary character,\npowerfully impress the untutored mind. In operating, through the\ncuriosity or the fears of men, upon that instinct of humanity--never\nwholly inactive in even the rudest state--which cannot witness any\nremarkable effect without seeking to connect it with its producing\ncause, they excite into activity in the search the imaginative\nfaculty,--always of earlier development than the judgment in both\npeoples and individuals, and which never fails, when so employed, to\nconduct to delusions and extravagances. And this state of mind gives\nbirth simultaneously to both false religion and false science. Great\ntempests, inundations, eclipses, earthquakes, thunder and lightning,\nfamine and pestilence, the births of monsters, or the rare visitation of\nstrange fishes or wild animals, come all to be included in the\nmythologic domain. Even the untutored Indian \"sees God in clouds, and\nhears him in the wind.\" And when an order of priesthood springs up, a\nportion of the leisure of the class is usually employed in speculating\non these phenomena; and to their speculations they give the form of\ndirect revelation. Thus almost all the false religions of the old\nworld--not grafted, like Mohammedanism, on the true one--have their\npretended revelations regarding the form, structure, and origin of the\nearth, the mechanism of the heavens, the electric and meteoric\nphenomena, and even the arrangement of oceans and continents on the\nsurface of our planet.\n\nThe old extinct forms of heathenism,--Etrurian, Egyptian, Phoenician,\nand Babylonian,--had all their cosmogonies.[32] In the wild mythology of\nancient Scandinavia, of which we find such distinct traces in the\nlanguages and superstitions of northern Europe, and which even in our\nown country continues to give the names of its uncouth deities to the\ndays of our week, there is a strange genesis of not only the heavens and\nearth, but of the gods also. It has, besides, its scheme of the universe\nin its great mundane tree of three vast roots,--celestial, terrestrial,\nand infernal,--which supports the land, the sea, the sky, and all\nthings. The leading religions of the East which still survive, such as\nBuddhism, Brahminism, and Parseeism, have all their astronomy,\ngeography, meteorology, and geology, existing as component parts of\ntheir several systems. Nor have there been wanting ingenious men who,\nthough little tolerant of the various attempts made to reconcile the\nMosaic account of creation with the discoveries of modern science, have\nlooked with a favorable eye on the wild science of the false religions,\nand professed to detect in it at least striking analogies with the\ndeductions of both the geologist and the astronomer. When the skeptical\nwits of the last century wished to produce, by way of foil, a morality\nvastly superior, as they said, to that of Christianity, they had\nrecourse to the Brahmins and the Chinese. And though we hear less of the\nethics of these people since we have come to know them better, we are\nstill occasionally reminded of the superiority of their science.\nHinduism has been regarded as furnishing examples of the geologic\ndoctrine of a succession of creations extended over immensely protracted\ngeologic periods; and Buddhism represented as charged with both the\ngeologic doctrine and the perhaps less certain astronomic deduction of a\nplurality of worlds. And before entering on our general argument, it may\nbe well to show by specimen what mere chance hits these are, and how\nenormous the amount of the nonsense and absurdity really is in which\nthey are set.\n\nWhen Brahma, wearied with the work of producing and maintaining the\nuniverse, goes to sleep, say the Hindus,--an occurrence which happens at\nthe end of every four millions of years,--a deluge of water rises high\nabove the sun and moon, and the worlds and their inhabitants are\ndestroyed. When he awakes, however, he immediately sets himself to\nproduce anew; and another universe springs up, consisting, like the\nformer one, of ten worlds placed over each other, like the stories of a\ntall building, and replenished with plants and animals. Of these our own\nworld is the eighth in number, reckoning from the ground floor upwards;\nthere are seven worlds worse than itself beneath it, and two better ones\nabove; with a few worlds more higher up still, to which the destroying\nflood does not reach, save once or twice in an eternity or so; and\nwhich, in consequence, have not to be re-created each time with the\nothers. The special forms which the upper and nether worlds exhibit do\nnot seem to be very well known; but that which man inhabits is \"flat,\nlike the flower of the water-lily, in which the petals project beyond\neach other;\" and it has in all, including sea and land, a diameter of\nseveral hundred thousand _millions_ of miles. It has its many great\noceans,--one of these (unfortunately the only one in contact with man's\nplace of habitation) of salt water, one of sugar-cane juice, one of\nspirituous liquor, one of clarified butter, and one of sour curds. It\nhas, besides, its very great ocean of sweet water. And around all,\nforming a sort of gigantic hoop or ring, there extends a continent of\npure gold. Of all the luminaries that rise over this huge world, the sun\nis the nearest: the distance of the moon is twice as great; the lesser\nfixed stars occur immediately beyond; then Mercury, then Venus, then\nMars, then Jupiter, then Saturn; and finally, the great bear and the\npolar star. And such is that cosmogony and astronomy of the Brahmins to\nwhich their religion, in its character as a revelation, stands\ncommitted, and in which a very lenient criticism has found the geologic\nrevolutions. Let me draw my next illustration from Buddhism, the most\nancient and most widely spread religion of the East; for, though\npartially overlaid in the great Indian peninsula by the more modern\nmonstrosities of Brahminism, it extends in one direction from the\nPersian Gulf to Formosa and Japan, and in the other from the wastes of\nSiberia to the Gulf of Siam. Scarce any of the other forms of heathenism\ndarken so large a portion of the map as Buddhism,--a superstition which\nis estimated to include within its pale nearly one third of the whole\nhuman species.\n\nIt has been held, I need scarce say, by most astronomers since the times\nof Newton, that the universe consists of innumerable systems of worlds,\nfurnished each with its own sun; and held by most geologists during the\nlast fifty years, that the past duration of our earth was divided into\nperiods of vast extent, each of which had a creation of its own. And\ncertainly in Buddhism we find both these ideas,--the idea of the\nexistence of separate systems, each with its own sun; and the idea of\nsuccessive periods, each with its own creation. We ascertain on\nexamination; however, that in the superstition they are not scientific\nideas at all, but mere chance guesses, set, like those of Brahminism,\nin a farago of wild and monstrous fable. Each of the many systems of\nwhich the universe is composed consists, say the Buddhists, of three\nworlds of a circular form, joined together at the edges, so that there\nintervenes between them an angular interspace, which constitutes their\ncommon hell; and to each of these systems there is a sun and moon\napportioned, that take their daily journeys over them, returning at\nnight through a void space underneath. And each of the bygone successive\ncreations was a creation originated, it is added, out of chaos, through\nthe stored-up merits of the Buddhas, and the effects of a\nlife-invigorating rain, and which sank into chaos again when the old\nstock of merit, accumulated in the previous period, was exhausted. The\ncreatures of each period, too, whether brute or human, were animated by\nbut the souls of former creatures embodied anew. In the centre of each\nof the three worlds of which a system or _sackwala_ consists, there is a\nvast mountain, more than forty thousand miles in height, surrounded by a\ncircular sea, which is in turn surrounded by a ring of land and rock.\nAnother circular sea lies outside the ring, and a second solid ring\noutside the sea; and thus rings of land and water alternate from the\ncentre to the circumference. According to the geography of the Buddhas,\na model of our own earth would exactly resemble that old-fashioned\nornament,--a work of the turning-lathe,--which some of my auditors must\nhave seen roughening the upper board of the ornate parlor bellows of the\nlast century, and which consisted of a large central knob, surrounded by\nalternate circular rings and furrows. And as in the old-fashioned\nbellows each ring flattened, and each furrow became shallower, in\nproportion as it was removed from the centre, so in the Buddhist earth,\nthe seas, from being many thousand miles deep in the inner rings,\nshallow so greatly, that in the outer rings their depth is only an\ninch; while the continents, from being forty thousand miles high, sink\ninto mere plains, almost on the level of the surrounding ocean. Such is\nthe geography to which this religion pledges itself. Its astronomy, on\nthe other hand, is not quite so bad as that to which Father Cullen has\naffixed his imprimatur, seeing that, though it gives the same sort of\ndiurnal journey to the sun, it confers upon it a diameter, not of only\nsix feet, but of four hundred miles. Nor is its geology a great deal\nworse than that of many Christians. It makes the earth consist,\nreckoning from its foundations upwards, of a layer of wind, a layer of\nwater, a layer of substance resembling honey, a layer of rock, and a\nlayer of soil. Such is a small portion of the natural science of\nBuddhism: the minute details of its monstrous cosmogony, with its\ndescriptions of fabulous oceans, inhabited by fishes thousands of miles\nin length, and of wonderful forests abounding in trees four hundred\nmiles high, and haunted by singing lions that leap two miles at a bound,\noccupy many chapters of the sacred volumes. Every form of faith has its\nheretics; and there are, it would seem, heretics among even the\nBuddhists, who, instead of adopting the nonsense of the priests in this\nphysical department, originate a nonsense equally great of their own.\nThe error of concluding that the worlds of the universe are finite in\nnumber, say the sacred books, is the heresy _antawada_; the error of\nconcluding that the world itself is infinite is the heresy _anantawada_;\nthe error of concluding that the world is finite vertically but infinite\nhorizontally is the heresy _anantanantawada_; and the error of\nconcluding the world to be neither finite nor infinite is the heresy\n_nawantanantawada_. A name equally formidable would be, of course, found\nfor the students of modern astronomy and the other kindred sciences,\namong the professed believers in Buddh, did not these contrive to get\nover the difficulty by observing, \"that certain things, as stated in\nthe _Sastras_, must have been so formerly; but great changes have taken\nplace in these in latter times; and for astronomical purposes\nastronomical rules must be followed.\"\n\nBelievers in Buddhism may be still found by tens of millions on the\nshores of the Yellow Sea. Let me select my third specimen of a\nuniverse-fashioning mythology from a faith, long since extinct, that had\nits seat on the opposite side of the Old World, along the coasts of the\nNorthern Atlantic. The old Teutonic religion professed to reveal, like\nthat of Buddh and of Brahma, _how_ the heavens and earth were formed,\nand of _what_. Ymir, the great frost-giant, a being mysteriously\nengendered out of frozen vapor, was slain by the god Odin and his\nbrothers; and, dragging his body into the middle of the universe, they\nemployed the materials of which it was composed in forming the earth. Of\nhis blood they made the vast ocean, and all the lakes and rivers; of his\nflesh they constructed the land, placing it in the midst of the waters;\nof his bones they built up the mountains; his teeth and jaws they broke\nup into the stones and pebbles of the earth and shore; of his great\nskull they fashioned the vault of the heavens; and, tossing his brains\ninto the air, they became the clouds. Earth, sea, and sky, however, thus\nmade, were supported by the great ash-tree Yggdrasill, which, with its\nroots anchored deep in the primordial abyss, rose up through the vast\ncentral mountains of the world, and, stretching forth its branches to\nthe furthest heaven, bore the stars as its fruit. Encircling the whole\nearth like a ring, lay the huge snake Midgard,--always hidden in the\nsea, save when half drawn forth on one occasion by the god Thor; outside\nthe snake a broader ring of ice-mountains swept round both land and\nocean, and formed the outer frame of the world,--for there lay only\nblank space beyond; and over all, the sun and moon performed their\njourneys, chased through the sky by ravenous wolves, that ever sought to\ndevour them. Such was the wild dream of our Scandinavian ancestors,--a\ndream, however, that occupied as prominent a place in their Edda as any\nof their other religious beliefs, and which, with the first dawn of\nscience, would not only have fallen itself, but would have also dragged\ndown the others along with it.\n\nNow this physical department has ever proved the vulnerable portion of\nfalse religions,--the portion which, if I may use the metaphor, their\noriginators could not dip in the infernal river. The ability of drawing\nthe line, in the early and ignorant ages of the world, between what man\ncan of himself discover and what he cannot, is an ability which man\ncannot possibly possess. The ancient Chaldeans, who first watched the\nmotions of the planets, could not possibly have foreseen, that while on\nthe one hand men would be one day able of themselves to measure and\nweigh these bodies, and to determine their distances from the earth and\nfrom each other, men might never be able of themselves to demonstrate\nthe fact of their authorship, or to discover the true character of their\nauthor. Nay, if they could have at all thought on the subject, the\nlatter would have seemed to them by much the simpler discovery of the\ntwo. To know at such a time what was in reality discoverable and what\nwas not, would be to know by anticipation what is not yet known,--the\nlimits of all human knowledge. It would be to trace a line non-existent\nat the period, and untraceable, in the nature of things, until the\nhistory of the human race shall be completed. It was held by even the\nsagacious Socrates, that men cannot arrive at any certainty in questions\nrespecting the form or motion of the earth, or the mechanism of the\nheavens; and so he set himself to elucidate what he deemed much simpler\nmatters,--to prove, for instance, as we find in the Phedon, that human\nsouls existed ere they came to inhabit their mortal bodies, and retained\nfaint recollections of great misfortunes that had overtaken them ere\ntheir embodiment as men, and of sufferings to which they had been\nsubjected in a primevous state. And lacking this ability of\ndistinguishing between the naturally discoverable and what cannot be\nnaturally discovered, the originators of the old mythologic beliefs\nobtruded into provinces in which ultimately the lawless nature of the\nobtrusion could not fail to be detected; and thus, by making their false\nscience a portion of their false religion, they created what was\nafterwards to prove its weakest and most vulnerable part. We absolutely\nknow that the course at present pursued by enlightened Christian\nmissionaries in India is to bring scientific truth into direct\nantagonism with the monstrously false science of the pretended\nrevelations of Parseeism, Brahminism, and Buddhism; and that by this\nmeans the general falsity of these systems has been so plainly shown,\nthat it has become a matter of doubt whether a single educated native of\nany considerable ability in reality believes in them. They seem to have\nlost their hold of all the minds capable of appreciating the weight and\nforce of scientific evidence.\n\nLet us further remark, that since it seems inevitable that pretended\nrevelations of ancient date should pledge themselves to a false science,\nthe presumption must be strong that an ancient revelation of great\nmultiplicity of detail, which has _not_ so pledged itself, is not a\nfalse, but a true revelation. Nay, if we find in it the line drawn\nbetween what man can know of himself and what he cannot know, and\ndetermine that this line was traced in a remote and primitive age, we\nhave positive evidence in the circumstance, good so far as it extends,\nof its Divine origin. Now, it will be ultimately found that this line\nwas drawn with exquisite precision in the Hebrew Scriptures,--not\nmerely the most ancient works that profess to be revelations, but\nabsolutely the most ancient of all writings. Unfortunately, however,\nwhat God seems to have done for his Revelation, influential theologians\nof both the Romish and Orthodox Churches have labored hard to undo; and,\nfrom their mistaking, in not a few remarkable passages, the scope and\nobject of the vouchsafed message, they have at various times striven to\npledge it to a science as false as even that of Buddhist, Teuton, or\nHindu. And so, not only has the argument been weakened and obscured\nwhich might be founded on the rectitude of the line drawn of old between\nwhat ought and what ought not to be the subject of revelation, but even\na positive argument has been furnished to the infidel,--ever ready to\nidentify the glosses of the theologian with the enunciations of\nrevelation itself,--similar to that which the Christian missionary\ndirects against the false religions of India. It may be well briefly to\ninquire how this unlucky mistake has originated.\n\nIt is of first importance often to the navigator that he should have a\ngood chronometer, seeing that his ability of determining his exact\nposition on wide seas, and, in consequence, of determining also the\nexact place and bearing of the rocks and reefs which he must avoid, and\nof the lands and harbors on which he must direct his course, must very\nmuch depend upon the rectitude of his instrument. But it may be of very\nlittle importance to him to know how chronometers are made. And so a\nfriend may reveal to him where the best chronometers are to be\npurchased, with the name of the maker, without at the same time\nrevealing to him the principle on which they are constructed. Let us\nsuppose, however, that from some peculiarity in the mode of the\nrevelation, the navigator has come to believe that it includes both\nitems,--an enunciation regarding the place where and the maker from\nwhom the best chronometers are to be had, and a further enunciation\nregarding the true mechanism of chronometers. Let us suppose further,\nthat while the good faith and intelligence of his friend are\nunquestionable, the supposed revelation regarding the construction of\nchronometers, which he thinks he owes to him, is altogether erroneous\nand absurd. The chronometer mainly differs from the ordinary watch in\nbeing formed of a mixture of metals, which preserve so nice a chemical\nbalance, that those changes of temperature which quicken or retard the\nmovements of common time-pieces fail to affect it. Now, let us suppose\nthat the friend and adviser of the sailor had said to him,--using a\ncommon metonymy,--there are no chronometers anywhere constructed that so\n_completely neutralize the temperature_ as the ones I recommend to you;\nand that the sailor had at once leaped to the conclusion, that the\nremark was authority enough for holding that it is the principle of\nchronometers, not to be composed of such counteractive combinations of\nmetals as that the expansion of one shall be checked by the contraction\nof another, but to keep up an equal temperature within through a\nheat-engendering quality in the amalgamated metals. Such a mistake might\nbe readily enough originated in this way; and yet it would be a very\nserious mistake indeed; seeing that it would substitute an active for a\npassive principle,--a principle of equalizing the temperature by acting\nupon it, for a principle of inert impassibility to the temperature. And\nof course not only would the sailor himself be in error in taking such a\nview, but he might seriously compromise the intelligence or integrity of\nhis friend in the judgment of all who held, on his testimony, that it\nwas with his friend, and not from his own misconception of his friend's\nmeaning, that the view had originated. And how, let us ask, ere\ndismissing our lengthened illustration, is an error such as the\nsupposed one here to be tested, and its erroneousness exposed? There can\nbe but one reply to such a query. It might be wholly in vain to fall\nback upon the _ipsissima verba_ of the revelation made by the sailor's\nfriend. Though in reality but an enunciation regarding the _authorship_\nof certain chronometers, it might possibly enough appear, from its\nmetonymic character, to be also a revelation regarding the\n_construction_ of chronometers. The sailor's error respecting the\nconstruction of chronometers is to be tested and exposed, not by any\nreferences to what his friend had said, but by the art of the\nchronometer maker. The demonstrable principles of the art, as practised\nby the makers of chronometers, must be the test of all supposed\n_revelations_ regarding the principles and mechanism of chronometer\nmaking.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 114.\n\nTHE GEOGRAPHY OF COSMAS.[33]\n\n(_From a reduced facsimile of the original print in the British\nMuseum._)]\n\nNow, it will be found that those mistakes of the theologians to which I\nrefer have been exactly similar to that of the navigator in the supposed\ncase, and that they are mistakes which must be corrected on exactly the\nsame principle. The departments in which the mistakes have been made,\nhave, as in the false religious, been chiefly three,--the geographic,\nastronomic, and geologic provinces. The geographic errors are of\ncomparatively ancient date. They belong mainly to the later patristic\nand earlier middle ages, when the monk Cosmas, as the geographer of the\nChurch, represented the earth as a parallelogrammical plain, twice\nlonger than it was broad, deeply indented by the inland seas,--the\nMediterranean, the Caspian, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf,--and\nencompassed by a rectangular trench occupied by the oceans. Some of my\naudience will, however, remember that of the council of clergymen which\nmet in Salamanca in 1486 to examine and test the views of Christopher\nColumbus, a considerable portion held it to be grossly heterodox to\nbelieve that by sailing westwards the eastern parts of the world could\nbe reached. No one could entertain such a view without also believing\nthat there were antipodes, and that the world was round, not\nflat,--errors denounced by not only great theologians of the golden age\nof ecclesiastical learning, such as Lactantius and St. Augustine, but\nalso directly opposed, it was said, to the very letter of Scripture.\n\"They observed,\" says Washington Irving, in his \"Life of Columbus,\"\n\"that in the Psalms the heavens are said to be extended like a\nhide,--that is, according to commentators, the curtain or covering of a\ntent, which among the ancient pastoral nations was formed of the hides\nof animals; and that St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, compares\nthe heavens to a tabernacle or tent extended over the earth, which they\nthence inferred must be flat.\" In the sectional view of Cosmas the\nheavens are represented as a semicircular vault or tent raised on\nperpendicular walls; a vast mountain beyond the \"Great Sea,\" lofty as\nthe innermost continent of the Buddhist cosmogony, rises immediately\nunder it; when the sun passed behind this mountain it was night, and\nwhen it emerged from it, it was day. And certainly under the crystal box\nof the monk it would be in vain to attempt, by passing westwards, to\narrive at the far east. The cosmogony of Cosmas was also that of the\ndoctors of Salamanca; and the views of Columbus were denounced as\nheterodox because they failed to conform to it. Such was one of the\nearlier mistakes of the theologians. When merely told regarding the\nauthorship of the chronometer, they held that they had been told also\nrespecting the mechanism of the chronometer. Attaching literal meanings\nto what we now recognize as merely poetic or oratorical figures, they\nbelieved that not only was it revealed to them that God had created the\nheavens and earth, but also that he had created the earth in the form of\nan extended plain, and placed a semi-globular heavens over it, just as\none places a semi-globular case of glass over a piece of flower-plot or\na miniature thicket of fern. And how, I ask, was this error ultimately\ncorrected? Simply by that science of the geographer which demonstrates\nthat the earth is not flat, but spherical, and that the heavens have not\nedges, like a skin-tent or glass-case, to come anywhere in contact with\nit, but consist mainly of a diffused atmosphere, with illimitable space\nbeyond.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 115.\n\nTHE HEAVENS AND EARTH OF COSMAS.[34]\n\n(_Sectional View._)]\n\nThe second great error to which the theologians would fain have pledged\nthe truth of Scripture was an error in the astronomical province. I need\nscarce refer to the often-adduced case of Galileo. The doctrine which\nthe philosopher had to \"abjure, curse, and detest,\" and which he was\nnever again to teach, \"because erroneous, heretical, and contrary to\nScripture,\" was the doctrine of the earth's motion and the sun's\nstability. But to the part taken by our Protestant divines in the same\ncontroversy,--men still regarded as authorities in their own proper\nwalk,--I must be allowed to refer, as less known, though not less\ninstructive, than that enacted by the Romish Church in the case of\nGalileo. \"This, we affirm, that is, that the earth rests, and the sun\nmoves daily around it,\" said Voetius, a great Dutch divine of the middle\nof the seventeenth century, \"with all divines, natural philosophers,\nJews and Mohammedans, Greeks and Latins, excepting one or two of the\nancients, and the modern followers of Copernicus.\" And we detect\nHeideggeri, a Swiss theologian, who flourished about half an age later,\ngiving expression, a few years ere the commencement of the last century,\nto a similar view, as the one taken by himself and many others, and as a\nview \"from which,\" he states, \"our pious reverence for the Scriptures,\nthe word of truth, will not allow us to depart.\" A still more remarkable\ninstance occurs in Turrettine, whom we find in one of his writings\narguing in the strictly logical form, \"in opposition to certain\nphilosophers,\" and in behalf of the old Ptolemaic doctrine that the sun\nmoves in the heavens and revolves round the earth, while the earth\nitself remains at rest in the midst. \"_First_,\" he remarks, \"the sun is\nsaid in Scripture to move in the heavens, and to rise and set. 'The sun\nis as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong\nman to run a race.' 'The sun knoweth his going down.' 'The sun also\nariseth, and the sun goeth down.' _Secondly_, The sun by a miracle stood\nstill in the time of Joshua; and by a miracle it went back in the time\nof Hezekiah. _Thirdly_, The earth is said to be fixed immovably. 'The\nearth is also established that it cannot be moved.' 'Thou hast\nestablished the earth, and it abideth.' 'They continue this day\naccording to their ordinance.' _Fourthly_, Neither could birds, which\noften fly off through an hour's circuit, be able to return to their\nnests. _Fifthly_, Whatever flies or is suspended in the air ought (by\nthis theory) to move from west to east; but this is proved not to be\ntrue, from birds, arrows shot forth, atoms made manifest in the sun, and\ndown floating in the atmosphere.\" The theologian, after thus laying down\nthe law, sets himself to meet objections. If it be urged that the\nScriptures in natural things speak according to the common opinion,\nTurrettine answers, \"_First_, The Spirit of God best understands\nnatural things. _Secondly_, That in giving instruction in religion, he\nmeant these things should be used, not abused. _Thirdly_, That he is not\nthe author of any error. _Fourthly_, Neither is he to be corrected on\nthe pretence of our blind reason.\" If it be further urged, that birds,\nthe air, and all things are moved with the earth, he answers, \"_First_,\nThat this is a mere fiction, since air is a fluid body; and _secondly_,\nif so, by what force would birds be able to go from east to west?\"\n\nNow this I must regard as a passage as instructive as it is\nextraordinary. Turrettine was one of the most accomplished theologians\nof his age; nor is that age by any means a remote one. Tycho Brahe,\nKepler, and Galileo, had all finished their labors long ere he published\nthis passage; nay, at the time when his work issued from the Amsterdam\npress (1695), Isaac Newton had attained his fifty-third year; and fully\nten years previous, Professor David Gregory, nephew of the inventor of\nthe Gregorian telescope, had begun to teach, from his chair in the\nUniversity of Edinburgh, the doctrine of gravitation and the true\nmechanism of the heavens, as unfolded in the Newtonian philosophy. The\nlearned theologian, had he applied himself to astronomical science,\ncould have found at the time very enlightened teachers; but falling into\nexactly the mistake of the sailor of my illustration, or that into\nwhich, two centuries before, the doctors of Salamanca had fallen, he set\nhimself, instead, to contend with the astronomers, and, to the extent of\nhis influence, labored to pledge revelation to an astronomy as false as\nthat of the Buddhist, Hindu, or old Teuton. His mistake, I repeat, was\nexactly that of the sailor. Though in the Scriptures only the fact of\nthe _authorship_ of the great chronometer set in the heavens \"to be a\nsign for seasons, and for days and years,\" is revealed, he regarded\nhimself as also informed respecting the principles on which the\nchronometer was constructed, or at least respecting the true nature of\nits movements; and several very important deductions may, I think, be\ndrawn from the carefully constructed passage in which he so unwittingly\nrecords his error, and the grounds of it. In the first place, we may\nsafely hold that the texts of Scripture quoted by so able a theologian\nare those which have most the appearance of being revelations to men\nrespecting the motions of the heavenly bodies. We may conclusively\ninfer, that if _they_ do not reveal the character of those motions, then\nnowhere in Scripture is their character revealed. In the second place,\nit is obvious that the cited texts do _not_ reveal the nature of the\nmotions. It would be as rational to hold that our best almanacs reveal\nthe Ptolemaic astronomy. In the scientific portion of our almanacs there\noccur many phrases which are perfectly well understood, and indicate\nvery definitely what the writer really intends to express by them, that\nyet, taken literally, are not scientifically true. The words, \"Sun\nrises,\" and \"Sun sets,\" and \"Moon rises,\" and \"Moon sets,\" occur in\nevery page; there are two pages--those devoted to the months of March\nand September--in which the phrase occurs, \"Sun crosses the equinoctial\nline;\" and further, in the other pages, such phrases as \"Sun enters\nAries,\" \"Sun enters Taurus,\" \"Sun enters Gemini,\" &c., &c., are not\nunfrequent. The phrase, \"new moon,\" is also of common occurrence. And\nthese phrases, interpreted after the manner of Turrettine, and according\nto their strict grammatical meaning, would of course imply that the sun\nhas a motion round our planet,--that the moon moves round it every\ntwenty-four hours,--and that the earth is provided every month with a\nnew satellite. And yet we know that none of these ideas are in the mind\nof the writer who, in compiling the almanac, employs the phrases. He\nemploys them to indicate, not the nature of the heavenly motions, but\nthe exact time when, from the several motions of the earth, the sun and\nmoon are brought into certain apparent positions with respect to either\nthe earth itself or to the celestial signs; or to indicate the time at\nwhich the moon completes its monthly revolution, and presents a wholly\ndarkened disk to the earth. The commentator skilful enough to pledge the\nalmanac, in virtue of the literal meaning of the specified phrases, to\nthe old Ptolemaic hypothesis, would pledge it to a false science, which\nits author never held. And such, evidently, has been the part enacted by\nTurrettine and the elder theologians. The Scriptural phrases are in no\ndegree more express respecting the motion of the sun and the other\nheavenly bodies than those of the almanac, which, we know, do not refer\nto motion at all, but to time. Nor are we less justified in holding that\nthe cited Scriptures do not refer to _motion_, but to _authorship_. In\nthe third place, however, it is not by any mere reconsideration of the\nadduced passages that the error, once made, is to be corrected. In a\npurely astronomic question the appeal lies, not to Scripture, but to\nastronomic science. And in the fourth place, the reasonings of\nTurrettine, when, quitting his own proper walk, he discourses, not as a\ntheologian, but as a natural philosopher, are such as to read a lesson\nnot wholly unneeded in the present day. They show how in a department in\nwhich it demanded the united life-long labors of a Kepler, Galileo, and\nNewton to elicit the truth, the hasty guesses of a great theologian,\nrashly ventured in a polemic spirit, gave form and body to but ludicrous\nerror. It is not after a fashion so impetuous and headlong that the\nelaborately wrought key must be plied which unlocks the profound\nmysteries of nature. But of this more anon.\n\nLet me remark in the passing, that while Turrettine, one of the\ngreatest of theologians, failed, as we have seen, to find in Scripture\nthe fact of astronomic _construction_, La Place, one of the greatest of\nthe astronomers, failed in a manner equally signal to find in his\nscience the fact of astronomic _authorship_. The profound Frenchman\n(whom Sir David Brewster well characterizes as \"the philosopher to whom\nposterity will probably assign the place next to Newton \"), by\ndemonstrating that certain irregularities in the motion of the heavenly\nbodies, which had been supposed to indicate a future termination to the\nwhole, were but mere oscillations, subject to periodic correction, and\nindicative of no such termination in consequence, demonstrated also\nthat, from all that appears, the present astronomical movements might go\non forever. And as he could find in the solar system no indications of\nan end, so was he unable, he said, to find in it any trace of a\nbeginning. He failed in discovering in all astronomy the fact of\nauthorship, just as Turrettine had failed in finding in all Scripture\nthe fact of astronomic construction. And here lies, I am inclined to\nthink, the true line between revelation and science,--a line drawn of\nold with a God-derived precision, which can be rightly appreciated\nneither by mere theologians like Turrettine, nor by mere men of science\nlike La Place, but which is notwithstanding fraught with an evidence\ndirect in its bearing on the truth of Scripture. That great fact, moral\nin its influence, of the authorship of the heavens and earth, which the\nscience of La Place failed of itself to discover, and which was equally\nunknown to the ancient philosophers, God has revealed. It is \"through\nfaith we understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God, so\nthat things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.\"\nAnd, on the other hand, the great truths, physical in their bearing, to\nthe discovery of which science is fully competent, God did not reveal,\nbut left them to be developed piecemeal by the unassisted human\nfaculties. And that ability of nicely drawing the line between the two\nclasses of truths in a very remote age of the world, which we find\nmanifested in the oldest of the Scriptural books, I must regard as an\nability which could have been derived only through inspiration, and from\nGod alone.\n\nLet us, however, pursue our argument. Questions of geography, such as\nthose entertained by the theologians of Salamanca, must be tested, we\nconclude, not by a revelation never intended by its Divine Author to\nteach geography, but by the findings of geographic science. Questions in\nastronomy, such as those which Turrettine and the opponents of Galileo\nentertained, must be tried, we hold, not by a revelation never intended\nto teach astronomy, but by the findings of astronomic science. But how\ndeal, I next ask, with the theologian who holds that geologic fact has\nbeen revealed to him? Geology is as thoroughly a physical science as\neither geography or astronomy. Its facts are equally capable of being\neduced and established by the unassisted human intellect. It seems quite\nas unlikely that it should have been made a special subject of\nrevelation, in its character as a science, as either of these sciences;\nor that the line so nicely maintained with respect to _them_ should have\nbeen transgressed with regard to _it_. In short, in order satisfactorily\nto answer our query, it seems but necessary satisfactorily to answer\nanother, namely, What, in this special department, are truth and fact\nscientifically ascertained?\n\nThere are, however, certain texts that appear to have a more direct\nbearing on the successive periods of the geologist than any of those\nthat were once held to refer to the form of the earth, or to the nature\nof the heavenly bodies, are now believed to have on geography or\nastronomy. No one now holds that there is a geography revealed in\nScripture, or regards the cavils of the Salamanca doctors as other than\nmere aberrations of the human mind. Nor, save mayhap in the darker\ncorners of the Greek and Romish Churches, are there men in the present\nday who hold that there is a revealed astronomy. The texts so\nconfidently quoted by Turrettine, such as \"The sun also ariseth and the\nsun goeth down,\" are regarded in every Protestant Church as simply\ntantamount, in their bearing on the question at issue, to the \"Sun\nrises\" and \"Sun sets\" of the almanac. But while the Scriptures do not\nreveal the form of the earth or the motions of the planets, they do\nreveal the fact that the miracle of creation was effected, not by a\nsingle act, but in several successive acts. And it is with the organisms\nproduced by successive acts of creation, and the formations deposited\nduring the periods in which these acts took place, that the geologist is\ncalled on by his science to deal. And hence, while there are now no\nattempts made to reconcile geographic or astronomic fact with the\nScripture passages which refer, in the language of the time, to the\nglory of the heavens or the stability of the earth, just because it is\nheld that there is really nothing geographic or astronomic in the\npassages to conflict with the geographic or astronomic facts, we still\nseek to reconcile the facts of geologic science with what is termed the\nMosaic geology. We inquire whether, in its leading features, the Mosaic\ndoes not correspond with the geologic record; and whether the _days_ of\nthe retrospective prophecy of creation are to be regarded as coextensive\nwith the vast periods of the geologist, or as merely representative\nportions of them, or as literal days of twenty-four hours each? But\nthough we thus seek to harmonize the two records, we continue to regard\ntheir grounds and objects as entirely different. The object of geology\nis simply the elucidation of the history of the earth, and of the story\nof its various creations; and its grounds are, like those of astronomy\nor geography, or of any other physical science, facts and inferences\nscientifically determined or deduced; while, on the other hand, the\ngrounds of the Mosaic record are those on which the other Scriptures\nrest, and which have been so well laid down in what we may term the\nhigher literature of the \"Evidences,\" while at least some of its\nobjects,--for who shall declare them all?--seem to be, first, to\nestablish the all-important fact of the Divine authorship of the\nuniverse, and to show that all its various forces are not self-existent,\nbut owe their origin to a Great First Cause; next, to exhibit the\nprogressive character of God's workings,--a character which equally\napplies to his works of creation and providence; and, in the third\nplace, to furnish a basis and precedent, in the Divine example, for that\ninstitution of the Sabbath which bears not only a prophetic reference to\nthe great dynasty to come,--last of all the dynasties, and of which\nre-created men are to be the happy subjects, and the Divine Man the\nadorable Monarch,--but which has also been specially established in\norder that right preparation may be made for the terminal state which it\nsymbolizes and foreshadows. Here, as certainly as in the other physical\nsciences, the line has been drawn with perfect precision between what\nman could and what he could not have known of himself. What he could\nhave known, and in part already knows, is geologic science; what in all\nprobability he never could have known is the fact of the Divine\nauthorship of the universe, and the true nature of the institution of\nthe Sabbath, as a time of preparation for the final state, and as alike\nrepresentative of God's workings in the past, and of his eternally\npredetermined scheme for the future. \"Is it not certain,\" Socrates is\nrepresented as inquiring, in \"the first Alcibiades,\" of his gay and\nconfident pupil, \"that you know nothing but what has been told you by\nothers, or what you have found out for yourself?\" There is at once\nexquisite simplicity and great terseness in this natural division of the\nonly modes in which men can acquire knowledge; and we find it\nwonderfully exemplified in all revelation. Scripture draws practically a\nbroad line between the two modes; and while it tells man all that is\nnecessary to his wants and welfare as a religious creature, it does not\ncommunicate to him a single scientific fact which he is competent to\nfind out for himself.\n\nAbout an age previous to the times of Turrettine, the danger of\n\"corrupting philosophy through an intermixed divinity\" was admirably\nshown by Bacon in his \"Novum Organum;\" and the line indicated was\nexactly what we now find was laid down of old with such precision in\nScripture. \"To deify error and to adore vain things,\" said the great\nphilosopher, \"may be well accounted the plague of the understanding.\nSome modern men, guilty of much levity, have so indulged this vanity,\nthat they have essayed to find natural philosophy in the first chapter\nof Genesis, the Book of Job, and other places of holy writ, seeking the\nliving among the dead. Now this vanity is so much the more to be checked\nand restrained, because, by unadvised mixture of Divine and human\nthings, not only a phantastical philosophy is produced, but also an\nheretical religion. Therefore it is safe to give unto Faith, with a\nsober mind, the things that are Faith's.\" The passage, partially quoted,\nhas been not unfrequently misapplied, as if it bore, not against\ntheologians such as Turrettine and the Franciscans, but against\ntheologians such as Chalmers, Dr. Bird Sumner, and Dr. Pye Smith,--not\nagainst the men who derive a false science from Scripture, into which\nGod never introduced natural science of any kind, but against the men\nwho, having sought and acquired their science where it is alone to be\nfound, have striven to bring Scripture, in the misinterpreted passages,\ninto harmony with its findings. Taken, however, as a whole, its true\nmeaning is obvious. It is the men who have \"essayed to find natural\nphilosophy\" positively revealed in Genesis and the other sacred\nbooks,--not the men who have merely shown that there is nothing in\nScripture which conflicts with the natural philosophy legitimately found\nelsewhere,--that are obnoxious to the censure conveyed in the remark. It\nis they only, and not the others, that are \"_phantastical_\" in their\nphilosophy and \"_heretical_\" in their religion. I say heretical in their\nreligion. The Ptolemaic doctrine which ascribed to the earth a central\nplace in the universe was only scientifically false, whereas the same\ndoctrine in Turrettine and the Franciscans, from the circumstance that\nthey pledged the Scripture to its falsity, and professed to derive it\ndirect from revelation, was not only scientifically false, but a heresy\nto boot. And, in like manner, it is the class who term themselves the\n\"Mosaic geologists,\"--men such as the Granville Penns, Moses Stewarts,\nEleazar Lords, Dean Cockburns, and Peter Macfarlanes,--who essay to\n\"find natural philosophy in the first chapter of Genesis,\" and that too\na demonstrably false natural philosophy, who are obnoxious to the\nBaconian censure now. No true geologist ever professes to deduce his\ngeology from Scripture. It is from the earth's crust, with its numerous\nsystems, always invariable in their order, and its successive groups of\nfossil remains, always (in accordance with their place and age) of a\ncertain determinable character,--not in a revelation never intended by\nits Divine Author to teach any natural science as such,--that he derives\nthe materials with which he builds. Had there been no Divine Revelation,\ngeology would be as certainly what it now is as either geography or\nastronomy. That it comes in the present time more in contact with\nrevealed truth than either of these sciences, is, as I have shown,\nmerely a consequence of the fact that there is a history given in the\nopening passages of Scripture, for far other than geological purposes,\nof the authorship of the heavens and earth, and of the successive stages\nof creation; and further, from the circumstance that, from various\nmotives, men are ever and anon inquiring how the geologic agrees with\nthe Scriptural record. It may be well here to remind the\nanti-geologists, in connection with this part of my subject, of what at\nthe utmost they may hope to accomplish. Judging from all I have yet seen\nof their writings, they seem to be as certainly impressed by the belief\nthat they are settling textually the geologic question of the world's\nantiquity, as the doctors of Salamanca held that they were settling\ntextually the question of the world's form; or Turrettine and the\nFranciscans, that they were settling textually the question of the\nworld's motion, or rather want of motion. But the mistake is quite as\ngross in their case as in that of Turrettine and the doctors. Geology\nrests on a broad, ever extending basis of evidence, wholly independent\nof the revelation on which they profess, very unintelligently, in all\nthe instances I have yet known, to found their objections. What they\nneed at most promise themselves is, to defeat those attempts to\nreconcile the two records which are made by geologists who respect and\nbelieve the Scripture testimony,--not a very laudable feat, even could\nit be accomplished, and certainly worthy of being made rather a subject\nof condolence than of congratulation. And though, of course, men should\npursue the truth simply for its own sake, and independently either of\nthe consequences which it may be found to involve, or of the company\nwith which it may bring them acquainted, the anti-geologists might be\nworse employed than in scanning the character and aims of the\nassociates with whom they virtually league themselves when they declare\nwar against the Christian geologist.\n\nThere are three different parties in the field, either directly opposed,\nor at least little friendly, to the men who honestly attempt reconciling\nthe Mosaic with the geologic record. First, there are the\nanti-geologists,--men who hold that geological questions are to be\nsettled now as the Franciscans contemporary with Galileo held that\nastronomical questions were to be settled in the seventeenth century, or\nas the doctors of Salamanca contemporary with Columbus held that\ngeographic questions were to be settled in the fifteenth. And _they_\nbelieve that geology, as interpreted by the geologists, is entirely\nfalse, because, as they think, irreconcilable with Scripture; further,\nthat our planet had no existence some seven or eight thousand years\nago,--that the apparent antiquity of the various sedimentary systems and\norganic groups of the earth's crust is wholly illusive,--and that the\nvery oldest of them cannot be more than a few days older than the human\nperiod. In fine, just as it was held two centuries ago by Turrettine and\nthe Franciscans, that the Bible as interpreted by _them_ was the only\nlegitimate authority in astronomic questions, so this class now hold\nthat the Bible as interpreted by _them_ is the only legitimate authority\nin geologic questions; and further, that the Bible being, as they\ncontend, wholly opposed to the deductions of the geologist, these\ndeductions must of necessity be erroneous. Next, there is a class, more\nlargely represented in society than in literature, who, looking at the\ngeneral bearings of the question, the character and standing of the\ngeologists, and the sublime nature of their discoveries, believe that\ngeology ranks as certainly among the sciences as astronomy itself; but\nwho, little in earnest in their religion, are quite ready enough, when\nthey find theologians asserting the irreconcilability of the geologic\ndoctrines with those of Scripture, to believe them; nay, not only so,\nbut to repeat the assertion. It is not fashionable in the present age\nopenly to avow infidelity, save mayhap in some modified rationalistic or\npantheistic form; but in no age did the thing itself exist more\nextensively; and the number of individuals is very great who, while they\nprofess an outward respect for revelation, have no serious quarrel with\nthe class who, in their blind zeal in its behalf, are in reality\nundermining its foundations. Nor are there avowed infidels awanting who\nalso make common cause with the party so far as to assert that the\nresults of geologic discovery conflict irreconcilably with the Mosaic\naccount of creation. But there is yet another class, composed of\nrespectable and able men, who, from the natural influence of their\nacquirements and talents, are perhaps more dangerous allies still, and\nwhom we find represented by writers such as Mr. Babbage and the Rev.\nBaden Powell. It is held by both these accomplished men, that it is in\nvain to attempt reconciling the Mosaic writings with the geologic\ndiscoveries: both are intimately acquainted with the evidence adduced by\nthe geologist, and entertain no doubt whatever regarding what it\nestablishes; but though in the main friendly to at least the moral\nsanctions of the New Testament, both virtually set aside the Mosaic\ncosmogony; the one (Mr. Babbage) on the professed grounds that we really\ncannot arrive with any certainty at the meaning of that old Hebrew\nintroduction to the Scriptures in which the genesis of things is\ndescribed; and the other (Mr. Powell) on the assumption that that\nintroduction is but a mere picturesque myth or parable, as little\nscientifically true as the parables of our Saviour or of Nathan the seer\nare historically so. Now, I cannot think that the anti-geologists are\nquite in the place in which they either ought or intend to be when\nengaged virtually in making common cause with either of these latter\nclasses.[35]\n\nBe this as it may, however, it may be not uninstructive, and perhaps not\nwholly unamusing, to examine what the claims really are of some of our\nlater anti-geologists to be recognized as the legitimate and qualified\ncensors of geologic fact or inference. It will be seen, that in the\npassage which I have quoted from Turrettine, the theologian, in three of\nhis five divisions, restricts himself to the theologic province, and\nthat when in his own proper sphere even his errors are respectable; but\nthat in the two concluding divisions he passes into the province of the\nnatural philosopher, and that there his respectability ceases for the\ntime, and he becomes eminently ridiculous. The anti-geologists,--men of\nconsiderably smaller calibre than the massive Dutch divine of the\nseventeenth century,--also enter into a field not their own. Passing\nfrom the theologic province, they obtrude into that of the geologist,\nand settle against him, apparently after a few minutes' consideration,\nor as mere special pleaders, questions on which he has been\nconcentrating the patient study and directing the laborious explorations\nof years. And an exhibition by specimen of the nonsense to which they\nhave in this way committed themselves in their haste, may not be wholly\nuninstructive. But I must defer the display till another evening. I\nshall do them no injustice; but I trust it will be forgiven me should I\nexhibit, as they have exhibited themselves, a class of writers to whose\nassaults I have submitted for the last fourteen years without\nprovocation and without reply.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE TENTH.\n\nTHE GEOLOGY OF THE ANTI-GEOLOGISTS.\n\n\nIt has been well remarked, that that writer would be equally in danger\nof error who would assign very abstruse motives for the conduct of great\nbodies of men, or very obvious causes for the great phenomena of nature.\nThe motives of the masses,--on a level always with the average\ncomprehension,--are never abstruse; the causes of the phenomena, on the\nother hand, are never obvious. And when these last are hastily sought\nafter, not from any devotion to scientific truth, or any genuine love of\nit, but for some purpose of controversy, we may receive it as a sure and\ncertain fact that they will not be found. Some mere plausibility will be\nproduced instead, bearing on its front an obviousness favorable mayhap\nto its reception for the time by the vulgar, but in reality fatal to its\nclaims in the estimate of all deep thinkers; while truth will meanwhile\nlie concealed far below, in the bottom of her well, until patiently\nsolicited forth by some previously unthought of process, in the\ncharacter of some wholly unanticipated result. Such, in the history of\nscience, has been the course and character of error on the one hand, and\nof actual discovery on the other: the error has been always\ncomparatively obvious,--the discovery unexpected and abstruse. And as\nmen descend in the scale of accomplishment or intellect, a nearer and\nyet nearer approximation takes place between their conceptions of the\ncauses of the occult processes of nature, and the common and obvious\nmotives which influence large masses of their fellows; until at length\nthe sublime contrivances of the universe sink, in their interpretation\nof them, into the clumsy expedients of a bungling mechanism.\n\nTested by their reading of the phenomena on this principle, we find\ncurious gradations between the higher and the humbler orders of minds.\nThe vortices of Descartes, for instance, involve but a simple idea, that\nmight have been struck out by almost any individual of a tolerably\nlively fancy, who had walked by the side of a winding river, and seen\nsticks and straws revolving in its eddies. But no fancy, however active,\nor no reach of mere common sense, however respectable, could have\noriginated, or conducted to a successful conclusion, that profound\ncontemplation into which Newton fell in the garden of Woolsthorpe, when\nhe saw the loosened apple drop from the tree, and succeeded in\ndemonstrating that the planets are retained in their orbits by the same\nlaw which impels a falling pebble towards the ground. So little obvious,\nindeed, was the Newtonian scheme, that most of the contemporary\ngeneration of philosophers,--some of them, such as Fontenelle and his\nbrother academicians of France, men of no mean standing,--died rejecting\nit. And the objections of Turrettine to the motion of the earth on its\naxis are, we find, still more obvious than even the idea of the\nvortices. It does at first seem natural enough to suppose, that if the\nearth's surface be speeding eastwards at the rate of several hundred\nmiles in the hour (a thousand miles at the equator), the birds which\nflutter over it should be somewhat in danger of being left behind; and\nthat atoms and down flakes floating in the atmosphere in a time of calm,\ninstead of appearing, as they often do, either in a state of rest, or\nmoving with equal freedom in every direction, ought to be seen hurrying\nwestwards, as if puffed by the breath of a tornado. Such an objection\nmust for a time have appeared as just as it seems obvious, especially in\none's study on a Saturday night, with much of one's lecture still to\nwrite, and the Sabbath too near to permit of verification or experiment.\nFontenelle, however, though he could not get over the difficulty of\nconceiving how the same gravitation which made a stone fall also kept\nthe moon in its place, fairly surmounted that which puzzled Turrettine;\nand in his \"Plurality of Worlds,\"--a publication of the same age as the\n\"Compendium Theologica,\"--he makes his Marchioness surmount it too.\n\"'But I have a difficulty to solve,' he represents the lady as saying,\n'and you must be serious. As the earth moves, the air changes every\nmoment; so we breathe the air of another country.' 'Not at all,' replied\nI; 'for the air which encompasses the earth follows with us, and turns\nwith us. Have you not seen the labors of the silkworm? The shell or\ncocoon which it weaves around itself with so much art is of a down very\nloose and soft; and so the earth, which is solid, is covered, from the\nsurface twenty leagues upwards, with a kind of down, which is the air,\nand, like the shell of the silkworm, turns along with it.'\" Even\nTurrettine, however, was as far in advance of some of our contemners of\nscience in the present day, as Fontenelle was in advance of Turrettine,\nor Newton in advance of Fontenelle. The old theologian could scarce have\nheld, with a living ecclesiastic of the Romish Church in Ireland, Father\nCullen, that the sun is _possibly_ only a fathom in diameter; or have\nasserted with a most Protestant lecturer who addressed an audience in\nEdinburgh little more than three years ago, that, though God created all\nthe wild animals, it was the devil who made the flesh-eaters among them\nfierce and carnivorous; and, of course, shortened their bowels,\nlengthened their teeth, and stuck formidable claws into the points of\ntheir digits.[36] Further, the error of Turrettine was but that of his\nage, whereas our modern decriers of scientific fact and inference are\nalways men greatly in the rear of theirs, and as far inferior to the\nancient assertors of the same errors as the few untutored peasants and\nfishermen of our own time, located in remote parts of the country, who\nstill retain the old faith in witchcraft, are inferior to the great\nlawyers, poets, and divines,--the Fairfaxes, Henry Mores, Judge Haleses,\nand Sir George Mackenzies,--who in the seventeenth century entertained a\nsimilar belief. And so it may seem somewhat idle work to take any pains\nin \"scattering\" such a \"rear of darkness thin\" as this forlorn phalanx\ncomposes. \"Let them alone,\" said a lunatic in the lucid fit, to a\nsoldier who had told him, when asked why he carried a sword, that it was\nto kill his enemies,--\"let them alone, and they will all die of\nthemselves.\" But though very inconsiderable, there is a comparatively\nlarge proportion of the class perilously posted, on both sides of the\nAtlantic, in what used to be termed of old in Scotland \"the chair of\nverity;\" and there they sometimes succeed in doing harm, all\nunwittingly, not to the science which they oppose, but to the religion\nwhich they profess to defend. I was not a little struck lately by\nfinding in a religious periodical of the United States, a worthy\nEpiscopalian clergyman bitterly complaining, that whenever his sense of\nduty led him to denounce from his pulpit the gross infidelity of modern\ngeology, he could see an unbelieving grin rising on the faces of not a\nfew of his congregation. Alas! who can doubt that such ecclesiastics as\nthis good clergyman must virtually be powerful preachers on the\nskeptical side, to all among their people who, with intelligence enough\nto appreciate the geologic evidence, are still unsettled in their minds\nrespecting that of the Christian faith. And so on this consideration\nalone it may be found not uninstructive to devote the address of the\npresent evening to an exposure of the errors and nonsense of our modern\nanti-geologists,--the true successors and representatives, in the\npassing age, of the Franciscan and Salamanca doctors of the fifteenth\nand seventeenth centuries.\n\nLet me first remark, that no one need expect to be original simply by\nbeing absurd. There is a cycle in nonsense, as certainly as in opinion\nof a more solid kind, which ever and anon brings back the delusions and\nerrors of an earlier time: the follies of the present day are\ntranscripts, unwittingly produced, and with of course a few variations,\nof follies which existed centuries ago; and it seems to be on this\nprinciple,--a consequence, mayhap, of the limited range of the human\nmind, not only in its elucidations of truth, but also in its forms of\nerror,--that scarce an explanation of geologic phenomena has been given\nby the anti-geologists of our own times, that was not anticipated by\nwriters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was held, for\ninstance,--in opposition to the great painter, Leonardo da Vinci, who\nflourished early in the sixteenth century, and was one of the first who,\nafter the revival of learning, asserted the true character of organic\nremains,--that fossils were formed in the rocks through the planetary\ninfluences, or a certain plastic force in nature, and had never entered\ninto the composition of living creatures or plants. And this view\nobtained very generally till about the middle of the seventeenth\ncentury, when, save for a brief space long after, in the times of\nVoltaire, it ceased to be regarded as any longer tenable. Curiously\nenough, however, it was virtually reproduced by one of the extant\nanti-geologists,--a clergyman of the English Church,--only three years\nago, in a publication written, he says, to counteract \"the immense\nmischief occasioned by the infidel works of geologists, _especially\namong the lower classes_,\" and which he has termed \"a brief and complete\nrefutation\" of their \"anti-scriptural theory.\"[37] \"Fossils,\" says this\ncourageous writer, \"were not necessarily animated structures:\" some of\nthem were in all probability \"formed of stone from the very first;\"\nothers, of inanimate flesh and bone. \"The mammoth found under the ice in\narctic regions had not necessarily been a living creature: it was\ncreated under the ice, and then preserved in that peculiar form of\npreservation, instead of being transmuted into stone, like the rest of\nits class.\" Such was the state of keeping of this famous mammoth, when\ndiscovered a little ere the beginning of the present century, that, as I\nhad occasion formerly to remark, dogs and bears fed upon its flesh; and\nits bones, and part of its skin, covered with long red hair, are now in\nthe museum of Petersburg. But there is no evidence whatever, according\nto this writer, that it had ever been a living creature: it was simply a\ncreated carcass. All organisms are, he holds, models or archetypes,\nfashioned during the first day in the depths of chaos, to typify or\nforeshadow the living plants and animals that were to be called into\nexistence a few days later. \"What,\" he asks, \"do the cocoa-nuts, melons,\nand gourds, which have been found in the strata, show, but that the\nvegetable had its perfect archetype in chaos as well as the animal?\"\nNay, further, the geologist has but got into the apartment in which the\noriginal architect stored up his plans and models,--many of them,\nhowever, rejected ones. For \"though every animal is formed after his\narchetype,\" we find him saying, \"the converse is not true, that every\nchaotic structure is represented by its living _facsimile_.\" But they\ntypify, if not living organisms, much more important things,--\"they\nrepresent,\" says our writer, \"the land of the shadow of death;\" and the\nstrata containing them, which geologists have opened, are symbolical of\nthe \"gates of death.\" \"The state of preservation in which most fossils\nare, instead of having mouldered away, foreshadows immortality. The\ngradation, too, from the organisms whose types are _said to be_ lost or\ndestroyed, and confused in innumerable heaps, up to the perfect and\ncomplete specimen, is no fanciful representation of the resurrection;\nwhile the isolated bones and parts of skeletons which, though found far\napart, as they were created, have been fitted together by the skill of\nthe accomplished anatomist, give assurance of the fact that our\nscattered dust--our _membra disjecta_--shall come together at the sound\nof the last trump.\" And this is \"geology on Scripture principles,\"\nsoberly expounded by a man who respects facts, while he gives no place\nto fancy.\n\nThe \"English clergyman\" then goes on to show in his pamphlet, that the\nCoal Measures furnish no evidence of the earth's antiquity. They were\nformed, he says, by the finger of the Creator, \"immediately and at once.\nA carboniferous tree of gigantic size has been discovered,\" he adds, \"in\nthe interior of the earth, of such a shape as entirely to prove the\nabsurdity of a theory [that of the earth's antiquity] which has not a\nsingle valid argument to support it. It is described as having its trunk\nrising from the earth perpendicularly ten feet, and then bending over\nand extending horizontally sixty feet. Now, what living tree thus\nlopsided could support such a weight in such a direction? It seems to\nhave been _created on purpose to silence the_ HORRID BLASPHEMIES _of\ngeologists_; for it proves to a demonstration, that the upper, nether,\nand surrounding matter came into existence with it at the same instant;\nfor how else could it have been preserved in such a position?\" The\ntriumph secured by the carboniferous tree, however,--though it does not\nseem wholly impossible that a tree might in any age of the world have\nbeen broken over some ten feet from its root, and bent in a horizontal\nposition,--seems in some danger of being neutralized, as we read on, by\nthe circumstance that geologists find not unfrequently, among their\nfossils, the dung of the carnivorous vertebrates, charged in many\ninstances with the teeth, bones, and scales of the creatures on which\nthey had preyed, and strongly impressed, in at least the coprolites of\nthe larger Palaeozoic ganoids, and of the enaliosaurs of the Secondary\nperiod, by the screw-like markings of a spiral intestine, similar in\nform to that now exemplified by the sharks and rays. And in maintaining\nhis hypothesis that most fossils are mere archetypes--mere plans or\nmodels--of existences to be, the archetypal dung proves rather a\nstumbling-block, and the English clergyman waxes exceedingly wroth\nagainst the geologists. \"We cannot,\" he says, \"believe in such things\nas coprolites. They are only a curious form of matter commanded by Him\nwho has made the flower to assume all shapes as well as all hues. He who\nwould not allow so much as a tool to be lifted up on the stones that\ncomposed his altar, would certainly not allow the _work_ of animals to\ncompose his creation, much less, then, their dung. The geological\nassertion that the Creator of this world formed it in some parts of\ncoprolites savors very much of Satan or Beelzebub, the god of dung.\nGeologists could scarcely have made a more unfortunate self-refuting\nassertion than this.\" I question, however, whether the clergyman does\nwell to be angry with the geologists here. That fossils are mere models\nand archetypes, is _his_ hypothesis, not theirs; and so it is he himself\nwho is answerable, not they, for what he deems the impiety of the\narchetypal dung. His next statement is of a kind suited somewhat to\nastonish the practical geologist. \"_It is the constant language of\ngeologists_,\" he says, in giving the result of their discoveries, \"_that\nno young have been found!!!_ while the larger fossils have been detected\nisolated, or in the company of others, all differing in kind.\"\n\"Archetypal resemblances of ova have been found, and such things as\n_moths_; but these are distinct and perfect in their kind. The\noccurrence of the young, which are imperfect, is a fact which has not\nbeen, and never can be, established; _therefore it never can be proved\nthat this world has had a longer existence than six thousand years_.\" It\nis \"the constant language of geologists\" that \"no young have been found\"\nin the fossil state. Amazing assertion! \"Therefore it never can be\nproved that this world has had a longer existence than six thousand\nyears.\" Astonishing inference! There is not a tyro in geology who ever\nlooked over a set of fossils, or ever spent an hour in exploring a\nfossiliferous deposit, who does not know that the remains of organisms\nin every stage of growth may be found lying side by side in the same\nbed,--that almost every museum contains its series of molluscs,\ncrustaceans, fishes, and corals, formed to illustrate species in their\nvarious stages of growth,--that, in especial, among the ammonites of the\nSecondary ages, and the trilobites of the Palaeozoic ones, these series\nhave been made with great care, in order to prevent the erroneous\nmultiplication of species,--and that, in short, every richly\nfossiliferous stratum in the earth's crust repeats the lesson so often\ndeduced from our churchyards, where graves of all sizes, from that of\nthe infant of a day to that of the aged adult, may be found lying side\nby side. What the English clergyman represents as \"the constant language\nof geologists,\" is a language which _no_ geologist ever yet used, or\never will. And his inference is in every way worthy of his premises. The\nflourish with which he concludes his pamphlet would be infinitely\namusing had his language been just a little less solemn. \"The writer of\nthe above remarks has felt it his duty,\" we find him saying, \"to publish\nthem, not only to refute the arguments of the vain and puffed-lip\ngeologist, who fancies himself wiser than God, but also to prevent, by\nGod's blessing, the evil that must ensue from tampering with the sacred\ntext. And now, what has Satan to say? Why, THE TABLES ARE TURNED. Let\nmen beware. Why did not the British Association, at their twenty-third\nmeeting, in September, 1853, acknowledge their error as a body, in\napplauding so loudly the assertion of one of their geological members at\na previous meeting, that this earth existed ages before man? They may\nnow have the satisfaction of thinking that, in spite of themselves,\nthose impious plaudits have been turned by the wrath of God into\nhisses.\" Strange as the fact may seem, this passage was written, not in\ngrave joke, but in serious earnest.\n\nThe belief that fossil remains had never entered into the composition\nof living organisms, but had been formed in the rocks just as we find\nthem, gradually gave place, during the seventeenth century, to the\nbelief that they were the debris of the Noachian Deluge, and evidences,\nas they occurred in almost every known country, and were found on the\ntop of lofty hills, of at once its universality and the height to which\nits waters had prevailed. And this hypothesis, like the others, has been\nreproduced by some of the anti-geologists of the present day. The known\nfact,--a result of modern science,--that the several formations (always\ninvariable in their order of succession) have their groups of organisms\npeculiar to themselves, has, however, interposed a difficulty from which\nthe earlier cosmogonists were exempt. It has become necessary to show\nthat the Noachian cataclysm was strangely selective, in burying in the\nbeds which it is held by the class to have formed, now one group of\nplants and animals, now quite another group, and anon yet another and\ndifferent group still; and all this many times repeated with such nice\ncare and discrimination, that not a single organism of the lower beds is\nto be detected in the middle ones, nor yet a single organism of either\nthe middle or lower in the beds that lie above. Even this task, however,\njust a little lightened by here and there a suppression of the facts,\nhas been attempted by the redoubtable Dean of York.[38] Fire and water\nwere, he conceives, equally agents in the great catastrophe that\ndestroyed the old world,--a circumstance which, if true, would have\nfurnished with an admirable apology the class of persons who, according\nto the wit, would have cried out \"Fire, fire,\" at the deluge. The dean\nconceives that at the commencement of the Flood, when torrents of rain\nwere falling upon the land, numerous submarine volcanoes began to\ndisgorge their molten contents into the sea, destroying the fish, and\nall other marine productions, by the intensity of the heat, and at the\nsame time locking them up in strata formed of the erupted matter. This\nprocess took place ere the land floods, laden with the spoils of island\nand continent, and the accompanying mud and sand, could arrive at the\nremoter depths; which, however, they ultimately reached, and formed a\nsecond formation, overlying the first. There were thus two formations\noriginated,--a marine formation below, and a terrestrial or fresh water\nformation above; but as these two deposits could not be made to include\nall the geological phenomena with which even the dean was acquainted, he\nhad nicely to parcel out the work of his volcanoes on the one hand, and\nthat of his land floods on the other, into separate fits or paroxysms,\neach of which served to entomb a distinct class of creatures, and\noriginate a definite set of rocks. Thus, the first work of his volcanoes\nwas to form the Transition series of strata. As a commencement of the\nwhole, the internal fire blew up from the bed of the ocean, in\ntremendous explosions, vast quantities of pulverized rock mixed with\nclay, which, slowly subsiding, and covering up, as it sank, shells,\nstone-lilies, and trilobites, formed the Silurian rocks. A second\nexplosion brought up the vents of the volcanoes to the level of the\nocean; and while the Old Red Sandstone, thus produced, and charged with\nfish killed by the heat, was settling on their flanks, they themselves,\nas if seized by black vomit, began to disgorge in vast quantities, coal\nin the liquid state. Very opportunely, just ere it cooled, enormous\nquantities of vegetables, washed out to sea by the extraordinary land\nfloods, were precipitated immediately over it; and, sticking in its\nviscid surface, or sinking into its substance through cracks formed in\nit during the cooling, they became attached to it in such considerable\nmasses, as to lead long after to the very mistaken notion that coal\nitself was of vegetable origin. Then there ensued another deposit of red\nsand, with salt boiled into it; and then a deposition of lime and clay.\nThe land floods still continuing, the great Sauroid reptiles which had\nhaunted the rivers and lower plains began to yield to their force, and\ntheir carcasses, floating out to sea, sank amid the slowly subsiding\nlime and clay, now known as the Lias. The volcanoes too were still very\nactive; and the lighter shells, ammonites, and the like, which had been\npreviously bobbing up and down on the boiling surface, now sank by\nmyriads; for the viscid argillaceous mud thrown up by the fiery\nebullitions from beneath stuck fast to them, and dragged them down. Then\ncame the formation of the Oolite, rolled into little egg-like pellets by\nthe waves; and last of all, the Green sand and Chalk; after which the\nwaters ran off, and sank into the deep hollow which now forms the bed of\nthe ocean, but which previous to the cataclysm had been the place of the\nland. The dean, as he went on, fell into some little confusion regarding\nthe true place of some of his animals, such as the megatherium, which\narrived in his arrangement a little too soon. He spoke, too--if a\nnewspaper report is to be credited--of a heavy creature soon overtaken\nand drowned by the rising waters, which he termed the _pterogactylus_,\nand which does not seem to have turned up, either in the body or out of\nit, since it was lost on that memorable occasion. Nor did he make any\nprovision in his arrangement for the formation of the various Tertiary\ndeposits. But then all these are slight matters, that could be very\neasily woven into his hypothesis. As the flood rose along the hill\nsides, first such of the weightier animals would perish as could not\nreadily climb steep acclivities; and then the oxen, the horses, the\ndeer, and the goats, with the lighter carnivora, who, as they would die\nlast,--some of them not until the final disappearance of the\nhill-tops,--would of course be entombed in the upper deposits. Such is\nthe hypothesis of the Dean of York,--a hypothesis of which it may be\njustly affirmed, that it is well nigh as ingenious as the circumstances\nof the case permit, and against which little else can be urged than that\nit must seem rather cumbrous and fanciful to the class who do not know\ngeology, and, on the whole, somewhat inadequate to the class who do.\n\nThe Flood, however, is not left to do the whole geologic work, by even\nsuch of the anti-geologists as assign to it the largest share. A great\nunrecorded convulsion which accompanied the Fall is held by some of\ntheir number to have greatly assisted, by laying down the older\nformations of the fossiliferous rocks; and very much is said to have\nbeen done during the extended antediluvian period that succeeded it. One\nof perhaps the most amusing though least known of the writers that take\nthis special view is a Scotchman, resident in a secluded provincial\ntown, who for the last twelve or fifteen years has been printing\ningenious little books against the infidel geologists, and getting\nletters of similar character inserted in such of our country newspapers\nas are ambitious of rendering their science equal to their literature.\nAnd from the great trouble which he has taken with the writings of the\nindividual who now addresses you, he seems to regard them as peculiarly\nunsolid and dangerous. According to this profound cosmogonist, the world\nbefore the Fall was rather more than twice its present size, and very\nartificially constructed.[39] It was a hollow ball, supported inside by\na framework of metal wrought into hexagonal reticulations, somewhat like\nthe framework of the great iron bridge over the river Wear at\nSunderland; and which had an open space in its centre, occupied by a\nvast tubular furnace lying direct south and north, which threw out huge\nvolumes of flame towards the poles. Over the reticulated framework there\nrose a great, thick _firmament_ of metal, which formed the inner shell\nof the globe; over the metal there lay a considerably thicker shell of\ngranite; and over the granite, a thinner shell of a substance not\nspecified, perhaps not known, but which, from its being completely\nwater-tight, served the purpose of the layer of asphalt or _terra cotta_\nwhich the architect spreads over his flat roofs, or on the tops of his\nsloping terraces, afterwards to be covered with soil and laid out into\ngardens. Such, it seems, was that portion of the framework of our great\nglobe which corresponded to the hollow lath and plaster framework of the\nlittle globes used in schools; while its uppermost layer,--correspondent\nwith the slips of the map which the geographer pastes on the model and\nthen varnishes,--was formed of earth and water, economically laid out\ninto \"most useful and tasteful configurations,\"--the earth into pretty\nlittle rising grounds and valleys, and the water into seas and lakes of\nno great extent, but which formed, from their very handsome\ncombinations, \"a terraqueous surface all over PERFECTLY PARADISAICAL.\"\nOver this exquisitely neat earth there lay an enveloping atmosphere,\ngreatly thinner and less dense than the air at present is, and\nincapable, in consequence, of being agitated by storms; while directly\nover the northern and southern extremities of the world the polar\nauroras, now so fitful and broken, extended in a permanent arch, and\ngave light, during the long dark winters, to the regions lying below.\nAnd as warmth was as necessary to the paradisaical perfection of these\ndistricts as light, they received the necessary heat from the great\ndouble-acting furnace in the interior, which, belching out flames at\nboth ends, acted powerfully against the polar portions of the metallic\ncrust or shell, and thus maintained the necessary glow in the absence of\nthe sun, on the principle on which a frying-pan or Scotch _girdle_ is\nheated when placed by the cookmaid over the fire. And such, according to\nthis excellent world-fashioner and very zealous man, was the\nconstruction of that unblighted and unbroken earth which was of old\npronounced to be \"very good.\" The Fall, however, produced a most\nremarkable and singularly disastrous change. The earth was somehow\npartially crushed and broken, contemporaneously with the event,--like a\nstrong fishing basket when it accidentally falls from a coach-top under\nthe wheel; and, from a most interesting colored copperplate that\nillustrates one of the author's treatises (for he draws as well as he\nwrites), the exact damage which it received can be minutely estimated.\nThe interior network was compressed into all sorts of irregular\npolygons; the iron firmament was broken into great fragments,--some of\nwhich may be seen in the print hanging down into the hollow interior,\nlike patches of broken plaster dangling from a ceiling, suspended by the\nhairs originally employed to give the necessary tenacity to the lime.\nThe great granitic shell was also broken, but broken so nicely, on the\nprinciple of the arch, that the pieces remained in nearly their original\nplaces. Finally, vast rents are seen to occur in the cement and soil of\nthe outer crust; and these great rents, which must have formed enormous\ngulfs and deep interminable ravines, were destined, it would seem, to\nperform a most important part in the future geology of the globe.\nForming impassable lines of demarcation between the several portions\ninto which they broke up the earth's surface, they imprisoned the\nrecently created animals in separate groups, kept as completely from\nmixing together as the fallow-deer of one loftily-walled park are kept\nfrom mixing with the white oxen of another loftily-walled park, or as\nthe kangaroos or duck-billed quadrupeds of Australia are kept by the\nsurrounding ocean from mixing with the tigers of Sumatra or the\ntortoises of Madagascar. I employ the writer's own happy\nillustration:--\"In some places these fragments\" of the earth's crust\n\"would be piled more or less above each other, and in others quite\ndetached and isolated, like fragments of ice on the bank of a river\nafter a thaw.\" They would of course be on very different levels, each\nhaving, as I have said, a distinct group of animals of its own; and\nwhen, after the lapse of nearly two thousand years, the great\ncatastrophe of the Flood came on, it would necessarily find, as it rose\nalong the levels, and submerged platform after platform in succession, a\ndifferent and yet different set of creatures to kill. To borrow from the\ndescription of this ingenious cosmogonist, \"those on the lower fragments\nwould be first engulphed, and their races completely extinguished from\noff the surface, and deposited in the earth; then those on higher and\nhigher upwards, till the whole became submerged. And we have only to\nsuppose that man, with the present survivors, were those that occupied\none of the higher table-lands when the Flood commenced (and of course in\nthat case Noah could collect into the ark only out of those of his own\ncountry); then the result would be, that man and his present\ncontemporaries would be among the last overwhelmed. This will\nsufficiently account for the fact of his and their remains not being\nfound deep in the earth....\n\n\"The two most interesting geological facts therefore, namely, that\ndistinct organisms are to be found in distinct formations respectively;\nand secondly, _that no remains of man, and few or none of the other\nraces at present surviving, are to be found in any but comparatively\nrecent formations,_--these two grand facts of geology, we say, instead\nof pointing back to vast cycles of ages before the creation, seem to\npoint merely to the peculiar physical circumstances of the fallen planet\nin the interval between those two eventful stages in its history, the\nFall and Flood, and the natural consequences of these circumstances in\ncausing distinct divisions, and some of these of different elevations,\namong the organic living creatures, during the interval.\" One other\ncircumstance completes this really original and beautiful hypothesis.\nThe cosmogonist holds that the Flood,--no mere tranquil rising of the\nwaters, as some suppose,--was accompanied by terrible convulsions, which\nreduced to utter ruin the already shattered earth. The granitic dome\nfell inwards upon the central furnace; and the fires, bursting outwards\nunder the enormous pressure, found vent at the surface, and made the\nvolcanoes. And this collapsed and diminished world,--scarce half the\nbulk of the old one,--with no heating furnace under its polar regions,\nnor aught save the merest tatters of an aurora flitting occasionally\nover them,--greatly too dense in itself, and surrounded by a greatly too\ndense atmosphere,--with its huge mountains, vast oceans, wide steppes,\nand arid deserts, with its snows, its frosts, its drenching rains, its\nhorrible tempests, its terrible thunder storms, and devastating\nearthquakes,--all alike frightful defects, not in the original plan,--is\nnot only unlike the primeval world, not very good, or, unlike the\nantediluvian world, tolerably good, but not good at all. \"On taking a\nbird's-eye view of the geographical and hydrographical features or\nsuperficies of the globe,\" says this bold writer, \"any unprejudiced\nperson must at once admit, that in either of these departments there is\nscarce a trace of that beautiful, tasteful, and economical design which\nwe have a right to expect from the admitted qualities of the great\nAuthor, and his avowed object in the structure and report of it when\nnewly finished.\" It is added, however, that \"its _present object_, as\nthe _Siberia_--the penal settlement--of expatriated rebels, it is in its\n_present state_ well calculated to fulfil.\"\n\nIt may be worth mentioning, that the writer who sets himself after a\nfashion so peculiar to assert and justify the ways of Providence against\nthe geologists resides in one of the loveliest districts in Scotland,--a\ndistrict, however, shaggy with rock, and overshadowed by great\nmountains, and occasionally visited by earthquake tremors, and both snow\nand thunder storms, and so, with all its wild beauty to other eyes,\nmerely, I must suppose, one of the rougher districts of the penal\nSiberia in his. He is, indeed, particularly severe upon mountains;\nthough not, as he tells us, wholly devoid of a lurking prejudice in\ntheir favor. But what weak prejudice might palliate or plead for, his\nbetter judgment condemns. \"See,\" says this judicious writer, \"vast\ndistricts of the globe disfigured by tremendous masses of rugged and\nalmost barren mountains.... What, cry some, would you bury as\ndeformities the lofty peak and rugged mountain brow, nature's\npalaces,--generally the grandest and most sublime objects in natural\nscenery! We cordially assure the reader we are by no means prejudiced\nagainst these grand objects; _for if prejudice we have on the subject,\nit is rather on the other side_. It is therefore the force of evidence\nalone makes us,--reluctantly we admit,--give up these to rank among the\nderangements and deformities of nature. She, according to her usual\n_taste_ and _economy_, would never be at the expense of rearing, and\nthat upon ground _that might have otherwise been much better occupied_,\nsuch unwieldy, useless masses of matter, merely for the sake of\ngratifying the taste for grandeur and sublimity in a few of her sons,\nnor, indeed, for any other use we ever heard ascribed to them....\nAccording to _our_ test, a rich and gently undulatory surface,\nintersected with rivulets and sheets of water, in the places taken up by\nthese elevations, would be far better, as combining in the highest\ndegree the _utile cum dulce_.\"[40] To such of my audience as are\nfamiliar with Dr. Thomas Burnet's \"Sacred Theory of the Earth\" (1684),\nthat revolution in the cycle of hypothesis to which I have referred, and\nthrough which the visionaries of the later ages return to the dreams\nwhich had occupied the visionaries of an earlier time, must be\nsufficiently apparent in this passage. For not only does Burnet speak\nafter the same manner of hills and mountains, but also of an idle,\nill-founded prejudice entertained in their favor. We find him thus\nsumming up a general survey of the mountains of the globe:--\"Look upon\nthese great ranges: in what confusion do they lie! They have neither\nform nor beauty, nor shape, nor order, no more than the clouds in the\nair. Then, how barren, how desolate, how naked are they! How they stand\nneglected by nature! Neither the rains can soften them, nor the dews\nfrom heaven make them fruitful. I give this short survey of the\nmountains of the earth _to help to remove that prejudice we are apt to\nhave_, or that conceit that the present earth is regularly formed....\nThere is nothing in nature,\" adds this writer, \"more shapeless and\nill-figured than an old rock or a mountain.\"\n\nI leave it to my audience to determine how far this depreciatory\nview,--whether regarded as that of Dr. Burnet or of the modern\nanti-geologist,--agrees with the estimate of the higher minds, or\nwhether it manifests the proper respect for the adorable Being who, in\nhis infinite wisdom, made our world what it is. Let me next show that\nsome of even the abler and more respectable anti-geologists exhibit no\nvery profound veneration for the letter of Scripture, when, instead of\nbearing, as they think, against the deductions of their opponents, they\nfind it directly opposed to fancies of their own. It is held by not a\nfew among them, that at the Deluge the sea and land changed places. When\nthe waters receded, it was found, they allege, that the old land had\nbecome ocean, and the old ocean had become land; and as there are\ncertain rivers which are described in Scripture as flowing beside Eden,\nand which, judging by the names given them, still exist, it has become\nimperative on the assertors of the hypothesis to show that the rivers\nwhich now drain tracts of what they hold was then sea, and that fall\ninto seas which they hold were then land, could not by any possibility\nhave formed the boundaries of the old Adamic garden. Let us mark how Mr.\nGranville Penn,--certainly one of the most extensively informed of his\nclass,--deals with this difficulty.[41] There are, he argues, certain\ngreat corruptions of Scripture. What had been at first written as\nmarginal notes by uninspired men, and were in some cases very erroneous\nand absurd, came in the course of transcription to be transferred,\nwholly by mistake, from the side of the page into the body of the text;\nand thus, in at least a few places, the Scriptures were vitiated, and\nnow declare, instead of Divine truth, what is neither sense nor fact.\nAnd on this very general, and certainly most perilous ground, he goes on\nto argue, unsupported by a single ancient manuscript, and solely on what\nhe terms internal evidence, that the verses in Genesis which conflict\nwith his hypothesis must be regarded as mere idle glosses, ignorantly or\nsurreptitiously introduced into the text by the ancient copyists. \"In\nthe second chapter of Genesis,\" we find him saying, \"_there appears an\ninternal critical evidence_ of an insertion of the 11th, 12th, 13th, and\n14th verses, similar to that of the 4th verse of the 5th chapter of St.\nJohn, and constituting, in a similar manner, a _parenthesis_\nintersecting the thread of the narrative, and introduced solely for a\nsimilar purpose of illustration. It does not wear the character of the\nsimple narrative in which it appears, but _of the surcharge of the gloss\nor note of a later age, founded upon the fanciful traditions then\nprevailing with respect to the situation of the ancient Paradise_.\" This\ncertainly is cutting the knot; and, if erected into a precedent by the\ngeologist, would no doubt greatly facilitate the labor of\nreconciliation. It would, however, be perilous work for _him_. \"A wolf,\"\nsays Plutarch, \"peeping into a hut where a company of shepherds were\nassembled, saw them regaling themselves with a joint of mutton. 'Ye\ngods!' he exclaimed, 'what a clamor these men would have raised if they\nhad caught _me_ at such a banquet.'\" I need scarcely add, that the\nhypothesis in whose behalf Scripture is thus divested of its authority,\nand recklessly cast aside, is entirely a worthless one; and that the\nvarious continents of the globe, instead of all dating from one period\nlittle more than four thousand years back, are of very various\nages,--some of them comparatively modern, though absolutely old in\nrelation to human history; and some of so hoar an antiquity, that the\nterm since man appeared upon earth might be employed as a mere unit to\nmeasure it by.\n\nIt need not surprise us that a writer who takes such strange liberties\nwith a book which he professes to respect, and which he must have had\nmany opportunities of knowing, should take still greater liberties with\na science for which he entertains no respect whatever, and of whose\nfirst principles he is palpably ignorant. And yet the wild recklessness\nof some of his explanations of geological phenomena must somewhat\nastonish all sufficiently acquainted with the science to know that the\nplace and relations of its various formations have been long since\ndetermined, and now as certainly form the regulating data of the\npractical miner, as the places and relations long since determined by\nthe geographer form the regulating data of the practical navigator or\nengineer. It is as certain, for instance, that the Oolitic system\nunderlies the Green Sand and the Chalk, with all the various formations\nof the Tertiary division,--Eocene Miocene, Pliocene, and\nPleistocene,--as that York is situated to the south of Edinburgh, or\nthat both these cities lie very considerably to the north of London and\nParis. And the anti-geologist who would argue, in the heat of\ncontroversy, that the Oolite and the Pleistocene were contemporaneous\ndeposits, would be no more worthy of reply than the anti-geographer who\nwould assert, in order to serve some argumentative purpose, that the\nNorth Cape lies in the same latitudinal parallel as South California, or\nthat Terra del Fuego is but a day's sailing from Iceland. And yet such,\nas I intimated on a former evening, is the line taken up by Mr.\nGranville Penn, in dealing with the difficulties of the Kirkdale Cave,\nso remarkable for its accumulations of gnawed bones of the Pleistocene\nages,--especially for its bones of hyaenas, tigers, bears, wolves,\nrhinoceroses, and elephants. The cave occurs in the moorlands of\nYorkshire, in a limestone rock of that Oolitic division to which the\nOxford Clay and the Coral Rag belong, and contains corals and shells\nthat had passed into extinction long even ere the Tertiary period began;\nwhile in the cave itself, mixed with bones of the extinct mammals of the\ngeologic age in immediate advance of the present one, there have been\nfound the contemporary remains of animals that still live in our fields\nand woods, such as the hare, the rabbit, the weasel, and the water rat.\nAnd we find Mr. Penn assigning both the Oolitic rock in which the cave\nis hollowed, and the mammalian remains of the cave itself, equally to\nthe period of the deluge. The limestone existed at that time, it would\nseem, as a soft calcareous paste, into which the animal remains, floated\nnorthwards from intertropical regions on the waters of the Flood, were\nprecipitated in vast quantities, and sank, and then, fermenting under\nthe putrefactive influences, the gas which they formed blow up the\nyielding lime and mud around them into a long narrow cave, just as a\nglass-blower blows up a bottle, or as a little yeast blows up into\nsimilar but greatly smaller cavities a bit of leaven. And the\nstalactites and stalagmites which encrust the Kirkdale Cave are, Mr.\nPenn holds, simply the last runnings of the lime that exuded after the\ngeneral mass had begun to set. Certainly any one disposed to take such\nliberties with the Bible on the one hand, and with geologic science on\nthe other, as those taken in the given instances by this most formidable\nof the anti-geologists, could have but little difficulty in making\neither Scripture as geological or geology as Scriptural as he had a\nmind. His chief danger would be that of making the sounder theologians\njust a little angry, and of escaping, unless quoted for the joke's sake,\nthe notice of the geologists altogether. In truth, the extreme absurdity\nof our later anti-geologists in virtually contending, in the\ncontroversy, that _their_ ignorance of an interesting science, founded\non millions of determined facts, ought to be permitted to weigh against\nthe knowledge of the men who have studied it most thoroughly, forms\ntheir best defence. It secures them against all save neglect. As,\nhowever, some of their number are well meaning men, who would not be\nridiculous if they could help it, and only oppose themselves to the\ngeologists because they deem them mischievous and in error, it may be\nworth while showing them, by an example or two, the ludicrous nature of\nthe positions which in their honest ignorance they permit themselves to\noccupy, and the real scope and bearing of the arguments which they\nunwittingly permit themselves to use. I shall adduce two several\ninstances of reasoning, directed by the anti-geologists _against_ their\nantagonists (as they themselves believed), but which, from their\nignorance of the true state of the argument, and of the bearing of the\nfacts with which they dealt, in reality made out for these antagonists\nas strong a case as they could possibly have made out for themselves.\nAnd I am sure that, rather than be found siding with their opponents,\nthe anti-geologists would be content even to acquire a little geology.\n\nI shall select my first instance from the records of the annual\ncontroversy which used to rage some ten or fifteen years ago, in\nsermons, newspapers, and magazines, immediately after every meeting of\nthe British Association. A religious Dublin newspaper,--the \"Statesman\nand Record,\"--since extinct, took always an active part in these\ndiscussions on the anti-geological side, and boldly affirmed, as in a\nnumber now before me, that geology had the devil for its author. A\nlearned correspondent of the paper, who was, however, somewhat more\ncharitable, thought that at least the _facts_ of the science might be\nexempted from a condemnation so sweeping; nay, that, well interpreted,\nthey might be found decidedly opposed to at least the more mischievous\ndeductions of the geologists; and in illustrating the point, we find him\nthus arguing, from certain appearances in the valley of the Nile, that\nthe globe which we inhabit cannot possibly be more than six thousand\nyears old.[42] \"The valley of the Nile,\" says this writer, \"is known to\nbe covered with a bed of slime which the river has deposited in its\nperiodical inundations, and which rests on a foundation of sand, like\nthat of the adjacent desert. The French savans who accompanied Bonaparte\nin his Egyptian expedition made several experiments to ascertain the\nthickness and depth of this superincumbent bed. They dug about two\nhundred pits, and carefully measured the thickness in the transversal\nsection of the valley, where the deposit had been free from obstacles,\nand had not been materially increased or lessened by local causes. They\nfound the mean of all these measurements to be six and a half metres, or\nrather more than twenty feet. M. Gironde endeavored to determine the\nquantity of slime deposited in a century; and he found that the\nelevation of soil in that period was rather less than four inches and a\nhalf! Dividing the total thickness of the bed by the centenary\nelevation, he found the quotient 56.50; whence it followed that the\ninundations had commenced 5650 years before the year 1800, when the\nexperiments were made,--a number which only differed 159 years from the\nMosaic date. The difference is not very important, when it is considered\nthat the most trifling error, whether in the measure of the entire\nsuperincumbent bed, or in the valuation of the quantity of slime\ndeposited in a century, affects the final results. Notwithstanding this,\nthe coincidence between the sacred historian and the computations of\nscience is remarkable, and furnishes one proof more of the harmony\nexisting between nature and revelation. An honest experimentalist was\nconstrained to arrive at this conclusion at a period when the infidel\nschool of our continental neighbors was in high feather. I am sorry to\nadd, that the result of his own calculation had not that effect on the\nphilosopher himself, or his free-thinking associates, which, for their\nown sakes, was desirable; but it is no less valuable to us on that\naccount; for we know that an unwilling witness to the truth is worth a\nscore of evidences already prejudiced in its favor.\"\n\nNow, this is clear, distinct statement; and nothing can be more evident\nthan that the theologian who makes it holds he is reasoning with\nconclusive effect in behalf of what may be termed the short\nchronology,--not in its legitimate connection with the recent\nintroduction of the human species, but in its supposed bearing on the\nage of the earth. And in doing so he commits himself to the apparent\npositive fact, determined on what may be regarded as geologic data, that\nthe river Nile has been flowing over its bed for about as many years as\nhave elapsed, according to the Hebrew chronology adopted by Usher, since\nthe creation of man, and no more. To the integrity of this inference he\npledges himself, as an inference to which the infidel ought to have\nyielded, as conclusive in its bearing on the question of the earth's\nage, and as of singular value to the believer who sets himself to deal\nwith the evidences of his faith. Now, without referring to the\ncircumstance that the data on which the French savans under Napoleon\nfounded have since been challenged by geologists, such as Lieutenant\nNewbold and Sir G. Wilkinson, who have carefully surveyed the rocks and\nsoils of Egypt with the assistance of clearer light than existed at the\ncommencement of the century, let us, for the argument's sake, hold the\ninference to be quite as good as this theologian regards it. And see, we\nurge upon him, that you yourself do not suffer it to drop should you\nfind that it commits you to the other side of the argument. Be at least\nas fair and honest as you say the infidels ought to have been. The six\nand a half metres of silt and slime,--representative, let us hold, of\nfrom five to six thousand years,--rest, you say, on \"a foundation of\nsand like that of the adjacent desert.\" But have you ascertained on what\nthe sand rests? I know nothing of that, replies the theologian; I had\nnot even thought of that. But the geologist has thought of it, we reply;\nand has spent much time under the hot sun in ascertaining the point. For\nnearly three hundred miles,--from the inner boundaries of the delta to\nwithin a few hours' journey of the cataracts,--the silt and sand rest on\nwhat is known as the \"marine\" or nummulitic limestone,--a formation of\ngreat extent, for it runs into the Nubian desert on the one hand, and\ninto the Libyan desert on the other; and which, though it abounds in the\nanimalcules of the European chalk, is held to belong, in at least its\nupper beds, which are charged with nummulites, to the earlier Eocene.\nOver this marine limestone there rests a newer formation, of later\nTertiary age, which contains the casts of sea shells, and whole forests\nof dicotyledonous trees, converted into a flint-like chert; and over all\nrepose the sands and gravels of the desert. Underneath the silt of the\nriver, then, and the sand of the desert, lie these two formations of the\nTertiary division. The lower, which is of great thickness, must have\nbeen of slow formation. It is composed almost exclusively, in many\nparts, of microscopic animals, and abounds in others in fossil\nshells,--nautili, ostreadae, turritella, and nummulites, with corals,\nsponges, the remains of crustacea, and the teeth of fishes. And between\nthe period of its deposition and that of the formation which rests upon\nit the surface of what is now Egypt must have been elevated over the\nsurface of the sea, to be covered, in the course of ages, by great\nforests, which, ere the land assumed its present form and level, were\nsubmerged by another oscillation of the surface, and petrified amid beds\nof a siliceous sand at the bottom of the ocean. Nor is the underlying\nmarine limestone by any means the oldest of the sedimentary rocks of\nEgypt. It rests on a sandstone of Permian or Triassic age; the sandstone\nrests, in turn, on the famous Breccia de Verde of Egypt; and the Breccia\non a group of Azoic rocks, gneisses, quartzes, mica schists, and clay\nslates, that wrap round the granitic nucleus of Syene. The formations of\nEgypt constitute a well-determined part of that great series of systems\nwhich compose the upper portion of the earth's crust: its silt is by far\nthe most inconsiderable of its deposits; and if five thousand six\nhundred and fifty years were exhausted in laying down layer after layer\nof the twenty feet which form _its_ average thickness, what enormous\nperiods must we not demand in addition for the laying down of the forest\nformation, of the marine limestone formation, of the New Red Sandstone\nformation, of the Breccia de Verde formation, and, in short, for the\nsome ten miles of fossiliferous rock of which those deposits form such\ndefinite, well-determined portions; besides the time necessary for the\nproduction of the enormously developed Azoic rocks which lie under all!\nThe theologian, in this instance, instead of reasoning, as he himself\nsupposed, in behalf of the short chronology, has been making out a very\nformidable case for the long one; and all that the geologist can have to\nurge upon him in the circumstances is simply that he should act as he\nholds the infidel ought to have done, and yield to the force of\nevidence. I may mention in the passing, that some of the most ancient\nbuildings of Egypt are formed of the Tertiary marine limestones of the\ncountry; the stones of the pyramids are charged with nummulites, known\nto the Arabs as \"Pharaoh's beans;\" and these organisms stand out in high\nrelief on the weathered portions of the Great Sphinx. Some of the oldest\nthings in the world in their relation to human history,--erections, many\nof which had survived the memory of their founders even in the days of\nHerodotus,--are formed of materials so modern in their relation to the\ngeologic epochs, that they had no existence as rock until after the\nPalaeozoic and Secondary ages had gone by. Not only the Carboniferous\nsandstone of the High Church and Parliament House of Edinburgh, but even\nthe Oolitic (that is, Portland stone) of Somerset House and St. Paul's,\nare of an antiquity incalculably vast compared with the stone out of\nwhich the oldest of the pyramids were fashioned.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 116.\n\nNUMMULITES LAEVIGATA.\n\n(_Pharaoh's Beans._)]\n\nThe second example which I shall adduce is one with which many of my\nauditors must be already familiar. The Falls of Niagara are gradually\neating their way through an elevated tract of table-land, upwards\ntowards Lake Erie, at the rate of about fifty yards in forty years; and\nit has been argued by Sir Charles Lyell, that as they are now seven\nmiles distant from Queenston, where the elevation of the plateaux\nbegins, they must have taken about ten thousand years to scoop out their\npresent deep channel through that space.[43] Ten thousand years ago the\nFalls were, he infers, at Queenston; and the grounds on which he reasons\nare exactly those on which one would infer that a laborer who had cut a\nditch two hundred yards long at the rate of ten yards per day, and was\nstill at work without pause or intermission, had begun to cut it just\ntwenty days previous. A reverend anti-geologist takes up Sir\nCharles;[44] and, after denouncing the calculation as \"a stab at the\nChristian religion,\" seeing it involves the assertion that the \"Falls\nwere actually at Queenston four thousand years before the creation of\nthe world according to Moses,\" he brings certain facts, adduced both by\nother writers and Sir Charles himself, to bear on the calculation, such\nas the fact that the deep trench through which the Niagara runs is much\nnarrower in its lower than in its upper reaches, and that the river must\nhave performed its work of excavation, when the breadth was less, at a\ngreatly quicker rate than now. And thus the work of excavating the\ntrench is brought fairly within six thousand years. Nor is the principle\nof the reasoning bad. In our illustration of the ditch excavated by the\nlaborer we of course take it for granted that it is a ditch of the same\ndepth and breadth throughout, and excavated in the same sort of soil;\nfor if greatly narrower and shallower at one place than at another, or\ndug in a greatly softer mould, the rate of its excavation at different\ntimes might be very different indeed, and the general calculation widely\nerroneous, if based on the ratio of progress when it went on most\nslowly, taken as an average ratio for the whole. But the anti-geologist\nprovokes only a smile when, in his triumph, he exultingly exclaims, \"It\nis on grounds such as these that the most learned and voluminous among\nEnglish geologists disputes the Mosaic history of the Creation and\nDeluge,--a strong proof that even men of argument on other subjects\noften reason in the most childish and ridiculous manner, and on grounds\ntotally false, when they undertake to deny the truth of the Holy\nScriptures.\" Now, it must be wholly unnecessary to remark here, that it\nis surely one thing to \"undertake to deny the truth of the Holy\nScriptures,\" and quite another and different thing to hold that the\nNiagara Falls may have been at Queenston ten thousand years ago; or\nfurther, that it seems not in the least wise to stake the truth of\nRevelation on any such issue. Let me request you, however, to observe,\nthat in one important respect this writer resembles the former one. The\nformer, ignorant of the various phenomena exhibited by the great\ndeposits of Egypt, exhausted all his five thousand six hundred years of\navailable time in accounting for the formation of one of the least of\nthem,--the silt of the Nile; and the latter, though he bids down Sir\nCharles some four thousand four hundred years or so in the one item of\nscooping out the bed of the St. Lawrence, at least expends the remainder\nof the ten thousand,--his five thousand six hundred years,--in that work\nof excavation alone, and leaves himself no further sums to set off\nagainst the various geologic processes that may have preceded it.\n\nIn this case, as in the other, let us grant, for the argument's sake,\nall the facts. Let us admit that the trench through which the St.\nLawrence now flows has been cut by the river in somewhat less than six\nthousand years. But through what, let us ask, has it been cut? There can\nexist no doubt on the subject: it has been cut through an ancient\ngraveyard of the Upper Silurian system, charged with the peculiar\nfossils characteristic of what are known as the Clinton and Niagara\ngroups, and common, many of them, to the Upper Silurian of our own\ncountry and of the European continent. _Leptaena depressa_ and\n_Pentamerus oblongus_, two of the most frequent shells of the deposit,\noccur also in equal abundance in the Dudley and Caradoc formations of\nEngland; its prevailing encrinite, _Ichthyocrinus laevis_, is scarce\ndistinguishable from an encrinite which I have often picked up in the\nquarries of the \"Wren's Nest\" (_Ichthyocrinus pyriformis_); while its\nprevailing trilobite, _Phacops limulurus_, seems to be but a\ntransatlantic variety of our well known _Asaphus (Phacops) caudatus_.\nFurther, the sequence of the various formations both above and below the\nNiagara group, is shown with remarkable distinctness in that part of the\nworld along the shores of the great lakes. They may be traced downward,\non the one hand, along the Lower Silurian deposits, to the\nnon-fossiliferous base on which the system rests, and upwards, on the\nother, through the Old Red Sandstone and the Carboniferous Limestone, to\nthe workable Coal Measures. Both stratigraphically and palaeontologically\nthe place in the scale of the Niagara graveyard can be definitely\ndetermined; and a superficial deposit on the heights in its immediate\nneighborhood shows that the river did not begin its work of excavation\namong its long extinct shells, trilobites, and corals, until after not\nonly the great Palaeozoic, but also the Secondary and Tertiary divisions\nhad been laid down, and the recent period ushered in. The superficial\nshells of the adjacent heights belong to the Pleistocene age, and show\nthat in even that comparatively modern time the lower lands of Upper\nCanada were submerged beneath the level of the ocean, and that a series\nof deep seas, connected by broad sounds, occupied the place of the great\nlakes. Not until the last upheaval of the land was the river now known\nas the St. Lawrence called into existence, to begin its work of\nexcavation; and ere that event took place, fully ten miles of\nfossiliferous rock had been deposited on the earth's surface, charged\nwith the remains of many succeeding creations. The deposit through which\nthe St. Lawrence is slowly mining its way is older than the river itself\nby the vast breadth of the four Tertiary periods, by that of all the\nSecondary ages,--Cretaceous, Oolitic, and Triassic,--by the periods,\ntoo, of the Permian system, of the Carboniferous system, of the Old Red\nsystem, and of the uppermost beds of the Upper Silurian system. But a\nsimple illustration may better serve to show the true character of the\nconclusion urged here by the opponent of Sir Charles, than any such line\nof statement as that which I employ, however clear to the geologist. In\nthe year 1817, Prince's Street, in Edinburgh, was opened up to the\nCalton Hill, and the Calton burying-ground cut through to the depth of\nmany feet by the roadway. Let us suppose that when the excavation has\nbeen carried a hundred yards into the cemetery, a geologist, finding the\nlaborers cutting on the average about a yard per day, simply intimates\nas his opinion that the laborers have been a hundred days at work. \"No,\"\nreplies a controversialist on the anti-geological side; \"for the first\nfifty yards, so soft was the subsoil, and so shallow the covering of\nmould, that the laborers must have cut at the rate of two yards a day;\nit has been merely for the last fifty yards that they have been\nexcavating at the present slow rate: they cannot have been more than\nseventy-five days at work. I marvel exceedingly at the absurdity of\ngeological reasoners: _palpably the burying-ground of the Calton is only\nseventy-five days old._\" Now, such, in no exaggerated, but, on the\ncontrary, greatly modified form, is the argument that would limit the\nage of the earth to the period during which the St. Lawrence has been\nscooping out a channel for itself, from Queenston to Niagara, through an\nancient Silurian burying-ground. Both arguments alike confound the age\nof the ancient burying-grounds with the date of the modern excavations\nopened up through them; but in order to render the argument of my\nillustration equally absurd with the other, it would be not only\nnecessary to infer that the Calton cemetery was only seventy-five days\nold, but also that the rock on which it rested was no older.\n\nBut enough of follies such as these! I had marked a good many other\npassages of similar character in the writings of the recent\nanti-geologists, and would have little difficulty in filling a volume\nwith such; but it would be a useless, though mayhap curious work, and is\nmuch better exhibited by specimen than as a whole. A little folly is\namusing, but much of it fatigues. There is a time coming, and now not\nvery distant, when the vagaries of the anti-geologists will be as\nobsolete as those of the geographers of Salamanca, or as those of the\nastronomers who upheld the orthodoxy of Ptolemy against Galileo and\nNewton; and when they will be regarded as a sort of curious fossils,\nvery monstrous and bizarre, and altogether of an extinct type, but which\nhad once not only life, but were formidable. It will then be seen by all\nwhat a noble vestibule the old geologic ages form to that human period\nin which moral responsibility first began upon earth, and a creature\ndestined to immortality anticipated an eternal hereafter. There is\nalways much of the mean and the little in the worlds which man creates\nfor himself, and in the history which he gives them. Of all the\nabortions of the middle ages which have come down to us, I know not a\nmore miserable one,--at once ludicrous and sad,--than that heavens and\nearth of Cosmas _Indicopleustes_, the monk, which I illustrated by\ndiagrams in my last lecture (Figs. 114, 115). They are just such heavens\nand earth as a monk might have made, and made too at a sitting. The\nheavens, represented as a solid arch raised on tall walls, resemble, as\na whole, the arch which figures in the middle of a freemason's apron,\nor, more homely still, the section of a wine cellar; while the earth\nlies beneath as a great plain or floor, with a huge hill in the\ndistance, behind which the sun passes when it is night. And yet this\nscheme gave law to the world for more than six centuries, and lay like a\nnightmare on physical discovery, astronomic and geographical. The\nanti-geologists have been less mischievous, for they live in a more\nenlightened age; and we already see but the straggling remains of the\nbody, and know that the time cannot be far distant when it will be as\ncompletely extinct as any of the old faunas. The great globe, ever\nrevolving on itself, and journeying in space round the sun, in obedience\nto laws which it immortalized a Newton to discover and demonstrate, is\nan infinitely more sublime and noble object than the earth of Cosmas\nthe monk, with its conical mountain and its crypt-like firmament; nor\ncan I doubt that its history throughout the long geologic ages,--its\nstrange story of successive creations, each placed in advance of that\nwhich had gone before, and its succeeding organisms, vegetable and\nanimal, ranged according to their appearance in time, on principles\nwhich our profounder students of natural science have but of late\ndetermined,--will be found in an equal degree more worthy of its Divine\nAuthor than that which would huddle the whole into a few literal days,\nand convert the incalculably ancient universe which we inhabit into a\nhastily run-up erection of yesterday.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE ELEVENTH.\n\nON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND.[45]\n\n\nPART I.\n\nScotland has its four fossil floras,--its flora of the Old Red\nSandstone, its Carboniferous flora, its Oolitic flora, and that flora of\napparently Tertiary age of which his Grace the Duke of Argyll found so\ninteresting a fragment overflown by the thick basalt beds and trap tuffs\nof Mull. Of these, the only one adequately known to the geologist is the\ngorgeous flora of the Coal Measures,--probably the richest, in at least\nindividual plants, which the world has yet seen. The others are all but\nwholly unknown; and the Association may be the more disposed to tolerate\nthe comparative meagreness of the few brief remarks which I purpose\nmaking on two of their number,--the floras of the Old Red Sandstone and\nthe Oolite,--from the consideration that that meagreness is only too\ntruly representative of the present state of our knowledge regarding\nthem; and that if my descriptions be scanty and inadequate, it is only\nbecause the facts are still few. How much of the lost may yet be\nrecovered I know not; but the circumstance that two great\nfloras,--remote predecessors of the existing one,--which once covered\nwith their continuous mantle of green the dry land of what is now\nScotland, should be represented by but a few coniferous fossils, a few\ncycadaceous fronds, a few ferns and club mosses, must serve to show what\nmere fragments of the past history of our country we have yet been able\nto recover from the rocks, and how very much in the work of exploration\nand discovery still remains for us to do. We stand on the further edge\nof the great floras of by-past creations, and have gathered but a few\nhandfuls of faded leaves, a few broken branches, a few decayed cones.\n\nThe Silurian deposits of our country have not yet furnished us with any\nunequivocal traces of a terrestrial vegetation. Professor Nicol of\nAberdeen, on subjecting to the microscope the ashes of a Silurian\nanthracite which occurs in Peeblesshire, detected in it minute tubular\nfibres, which seem, he says, to indicate a higher class of vegetation\nthan the algae; but these may have belonged to a marine vegetation\nnotwithstanding. I detected some years ago, in the Trilobite-bearing\nschists of Girvan, associated with graptolites of the Lower Silurian\ntype, a vegetable organism somewhat resembling the leaf of one of the\npond weeds,--an order of plants, some of whose species, such as Zostera,\nfind their proper habitats in salt water. I have placed beside this\nspecimen a fragment of the same graptolite-bearing rock, across which I\nhave pasted part of a leaf of _Zostera marina_, the only plant of our\nScottish seas which is furnished with true roots, bears real flowers\ninclosed in herbaceous spathes, and produces a well formed farinaceous\nseed. It will be seen, that in the few points of comparison which can be\ninstituted between forms so exceedingly simple, the ancient very closely\nresembles the recent organism. It is not impossible, therefore, that\nthe Silurian vegetable may have belonged to some tribe of plants allied\nto Zostera; and if so, we can easily conceive how the Silurian\nanthracite of our country may be altogether of marine origin, and may\nyet exhibit in its microscopic tubular fibres vestiges of a vegetation\nhigher than the algae.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 117.\n\n_a_, SILURIAN ORGANISM. _b_, GRAPTOLITE. _c_, PORTION OF THE LEAF OF\nZOSTERA MARINA.]\n\n\n[It were well, in dealing with the very ancient floras, in which\nequivocal forms occur that might have belonged to either the land or the\nsea, to keep in view those curious plants of the present time, the\nhabitats of which are decidedly marine, but which are marked by many of\nthe peculiarities of the seed-bearing plants of the land. The\nsuperiority of Zostera to the common sea weeds of our coasts appears to\nhave struck in the north of Scotland eyes very little practised in such\nmatters, and seems to have given rise, in consequence, to a popular\nmyth. _Zostera marina_ abounds on a series of sand banks, partially\nuncovered by the larger stream tides, which lie directly opposite the\ntown of Cromarty, near the spot pointed out by tradition as the site of\nan earlier town, which was swept away some two or three hundred years\nago by the encroachments of the sea. And these banks, with their thick\ncovering of green Zostera, used to be pointed out by the fishermen of\nthe place, in my younger days, as the _meadows_ of the old town, still\nbearing their original coverings of vegetation,--a vegetation altered no\ndoubt by the \"sea change\" that had come over it, but still essentially\nthe same, it was said, as that which had smiled around the old burgh,\nand not at all akin to the brown kelp or tangle that every storm from\nthe boisterous north-east heaps along the shore. It was virtually\naffirmed that the luxuriant terrestrial grasses of ancient Cromarty had\nmade a virtue of necessity in their altered circumstances; and that,\nsettling down into grasses of the sea, they remained to testify that an\nancient Cromarty there had _once been_. _Zostera marina_, like most\nplants of the land, ripens its seeds towards the close of autumn; and I\nhave seen a smart night's frost at this season, when coincident with a\nstream tide that laid bare the beds, nip its seed-bearing stems by\nthousands; and have found them strewed along the beach a few days after,\nwith all their grass-like spikes fully developed, and their grain-like\nseeds charged with a farinaceous substance, which one would scarce\nexpect to find developed in the sea. In the higher reaches of the\nCromarty Firth, the Zostera beds, which are of great extent, are much\nfrequented, during the more protracted frosts of a severe winter, by\nwild geese and swans, that dig up and feed upon the saccharine roots of\nthe plant. The Zostera of the warmer latitudes attain to a larger size\nthan those of our Scottish seas. \"A southern species,\" says Loudon,\n\"_Zostera oceanica_, has leaves a foot long and an inch broad. It is\nused as a thatch, which is said to last a century; bleaches white with\nexposure; and furnishes the rush-like material from which the envelops\nof Italian liquor flasks are prepared.\" The simple rectilinear venation\nof ribbon-like fronds, usually much broken, that occurs in the Lower Old\nRed Sandstone, has often reminded me of that exhibited by this exotic\nspecies of Zostera.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 118.\n\nFUCOID.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 119.\n\nFUCOIDS.]\n\nAssociated with the earliest ichthyic remains of the Old Red Sandstone,\nwe find vegetable organisms in such abundance, that they communicate\noften a fissile character to the stone in which they occur. But,\nexisting as mere carbonaceous markings, their state of keeping is\nusually so bad, that they tell us little else than that the\nantiquely-formed fishes of this remote period swam over sea bottoms\ndarkened by forests of algae. The prevailing plant was one furnished with\na long, smooth stem, which, though it threw off, in the alternate order,\nnumerous branches at least half as stout as itself, preserved its\nthickness for considerable distances without diminution,--a common\nfucoidal characteristic. We find its remains mixed in the rock, though\nsparingly, with those of a rough-edged plant, knobbed somewhat like the\nthong-like receptacles of _Himanthalia lorea_, which also threw off\nbranches like the other, but diminished more rapidly. A greatly more\nminute vegetable organism of the same beds, characterized by its bifid\npartings, which strike off at angles of about sixty, somewhat resembles\nthe small-fronded variety of _Dictyota dichotoma_, save that the slim\nterminations of the frond are usually bent into little hooks, like the\ntendrils of the pea just as their points begin to turn. Another rather\nrare plant of the period, existing as a broad, irregularly cleft frond,\nsomewhat resembling that of a modern _Cutleria_ or _Nitophyllum_,\nbetrays at once, in its outline and general appearance, its marine\norigin; as does also an equally rare contemporary, which, judging from\nits appearance, seems to have been a true fucus. It exists in the rock\nas if simply drawn in Indian ink; for it exhibits no structure, though,\nas in some of the ferns of the Coal Measures, what were once the curls\nof its leaflets continue to exist as sensible hollows on the surface. It\nbroadens and divides atop into three or four lobes, and these, in turn,\nbroaden and divide into minor lobes, double or ternate, and usually\nrounded at their terminations. In general appearance the plant not a\nlittle resembles those specimens of _Fucus vesiculosus_ which we find\nexisting in a diminutive form, and divested of both the receptacles and\nthe air vessels, at the mouth of rivers. Of two other kinds of plants I\nhave seen only confused masses, in which the individuals were so crowded\ntogether, and withal so fragmentary and broken, that their separate\nforms could not be traced. In the one the general appearance was such as\nmight be produced by compressed and tangled masses of _Chorda filium_,\nin which the linear and even tubular character of the plant could be\ndetermined, but not its continuous, cord-like aspect; in the other, the\nfragments seemed well nigh as slim as hairs, and the appearance was such\nas might be produced by branches of that common ectocarpus, _E.\nlittoralis_, which may be seen on our rocky coasts roughening at low\nwater the stems of laminaria. When highly magnified, a mesial groove\nmight be detected running along each of the hair-like lines. With these\nmarine plants we occasionally find large rectilinear stems, resolved\ninto a true coal, but retaining no organic character by which to\ndistinguish them. As I have seen some of these more than three inches in\ndiameter, and, though existing as mere fragments, several feet in\nlength, they must, if they were also plants of the sea, have exceeded in\nsize our largest laminaria.[46] And such are the few vegetable\norganisms, of apparently aquatic origin, which I have hitherto succeeded\nin detecting in the Lower Old Red Sandstone of Scotland.[47] Their\nindividual numbers, however, must have been very great, though, from the\ndestructible character of their tissues, their forms have perished in\nthe stone. The immensely developed flagstones of Caithness seem to owe\ntheir dark color to organic matter mainly of vegetable origin. So\nstrongly bituminous, indeed, are some of the beds of dingier tint, that\nthey flame in the fire like slates steeped in oil.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 120.]\n\nThe remains of a terrestrial vegetation in this deposit are greatly\nscantier than those of its marine plants; but they must be regarded as\npossessing a peculiar interest, as, with the exception of the spore\ncases of the Ludlow rocks, the oldest of their class, in at least the\nBritish islands, whose true place in the scale can be satisfactorily\nestablished. In the flagstones of Orkney there occurs, though very\nrarely, a minute vegetable organism, which I have elsewhere described as\nhaving much the appearance of one of our smaller ferns, such as the\nmaidenhair-spleenwort, or dwarf moonwort. It consists of a minute stem,\npartially covered by what seems to be a small sheath or hollow bract,\nand bifurcates into two fronds or pinnae, fringed by from ten to twelve\nleaflets, that nearly impinge on each other, and somewhat resemble in\ntheir mode of arrangement the leaflets of one of our commonest\nAspleniums,--_Asplenium trichomanes_. One of our highest authorities,\nhowever, in such matters (Professor Balfour of Edinburgh) questions\nwhether this organism be in reality a fern, and describes it from the\nspecimen on the table, in the Palaeontological chapter of his admirable\nClass Book, simply as \"a remarkable pinnate frond.\" (Fig. 13, p. 56.) We\nfind it associated with the remains of a terrestrial plant allied to\nlepidodendron, and which in size and general appearance not a little\nresembles one of our commonest club mosses,--_Lycopodium clavatum_.[48]\nIt sends out its branches in exactly the same style,--some short and\nsimple, others branched like the parent stem,--in an arrangement\napproximately alternate; and is everywhere covered, stem and branch, by\nthickly set scale-like leaflets, that, suddenly narrowing, terminate in\nexceedingly slim points. It has, however, proportionally a stouter stem\nthan Lycopodium; its leaves, when seen in profile, seem more rectilinear\nand thin; and none of its branches yet found bear the fructiferous stalk\nor spike. Its resemblance, however, to this commonest of the\nLycopodia,--a plant that may be gathered by handfuls on the moors by\nwhich the flagstones are covered,--is close enough to suggest a new\nreading of the familiar adage on the meeting of extremes. Between the\ntimes of this ancient fossil,--one of the oldest of land plants yet\nknown,--and those of the existing club moss that now scatters its light\nspores by millions over the dead and blackened remains of its remote\npredecessor, many creations must have intervened, and many a prodigy of\nthe vegetable world appeared, especially in the earlier and middle\nperiods,--Sigillaria, Favularia, Knorria, and Ulodendron,--that have had\nno representatives in the floras of latter times; and yet here, flanking\nthe immense scale at both its ends, do we find plants of so nearly the\nsame form and type, that it demands a careful survey to distinguish\ntheir points of difference. Here, for instance, to illustrate the fact,\nis there a specimen of _Lycopodium clavatum_, from one of these\nCaithness moors, that agrees branch for branch, and both in the\ndisposition of its scales and in general outline, with the specimen in\nthe stone. What seems to be an early representative of the Calamites\noccurs in the same beds. Some of the specimens are of large size,--at\nleast from nine inches to a foot in circumference,--and retain their\nthickness, though existing as fragments several feet in length, with but\nlittle diminution throughout. They resembled the interior casts of\nCalamites in being longitudinally furrowed; but the furrows are flatter,\nand are themselves minutely striated lengthwise by lines as fine as\nhairs; and, instead of presenting any appearance of joints, there run\ndiagonally across the stems, interrupted and very irregular lines of\nknobs. These I find referred to by Dr. Joseph Hooker, in describing a\nset of massive but ill preserved remains of the same organism detected\nin South Ness quarry, near Lerwick, by the Hon. Mr. Tuffnell, as taking,\nin two of the specimens, \"the appearance of transverse knobs and bars\n(mayhap spirally arranged) that cross the striae obliquely. But though\nthe knobs,\" he adds, \"may perhaps indicate a peculiar character of the\nplants, they have more probably been caused by pressure during\nsilicification.\" As, however, they also occur in the best preserved\nfragment of the plant which I have yet seen,--a Thurso specimen which I\nowe to my friend Mr. Dick,--I deem it best to regard them, provisionally\nat least, as one of the characteristics of the plant. I may mention,\nthat while I disinterred one of my specimens from the Thurso flagstones,\nwhere it occurred among remains of Dipterus and Asterolepis, I derived\nanother specimen from the great overlying formation of pale Red\nSandstone to which the lofty hills of Hoy and the tall mural precipices\nof Dunnet Head belong; and that this plant is the only organism which\nhas yet been found in this uppermost member of the Lower Old Red, to at\nleast the north of the Moray Firth. Another apparently terrestrial\norganism of the lower formation, of, however, rare occurrence, very much\nresembles a sheathing bract or spathe. It is of considerable size,--from\nfour to six inches in length, by from two to three inches in\nbreadth,--of a broadly elliptical and yet somewhat lanceolate form,\ndeeply but irregularly corrugated, the rugae exhibiting a tendency to\nconverge towards both its lower and upper terminations, and with, in\nsome instances, what seems to be the fragment of a second spathe\nspringing from its base. Another and much smaller vegetable organism of\nthe same beds presents the form of a spathe-enveloped bud or unblown\nflower wrapped up in its calyx; but all the specimens which I have yet\nseen are too obscure to admit of certain determination. I may here\nmention, that curious markings, which have been regarded as impressions\nmade by vegetables that had themselves disappeared, have been detected\nduring the last twelvemonth in a quarry of the Lower Old Red Sandstone\nnear Huntly, by the Rev. Mr. Mackay of Rhynie. They are very curious and\nvery puzzling; but though some of the specimens present the appearance\nof a continuous midrib, that throws off, with a certain degree of\nregularity, apparent leaflets, I am inclined to regard them rather as\nlying within the province of the ichnologist than of the fossil\nbotanist. They bear the same sort of resemblance to a long,\nthickly-leaved frond, like that of the \"hard fern,\" that the cast of a\nmany-legged annelid does to a club moss; and I was struck, on my first\nwalk along the Portobello beach, after examining a specimen kindly sent\nme by Mr. Mackay, to see how nearly the tract of a small shore crab\n(_Carcinus Maenas_) along the wet sand resembled them, in exhibiting what\nseemed to be an obscure midrib fringed with leaflets.\n\nBut the genuine vegetable organism of the formation, indicative of the\nhighest rank of any yet found in it, is a true wood of the cone-bearing\norder. I laid open the nodule which contains this specimen, in one of\nthe ichthyolite beds of Cromarty, rather more than eighteen years ago;\nbut though I described it, in the first edition of my little work on the\nOld Red Sandstone, in 1841, as exhibiting the woody fibre, it was not\nuntil 1845 that, with the assistance of the optical lapidary, I\nsubjected its structure to the test of the microscope. It turned out, as\nI had anticipated, to be the portion of a tree; and on my submitting the\nprepared specimen to one of our highest authorities,--the late Mr.\nWilliam Nicol,--he at once decided that the \"reticulated texture of the\ntransverse section, though somewhat compressed, clearly indicated a\nconiferous origin.\" I may add, that this most ancient of Scottish\nlignites presents several peculiarities of structure. Like some of the\nAraucarians of the warmer latitudes, it exhibits no lines of yearly\ngrowth; its medullary rays are slender, and comparatively inconspicuous;\nand the discs which mottle the sides of its sap-chambers, when viewed in\nthe longitudinal section, are exceedingly minute, and are ranged, so far\nas can be judged in their imperfect state of keeping, in the alternate\norder peculiar to the Araucarians. On what perished land of the early\nPalaeozoic ages did this venerably antique tree cast root and flourish,\nwhen the extinct genera Pterichthys and Coccosteus were enjoying life by\nmillions in the surrounding seas, long ere the flora or fauna of the\nCoal Measures had begun to be?\n\nI may be here permitted to mention, that in a little volume, written in\nreply to a widely known and very ingenious work on the Development\nhypothesis, I described and figured this unequivocally genuine lignite,\nin order to show that a true wood takes its place among the earliest\nterrestrial plants known to the geologist. I at the same time\nmentioned,--desirous, of course, that the facts of the question should\nbe fairly stated, whatever their bearing,--that the nodule in which it\noccurred had been partially washed out of the fish bed in which I found\nit, by the action of the surf; and my opponent, fixing on the\ncircumstance, insinuated, in the answer with which he honored me, that\nit had _not_ belonged to the bed at all, but had been derived from some\nother formation of later date. He ought, however, to have taken into\naccount my further statement, namely, that the same nodule which\nenclosed the lignite contained part of another fossil, the well marked\nscales of _Diplacanthus striatus_, an ichthyolite restricted, like the\nCoccosteus (a specimen of which occurred in a neighboring nodule), to\nthe Lower Old Red Sandstone exclusively. If there be any value whatever\nin palaeontological evidence, this Cromarty lignite must have been\ndeposited in a sea inhabited by the Coccosteus and Diplacanthus. It is\ndemonstrable that, while yet in the recent state, a Diplacanthus lay\ndown and died beside it; and the evidence in the case is unequivocally\nthis, that in the oldest portion of the oldest terrestrial flora yet\nknown, there occurs the fragment of a tree quite as high in the scale as\nthe stately Norfolk Island pine, or the noble cedar of Lebanon.\n\n[I have failed hitherto in finding any remains of terrestrial\nplant-covered surfaces in the Old Red Sandstone of Scotland, though\ndecided traces of desiccated sub-aerial ones are not rare. Shallows and\nbanks seem to have been numerous during the period of at least the Lower\nformation. The flagstones of Caithness and Orkney, and the argillaceous\nfish beds of Cromarty and Ross, not only abound in the ripple-marked\nsurfaces of a shallow sea, but also in cracked and flawed planes that\nmust have dried and split into polygonal partings in the air and the\nsun. The appearance of these in the neighborhood of the town of Thurso,\nabout half a mile to the east of the river, is not a little curious.\nBearing throughout the general dingy hue of the flagstones, they yet\nconsist of alternating beds of two distinct characters and qualities.\nThe one kind, fissile, finely grained, and sharply ripple-marked, seems\nto have been deposited in shallow water; the other, not fissile, but, if\nI may so speak, felted together so as to yield with difficulty to the\nhammer in any direction, and traversed by polygonal partings, filled up\nusually by the substance of the overlying stratum, appears to have had a\ndifferent origin. The state of keeping, too, in which the ichthyic\nremains of these alternating beds occur is always very different. The\nsmaller and more delicately organized fishes are never found entire,\nsave in the fissile, finely grained beds; in the others we detect only\nscattered fragments; and even these, unless they belonged to the robust\nAsterolepis or his congeners,--which, however, in these beds they\nusually do,--much broken. The polygonal partings seem to indicate that\nthese toughly-felted beds, whose very style of weathering--rough,\ngnarled, fretted into globose protuberances and irregular hollows--shows\nthat it had not been formed by quiet deposition, must have had their\nbroad backs raised for a time above the surface of the water, to be\ndesiccated in the hot sun. And the fragmentary state of the fossils\nwhich they contain seems to point, with the roughnesses of their\nweathered surfaces, to some peculiarity in their origin. The\nrecollection which they awoke in my mind with each visit I paid them for\nthree years together, may probably indicate what that origin was. I had\na relation who died more than a quarter of a century ago, who passed\nmany years in British Guiana, in the colony of Berbice, and whose\ngraphic descriptions of that part of South America made a strong\nimpression upon me when a boy, and still dwells in my memory. He was\nsettled on a cotton plantation near the coast side; and so exceedingly\nflat was the surrounding country, that the house in which he dwelt,\nthough nearly two miles distant from the shore, stood little more than\nfive feet above its level. The soil consisted of a dark gray\nconsolidated mud; and in looking seawards from the margin of the land,\nthere was nothing to be seen, when the tide fell, save dreary mud flats\nwhole miles in extent, with the line of blue water beyond stretching\nalong the distant horizon. These mud flats were much frequented by birds\nof the wader family, that used to come and fish in the shallow pools for\nthe small fry that had lingered behind when the tide fell; and my\ncousin, a keen sportsman in his day, has told me that he used to steal\nupon them in his mud shoes,--flat boards attached to the soles, like the\nsnow shoes of the higher latitudes,--and enjoy rare sport in knocking\ndown magnificent game, such as \"the roseate spoonbill\" and \"gorgeous\nflamingo.\" There were times, however, when the mud shoe proved of no\navail, and the flat expanse remained impassable for weeks,--\n\n \"A boggy syrtis, neither sea\n Nor good dry land.\"\n\nThe coast,--directly impinged on by the drift current, and beaten by the\nlong roll of waves which had first begun to rise under the impulsions of\nthe trade winds on the African coast two thousand miles away,--was much\nexposed to tempests; and after every fresh storm from the east, a huge\nbank of mud used to come rolling in from the sea, three or four feet\nabreast, and remain wholly impassable until, during some two or three\nneap tides, its surface had been exposed to a tropical sun, and\npartially consolidated by the heat. And then the waste would become\npassable as before, and the chopped and broken surface, exposed to the\nordinary action of the sea, and to gradual depositions during flood,\nwould begin to be smoothed over, and the birds would find themselves no\nlonger safe. Now, I am inclined to think that we have here the\nconditions necessary to the formation of the Thurso deposits. Let us\nsuppose, near where Thurso now stands, a wide tract of flat mud banks in\na sea so shallow as to be laid dry at ebb for miles together. Let us\nfurther suppose periods of tranquil deposition or re-arrangement, during\nwhich one ripple-marked stratum is laid quietly down over another, and\nthe fish, killed by accident, or left stranded by the evaporation of the\nlittle pools, are covered up, like the plants in a botanist's\ndrying-book, in a state of complete entireness. Let us yet further\nsuppose great mud banks driven by occasional tempests from the deeper\nwater beyond, and so heaped up over these sedimentary beds as to be\nexposed during even the flood of neap tides to the desiccating\ninfluences of the atmosphere and the sun, until the surface has become\nhard as a sun-burned brick, and has chopped into polygonal partings,\nwith wide rents between. And finally, let us suppose the whole in this\nstate laid under water at the return of stream tides, and exposed to the\nordinary sedimentary action. Does it not seem probable that the\nalternating beds in all their conditions would be given us by such a\nprocess? In the stratum represented by the mud bank, the stone would be\nof what I have termed a _felted_, not a fissile character; its organic\nremains would exist in a fragmentary and scattered state,--for, torn up\nfrom their places of original deposition, and rolled onwards in the\nstorm-impelled mud, they could not fail to be broken up and dispersed;\nand further, they would be in large part those of bulky deep-sea fishes.\nAnd lastly, the surface of these beds would be polygonally cracked and\nflawed, and the wider cracks filled up by the substance of the overlying\nstrata. And these overlying strata, on the other hand,--the result of\na period of quiet deposition in shallow water,--would be regularly\nbedded, and their ichthyic remains, consisting mainly of small littoral\nfishes, would be preserved in a state of comparative entireness.\nFor, however, such numerous repetitions of alternately _felted_\nand fissile ripple-marked strata as we find in the neighborhood of\nThurso,--repetitions carried on for hundreds of feet in vertical\nextent,--we require yet another condition,--that condition of gradual\nsubsidence in the general crust which can alone account for the fact so\noften pressed upon the geologist in exploring the Coal Measures, that in\ndeposits thousands of feet in thickness, each stratum in succession had\nbeen laid down in a shallow sea.]\n\nIt is a curious circumstance, that the Old Red flagstones which lie\nalong the southern flanks of the Grampians, and are represented by the\ngray stone known in commerce as the Arbroath Pavement, have not, so far\nas is yet known, an organism in common with the Old Red flagstones of\nthe north. I at one time supposed that the rectilinear, smooth-stemmed\nfucoid, already described, occurred in both series, as the gray stones\nhave also their smooth-stemmed, rectilinear, tape-like organism; but the\npoints of resemblance were too few and simple to justify the conclusion\nthat they were identical, and I have since ascertained that they were\nentirely different plants. The fucoid of the Caithness flagstones threw\noff, as I have shown, in the alternate order, numerous ribbon-like\nbranches or fronds; whereas the ribbon-like fronds or branches of the\nForfarshire plant rose by dozens from a common root, like the fronds of\nZostera, and somewhat resembled a scourge of cords fastened to a handle.\nContemporary with this organism of the gray flagstone formation, and\nthickly occupying the planes on which it rests, there occur fragments of\ntwisted stems, some of them from three to four inches in diameter\n(though represented by but mere films of carbonaceous matter), and\nirregularly streaked, or rather _wrinkled_, longitudinally, like the\nbark of some of our forest trees, though on a smaller scale. With these\nwe find in considerable abundance irregularly-shaped patches, also of\ncarbonaceous matter, reticulated into the semblance of polygonal, or, in\nsome instances, egg-shaped meshes, and which remind one of pieces of ill\nwoven lace. When first laid open, these meshes are filled each with a\ncarbonaceous speck; and, from their supposed resemblance, in the\naggregated form, to the eggs of the frog in their albuminous envelop,\nthe quarriers term them \"puddock [frog] spawn.\" The slabs in which they\noccur, thickly covered over with their vegetable impressions, did\ncertainly remind me, when I first examined them some fifteen years ago,\nof the bottom of some stagnant ditch beside some decaying hedge, as it\nappears in middle spring, when paved with fragments of dead branches and\nwithered grass, and mottled with its life-impregnated patches of the\ngelid substance regarding which a provincial poet tells his readers, in\nclassical Scotch, that\n\n \"Puddock-spue is fu' o' e'en,\n An' every e'e 's a pu-head.\"[49]\n\nHigher authorities than the quarriers,--among the rest, the late Dr.\nMantell,--have been disposed to regard these polygonal markings as the\nfossilized spawn of ancient Batrachians; but there now seems to be\nevidence enough from which to conclude that they are the remains, not of\nthe eggs of an animal, but of the seed of a plant. Such was the view\ntaken many years ago by Dr. Fleming,--the original discoverer, let me\nadd, of fossils both in those Upper and Middle Old Red Sandstone\ndeposits that lie in Scotland to the south of the Grampians. \"These\norganisms,\" we find him saying, in a paper published in \"Cheek's\nEdinburgh Journal\" (1831), \"occur in the form of circular flat patches,\nnot equalling an inch in diameter, and composed of numerous smaller\ncontiguous pieces. They are not unlike what might be expected to result\nfrom a compressed berry, such as the bramble or the rasp. As, however,\nthey are found adjacent to the narrow leaves of gramineous [looking]\nvegetables, and chiefly in clay slate, originally lacustrine silt, it is\nprobable that they constituted the conglobate panicles of extinct\nspecies of the genus Junicus or Sparzanium.\" From specimens subsequently\nfound by Dr. Fleming, and on which he has erected his species _Parka\ndecipiens_, it seems evident that the nearly circular bodies (which in\nall the better preserved instances circumscribe the small polygonal\nones) were set in receptacles somewhat resembling the receptacle or\ncalyx of the strawberry or rasp. Judging from one of the specimens, this\ncalyx appears to have consisted of five pieces, which united in a\ncentral stem, and were traversed by broad irregularly diverging striae.\nAnd the spawn-like patches of Carmylie appear to be simply ill preserved\nspecimens of this fruit, whatever its true character, in which the\nminute circular portions, divested of the receptacle and stem, had been\nthrown into irregular forms by the joint agency of pressure and decay.\nThe great abundance of these organisms,--for so abundant are they, that\nvisitors to the Carmylie quarries find they can carry away with them as\nmany specimens as they please,--may be regarded as of itself indicative\nof a vegetable origin.[50] It is not in the least strange, however, that\nthey should have been taken for patches of spawn. The large-grained\nspawn of fishes, such as the lump-fish, salmon, or sturgeon, might be\nreadily enough mistaken, in even the recent state, for the detached\nspherical-seed vessels of fruit, such as the bramble-berry, the\nstone-bramble, or the rasp. \"Hang it!\" I once heard a countryman\nexclaim, on helping himself at table to a spoonful of Caviare, which he\nhad mistaken for a sweet-meat, and instantly, according to Milton, \"with\nsputtering noise rejected,\"--\"Hang it for nasty stuff!--I took it for\nbramble berry jam.\"\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 121.\n\nPARKA DECIPIENS.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 122.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 123.]\n\nAlong with these curious remains Dr. Fleming found an organism which in\nform somewhat resembles the spike of one of the grasses, save that the\nbetter preserved bracts terminate in fan or kidney-shaped leaflets, with\na simple venation radiating from the base. It is probably a fern, more\nminute in its pinnules than even our smallest specimens of true\nmaidenhair. Its stipes, however, seems proportionally stouter than that\nof any of the smaller ferns with which I am acquainted. But the state of\nkeeping of the specimen is not good, nor do I know that another has yet\nbeen found. Further, in the same beds Dr. Fleming found a curious\nnondescript vegetable, or rather part of a vegetable, with smooth narrow\nstems, resembling those of the smooth-stemmed organism of the Caithness\nflagstones, but unlike it in the circumstance that its detached nearly\nparallel stalks anastomose with each other by means of cross branches,\nthat unite them in the middle, somewhat in the style of the Siamese\ntwins. I have heard the doctor suggest, but know not whether he has\nplaced the remark on record, that these parallel stems may have been but\nthe internal fibres of some larger plant, whose more succulent portions\nhave disappeared; and certainly, while such instances of anastomosis are\nrare among the _stems_ of plants, they are common enough among their\n_internal fibres_, as all who have examined the macerated _debris_ of a\nkitchen-garden or a turnip-field must have had occasion to remark. We\nsometimes, however, find cases of anastomosis among the stems of even\nthe higher plants. I have seen oftener than once, in neglected hawthorn\nhedges, the branch of one plant entering into the stem of another, and\nbecoming incorporated with its substance; and we are told by Professor\nBalfour, that this kind of chance adhesion is often seen in the branches\nof the ivy; and that not unfrequently, by a similar process, the roots\nof contiguous trees are united. Nor does it seem improbable, that what\noccasionally takes place among the higher plants of the present time may\nhave been common among some of the comparatively low plants of so\nancient a period as that of the Middle Old Red Sandstone. This formation\nof the gray tilestones has furnished one vegetable organism apparently\nhigher in the scale than those just described, in a well marked\nLepidodendron, which exhibits, like the Araucarian of the Lower Old Red,\nthough less distinctly, the internal structure. It was found about\nsixteen years ago in a pavement quarry near Clockbriggs,--the last\nstation on the Aberdeen and Forfar Railway as the traveller approaches\nthe town of Forfar from the north. I owe my specimen of this ancient\nLepidodendron to Mr. William Miller, banker, Dundee, an accomplished\ngeologist, who has taken no little trouble in determining its true\nhistory. He has ascertained that it occurred deep in the rock,\nseventy-one feet from the surface; that the beds which rested over it\nwere composed, in the descending order, first, of a conglomerate thirty\nfeet thick; secondly, of a red rock four feet thick; thirdly, of\ntwenty-eight feet of the soft shaly substance known to the quarriers as\ncaulm; and fourthly, of more than nine feet of gray pavement,\nimmediately under which, in a soft, argillaceous stratum, lay the\norganism. It was about four feet in length, bulged out at the lower end\ninto a bulb-like protuberance, which may have been, however, merely an\naccidental result of its state of keeping; and threw off, at an acute\nangle, two branches about a foot from the top. It was covered with a\nbark of brittle coal, which is, however, wanting in all the fragments\nthat have been preserved; and was resolved internally into a brown\ncalcareous substance of about the hardness of ordinary marble, and very\nmuch resembling that into which the petrifactive agencies have\nconsolidated the fossil trees of Granton and Craigleith. From the\ndecorticated condition of the surviving fragments, and the imperfect\npreservation of the interior structure, in all save the central portions\nof its transverse sections, it yields no specific marks by which to\ndistinguish it; but enough remains in its irregular network of cells,\ndevoid of linear arrangement, and untraversed by medullary rays, to\ndemonstrate its generic standing as a Lepidodendron.\n\n[It has been questioned whether the lower place in the Old Red System\nshould be assigned to the flagstones of Caithness and Ross, with their\ncharacteristic Dipterus and Coccosteus beds, or to the gray tilestones\nof Forfar and Kincardineshires, with their equally characteristic\nCephalaspis. The evidence on the point is certainly not so conclusive as\nI deemed it fifteen years ago, when our highest authority on the subject\nnot only regarded the tilestone of the Silurian regions of England as a\nmember of the Old Red Sandstone (an arrangement which I am still\ndisposed to deem the true one), but also held further, that there had\nbeen detected in this formation near Downtown Castle, Herefordshire,\nbroken remains of _Dipterus macrolepidotus_, one of the best marked\nichthyolites of the flagstones of Caithness and Orkney. A great and\nunbroken series of fossiliferous rocks, with Dipterus at its base,\nCephalaspis in its medial spaces, and Holoptychius at its top, might\nwell be regarded as the analogue of the Old Red of Scotland, with the\nCaithness flagstones ranged at its bottom, the Cephalaspis beds of\nForfarshire placed in its middle, and the Holoptychius beds of Scot-Crag\nand Clashbinnie on its upper horizon; but since that time the tilestones\nhave been transferred to the Upper Silurian division of rocks, and the\nevidence furnished by their supposed Dipterus has not been confirmed.\nAnd as the Old Red Sandstones of Scotland have no true fossiliferous\nbase, but rest on primary rocks both to the south and north of the\nGrampians, it may be regarded as in some degree a moot point whether the\nlowest fossiliferous beds to the north be older or newer than those to\nthe south, or, what is quite possible, of the same age. Provisionally,\nhowever, I have arranged my paper on the supposition that the Coccostean\nformation of the north is the lowest and oldest of the three; and this\nfrom the following considerations. In the first place, the Coccosteus\nand its contemporaries appear in the north at a very short distance\nabove the base of the system. I have disinterred an Osteolepis from a\nfish bed near Cromarty only thirty-three feet over the great\nconglomerate, and only a hundred and twenty-nine feet over the granitic\ngneiss beneath; whereas the Cephalaspis beds occur high above the\nprimary base of the system in the south,--at some distance over even the\nthick conglomerate of Stonehaven and Dunnottar; and under this\nconglomerate, as shown in the section furnished by the valley of the\nNorth Esk, there lies a pale red sandstone member of the system,\nestimated by Colonel Imrie at seven hundred and eighty feet in\nthickness. The conglomerate itself he estimates at twelve hundred feet.\nAdopting as correct Colonel Imrie's section, taken along the banks of\nthe North Esk,--and the colonel was unquestionably a truthful\nobserver,--the Cephalaspis beds of the south lie nearly two thousand\n(nineteen hundred and eighty) feet above the Azoic slates on which the\nOld Red Sandstone of Forfarshire rests, whereas the Coccosteus and\nOsteolepis beds of the north lie only one hundred and twenty-nine feet\nover the Azoic gneiss on which the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty rests.\nThere is thus at least _room_ in the south for an underlying\nfossiliferous formation between that of the Cephalaspis and the base of\nthe system, but none in the north beneath that of the Coccosteus and its\nbase. In the north we find the _room_ lying above, between the\nCoccostean and Holoptychian formations, and represented by that great\nunfossiliferous deposit of pale sandstone to which the hills of Hoy and\nthe rocks of Duncansbay Head and of Tarbet Ness belong. Further, in the\nsecond place, while the upper or Holoptychian formation is found\n_directly_ overlying that of the Coccosteus in only one\nlocality,--Moray,--we find it directly overlying that of the Cephalaspis\nin _two_ widely separated localities;--in the vast band of Old Red which\nruns diagonally across the island from sea to sea, parallel to the\nGrampian chain, and in the immensely developed Red Sandstones of England\nand Wales. And it is of course more probable that the two corroborative\ninstances should represent the natural succession of the formations, and\nthe single instance the accidental gap in the scale consequent on the\nmissing formation, than that, _vice versa_, the solitary instance should\nrepresent the natural succession, while the two mutually corroborative\nones should represent, in localities widely apart, the mere accident of\nthe gap. But, in the third place, I attach more weight to a conclusion\nfounded on the positive character of the groups of organic remains by\nwhich the three great formations of the Old Red System are\ncharacterized, than I do to either of these considerations. The\norganisms of the Cephalaspian deposits differ _generically_, and in\ntheir whole aspect, from both those of the Coccostean and Holoptychian\nformations; whereas the organisms of the Coccostean formations, while\nthey resemble generically and in the group those of the Holoptychian\none, mainly differ from them _specifically_. The extreme _generic_\ndifference in the one case argues evidently a great difference in\n_condition_,--the lesser specific difference in the other, a great\ndifference in point _of time_. The Cephalaspian formation might, as a\nfresh water formation, be nearly contemporary with either of the other\ntwo, or, as seems more probable, interposed between them; while they\nthemselves, on the other hand, generically similar and decidedly marine\nin their character, must have been so widely separated in time, that all\nthe species of the lower group became extinct ere those of the upper one\nhad been ushered into being. And such are some of the considerations\nthat still lead me, notwithstanding the failure of previous evidence, to\nhold, at least, provisionally, that our Scottish flagstones to the north\nof the Grampians occupy a lower horizon than our Scottish tilestones to\nthe south. It must, however, be stated, on the other hand, that the\ncrustaceans of the gray tilestones of Forfar and Kincardine not a little\nresemble those of the Upper Silurian and red tilestone beds of England;\nand that, judging from the ichthyodorulites found in both, their fishes\nmust have been at least generically allied. The crustaceans of the upper\nSilurian of Lesmahagow, too, seem certainly much akin to those of the\nForfarshire tilestones.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 124.\n\nCYCLOPTERUS HIBERNICUS.]\n\nAbove this gray tilestone formation lies the Upper Old Red Sandstone,\nwith its peculiar group of ichthyic organisms, none of which seem\nspecially identical with those of either the Caithness or the\nForfarshire beds. For it is an interesting circumstance, suggestive\nsurely of the vast periods which must have elapsed during its\ndeposition, that the great Old Red System has, as I have just said, its\nthree distinct platforms of organic existence, each wholly different\nfrom the others. Generically and in the group, however, the Upper fishes\nmuch more closely resemble, I repeat, the fishes of the Lower or\nCaithness and Cromarty platform, than they do those of the Forfarshire\nand Kincardine one. The vegetable remains of the Upper formation in\nScotland are both rare and ill preserved. I have seen what I deemed\nfucoidal markings dimly impressed on the planes of some of the strata,\nnot in the carbonaceous form so common in the other two formations, but\nas mere colored films of a deeper red than the surrounding matrix.\nFurther, I have detected in the same beds, and existing in the same\nstate, fragments of a striated organism, which may have formed part of\neither a true calamite, like those of the Coal Measures, or of some such\nstriated but jointless vegetable as that of the Lower Old Red of Thurso\nand Lerwick.[51] With these markings ferns are occasionally found; and\nto one of these, from the light which it throws on the true place in the\nscale of a series of deposits in a sister country, there attaches no\nlittle interest. I owe my specimen to Mr. John Stewart of Edinburgh, who\nlaid it open in a micaceous red sandstone in the quarry of Prestonhaugh,\nnear Dunse, where it is associated with some of the better known\nichthyic organisms of the Upper Old Red Sandstone, such as _Pterichthys\nmajor_ and _Holoptychius Nobilissimus_. Existing as but a deep red film\nin the rock, with a tolerably well defined outline, but without trace of\nthe characteristic venation on which the fossil botanist, in dealing\nwith the ferns, founds his generic distinctions, I could only determine\nthat it was either a Cyclopterus or Neuropterus. My collection was\nvisited, however, by the late lamented Edward Forbes, only a few weeks\nbefore his death; and he at once recognized in my Berwickshire fern, so\nunequivocally an organism of the Upper Old Red, the _Cyclopterus\nHibernicus_ of those largely developed beds of yellow sandstone which\nform so marked a feature in the geology of the south of Ireland, and\nwhose true place, whether as Upper Old Red or Lower Carboniferous, has\nbeen the subject of so much controversy. I had been previously\nintroduced by Professor Forbes, in the Museum of Economic Geology in\nJermyn Street, London, to an interesting collection of plants from these\nyellow beds, and had an opportunity afforded me of examining the only\nichthyic organism hitherto found associated with them; and was struck,\nthough I could not identify its species, with its peculiarly Old Red\naspect; but the evidence of the Cyclopterus is of course more conclusive\nthan that of the fish; and we may, I think, legitimately conclude, that\nin Ireland, as in our own country, it was a contemporary of the great\nPterichthys (_P. major_),--the hugest, and at least one of the last, of\nhis race,--and gave its rich green to the hill sides of what is still\nthe Emerald Island during the latter ages of the Old Red Sandstone, and\nere the Carboniferous period had yet begun. The _Cyclopterus\nHibernicus_, as shown both by the Prestonhaugh specimen and those of\nIreland, was a bipinnate fern of very considerable size,--probably a\ntree fern. Its pinnae, opposite in the lower part of the frond, are\nalternate in the upper; while its leaflets, which are of a\nsub-rhomboidal form, and so closely ranged as to impinge on each other,\nare at least generally alternate in their arrangement throughout. Among\nliving plants it seems most nearly represented by a South American\nspecies,--_Didymocloena pulcherrima_,--one of the smaller tree ferns.\nThe leaves of this graceful species are bipinnate, like those of the\nfossil; and the pinnae (thickly set with simple, alternately arranged\nleaflets) are opposite in the lower part of the frond, and alternate in\nthe upper. Widely as they are separated in time, the recent South\nAmerican Didymocloena and the Old Red Sandstone Cyclopterus, that\npassed into extinction ere the times of the Coal, might be ranged\ntogether, so far at least as appears from their forms, as kindred\nspecies. It were very desirable that we had a good monograph of the\nIrish Old Red plants, the contemporaries of the latter, as the\ncompletest and best preserved representatives of the Middle Palaeozoic\nflora yet found. Sir Roderick Murchison has figured a single pinnae of\nthis Cyclopterus in his recently published \"Siluria;\" and Sir Charles\nLyell, both that and one of its contemporary Lepidodendra, in the last\nedition of his \"Elements.\" These interesting fragments, however, serve\nbut to excite our curiosity for more. When urging Professor Edward\nForbes on the subject, ere parting from him for, alas! what proved to be\nthe last time, he intimated an intention of soon taking it up; but I\nfear his purposed monograph represents only one of many works, important\nto science, which his untimely death has arrested for mayhap long years\nto come.\n\nIn the uppermost beds of the Upper Old Red formation in Scotland, which\nare usually of a pale or light yellow color, the vegetable remains again\nbecome strongly carbonaceous, but their state of preservation continues\nbad,--too bad to admit of the determination of either species or genera;\nand not until we rise a very little beyond the system do we find the\nremains of a flora either rich or well preserved. But very remarkable is\nthe change which at this stage at once occurs. We pass at a single\nstride from great poverty to great wealth. The suddenness of the change\nseems suited to remind one of that experienced by the voyager,\nwhen,--after traversing for many days some wide expanse of ocean,\nunvaried save by its banks of floating sea weed, or, where occasionally\nand at wide intervals, he picks up some leaf-bearing bough, or marks\nsome fragment of drift weed go floating past,--he enters at length the\nsheltered lagoon of some coral island, and sees all around the deep\ngreen of a tropical vegetation descending in tangled luxuriance to the\nwater's edge,--tall, erect ferns, and creeping lycopodiaceae, and the\npandanus, with its aerial roots and its screw-like clusters of narrow\nleaves, and, high over all, tall palms, with their huge pinnate fronds,\nand their curiously aggregated groups of massive fruit. And yet the\nmore meagre vegetation of the earlier time is not without its special\ninterest. The land plants of the Old Red Sandstone seem to compose, all\nover the world, the most ancient of the terrestrial floras. It was held\nonly a few years ago, that the Silurians of the United States had their\nplants allied to the Lepidodendron. But the group in which these occur\nhas since been transferred from the Upper Silurian to the Old Red\nSystem; and we find it expressly stated by Professor H. D. Rogers, in\nhis valuable contribution to the \"Physical Atlas\" (second edition,\n1856), that \"the Cadent [or Lower Old Red] strata are the oldest\nAmerican formations in which remains of a true terrestrial vegetation\nhave yet been discovered.\" It has been shown, too, by Sir Roderick\nMurchison, that the supposed Silurian plants of Oporto are in reality\nCarboniferous, and owe their apparent position to a reverse folding of\nthe strata. I have already referred to the solitary spore-cases of the\nLudlow Rocks; and beneath these rocks, says Sir Roderick (1854), \"no\nremains of plants have been discovered which are recognizably of\nterrestrial origin.\" Scanty, too, as the terrestrial flora of the Old\nRed Sandstone everywhere is, we find it exhibiting very definitely the\nleading Palaeozoic features. Its prevailing plants are the ferns and\ntheir apparent allies. It has in our own country, as has been just\nshown, its ferns, its lepidodendra, its striated plants allied to the\ncalamites, and its decided araucanite; in America, in the Cadent series,\nit had its \"plants allied to ferns and lepidodendra;\" and in the\nDevonian basin of Sabero in Spain, its characteristic organisms are, a\nlepidodendron (_L. Chemungensis_), and a very peculiar fern\n(_Sphenopteris laxus_).[52] But while in its main features it resembled\nthe succeeding flora of the Carboniferous period, it seems in all its\nforms to have been specifically distinct. It was the independent flora\nof an earlier creation than that to which we owe the coal. For the\nmeagreness of the paper in which I have attempted to describe it as it\noccurs in Scotland, I have but one apology to offer. My lecture contains\nbut little; but then, such is the scantiness of the materials on which I\nhad to work, that it could not have contained much: if, according to the\ndramatist, the \"amount be beggarly,\" it is because the \"boxes are\nempty.\" Partly, apparently, from the circumstance that the organisms of\nthis flora were ill suited for preservation in the rocks, and partly\nbecause, judging from what appears, the most ancient lands of the globe\nwere widely scattered and of narrow extent, this oldest of the floras is\neverywhere the most meagre.\n\n\n\n\nLECTURE TWELFTH.\n\nON THE LESS KNOWN FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLAND.\n\nPART II.\n\n\nIn the noble flora of the Coal Measures much still remains to be done in\nScotland. Our Lower Carboniferous rocks are of immense development; the\nLimestones of Burdiehouse, with their numerous terrestrial plants, occur\nmany hundred feet beneath our Mountain Limestones; and our list of\nvegetable species peculiar to these lower deposits is still very\nincomplete. Even in those higher Carboniferous rocks with which the many\ncoal workings of the country have rendered us comparatively familiar,\nthere appears to be still a good deal of the new and the unknown to\nrepay the labor of future exploration. It was only last year that Mr.\nGourlay[53] of this city (Glasgow) added to our fossil flora a new\nVolkmannia from the coal field of Carluke; and I detected very recently\nin a neighboring locality (the Airdrie coal field), though in but an\nindifferent state of keeping, what seems to be a new and very peculiar\nfern. It presents at first sight more the appearance of a Cycadaceous\nfrond than any other vegetable organism of the Carboniferous age which I\nhave yet seen. From a mid stem there proceed at right angles, and in\nalternate order, a series of sessile, lanceolate, acute leaflets, nearly\ntwo inches in length by about an eighth part of an inch in breadth, and\nabout three lines apart. Each is furnished with a slender midrib; and,\nwhat seems a singular, though not entirely unique, feature in a fern,\ntheir edges are densely hirsute, and bristle with thick, short hair,\nnearly as stiff as prickles. The venation is not distinctly preserved;\nbut enough remains to show that it must have been peculiar,--apparently\nradiating outwards from a series of centres ranged along the midrib.\nNay, the apparent hairs seem to be but prolongations of the nerves\ncarried beyond the edges of the leaflets. There is a Stigmaria, too, on\nthe table, very ornate in its sculpture, of which I have now found three\nspecimens in a quarry of the Lower Coal Measures near Portobello, that\nhas still to be figured and described. In this richly ornamented\nStigmaria the characteristic areolae present the ordinary aspect. Each,\nhowever, forms the centre of a sculptured star, consisting of from\neighteen to twenty rays, or rather the centre of a sculptured flower of\nthe composite order, resembling a meadow daisy or sea-aster. The minute\npetals,--if we are to accept the latter comparison,--are of an\nirregularly lenticular form, generally entire, but in some instances\nranged in two, or even three, concentric lines round the depressed\ncentre of the areolae; while the interspaces outside are occupied by\nnumerous fretted markings, resembling broken fragments of petals, which,\nthough less regularly ranged than the others, are effective in imparting\na richly ornate aspect to the whole.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 125.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 126.\n\nSTIGMARIA.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 127.\n\nTHE SAME, MAGNIFIED.]\n\nEver since the appearance, in 1846, of Mr. Binney's paper on the\nrelations of stigmaria to sigillaria as roots and stems, I have been\nlooking for distinguishing specific marks among the former; and, failing\nfor a time to find any, I concluded that, though the stems of the\nsigillarian genus were variously sculptured, their roots might in all\nthe species have been the same. The present rich specimen does seem,\nhowever, to bear the specific stamp; and, from the peculiar character of\nthe termination of another specimen on the table, I am inclined to hold\nthat the stigmaria may have borne the appearance rather of underground\nstems than of proper roots. This specimen suddenly terminates, at a\nthickness of two and a half inches, in a rounded point, abrupt as that\nof one of the massier cacti; and every part of the blunt sudden\ntermination is thickly fretted over with the characteristic areolae. The\nslim tubular rootlets must have stuck out on every side from the obtuse\nrounded termination of this underground stem, as we see, on a small\nscale, the leaflets of our larger club mosses sticking out from what are\ncomparatively the scarce less abrupt terminations of their creeping\nstems and branches. In at least certain stages of growth the sub-aerial\nstems of Lepidodendron also terminated abruptly (see Fig. 24); and the\nonly terminal point of Ulodendron I ever saw was nearly as obtuse as\nthat of Stigmaria.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 128.\n\nSTIGMARIA.]\n\nI have been long desirous of acquainting myself with the true character\nof this latter plant (Ulodendron), but hitherto my labors have not been\nvery successful. A specimen of _Ulodendron minus_, however, now on the\ntable, which I disinterred several years ago from out a bed of\nferruginous shale in the Water of Leith, a little above the village of\nColinton, exhibits several peculiarities which, so far as I know, have\nnot yet been described. Though rather less than ten inches in length by\nabout three inches in breadth, it exhibits no fewer than seven of those\nround, beautifully sculptured scars, ranged rectilinearly along the\ntrunk, by which this ancient genus is so remarkably characterized. It\nis covered with small, sharply relieved, obovate scales, most of them\nfurnished with an apparent midrib, and with their edges slightly turned\nup; from which peculiarities, and their great beauty, they seem suited\nto remind the architect of that style of sculpture adopted by Palladio\nfrom his master Vitruvius, when, in ornamenting the Corinthian and\ncomposite torus, lie fretted it into closely imbricated obovate leaves.\nThese scales are ranged in elegant curves, not unlike those ornamental\ncurves,--a feat of the turning-lathe,--which one sees roughening the\nbacks of ladies' watches of French manufacture. My fossil exhibited, as\nit lay in the rock, what I never saw in any other specimen,--a true\nbranch sticking out at an acute angle from the stem, and fretted with\nscales of a peculiar form, which in one little corner appear also on the\nmain stem, but which differ so considerably from those of the obovate,\napparently imbricated type, that, if found on a separate specimen, they\nmight be held to indicate difference of species. It has been shown by\nMessrs. Lindley and Hutton, on the evidence of one of the specimens\nfigured in the \"Fossil Flora,\" that the line of circular scars so\nremarkable in this genus, and which is held to be the impressions made\nby a rectilinear range of almost sessile cones, existed in duplicate on\neach stem,--a row occurring on two of the sides of the plant directly\nopposite each other. The branch in my specimen struck off from one of\nthe intermediate sides at right angles with the cones. We already know\nthat these were ranged in one plane; nor, if the branches were ranged in\none plane also,--certainly the disposition of branch which would consort\nbest with such a disposition of cone,--would the arrangement be without\nexample in the vegetable kingdom as it even now exists. \"Our host,\" says\nthe late Captain Basil Hall, in his brief description of the island of\nJava, \"carried us to see a singular tree, which had been brought from\nMadagascar, called familiarly the _Traveller's Friend_, Urania being, I\nbelieve, its botanic name. We found it to differ from most other trees\nin having all its branches in one plane, like the sticks of a fan or the\nfeathers of a peacock's tail.\" I may further mention, that the specimen\nwhich showed me the abrupt cactus-like terminations of Ulodendron\nrepeated the evidence of Messrs. Lindley and Hutton's specimen regarding\nthe arrangement of the cone scars on opposite sides, and showed also\nthat these scars ascended to within little more than an inch of the top\nof the plant.\n\nAs there are cases in which the _position_ of a fossil plant may add,\nfrom its bearing on geologic history, a threefold interest to the fossil\nitself, regarded simply as an organism, I may be permitted to refer to a\ncircumstance already recorded, that there was a well marked Bechera\ndetected about two years ago by Dr. Macbean of Edinburgh, an\naccomplished naturalist and careful observer, in a thin argillaceous\nstratum, interposed, in the Queen's Park, between a bed of columnar\nbasalt and a bed of trap-tuff, in the side of the eminence occupied atop\nby the ruins of St. Anthony's Chapel. The stratified bed in which it\noccurs seems, from its texture and color, to be composed mainly of\ntrappean materials, but deposited and arranged in water; and abounds in\ncarbonaceous markings, usually in so imperfect a state of keeping that,\nthough long known to some of the Edinburgh geologists, not a single\nspecies, or even genus, were they able to determine. All that could be\nsaid was, that they seemed fucoidal, and might of course belong to any\nage. The Bechera, however, shows that the deposit is one of the Lower\nCoal Measures. There was found associated with it a tooth of a\nCarboniferous Holoptychius, whose evidence bore out the same conclusion;\nand both fossils derive an importance from the light which they throw\non the age of the bed of tuff which underlies the stratum in which they\noccur. At least this trap-rock must be as old as the fossiliferous layer\nwhich rests upon it, or rather, as shown by its underlying position, a\nlittle older: it must be a trap of the earlier Carboniferous period.\nFurther, it must have been, not injected among the strata, but poured\nout over the surface,--in all probability covered at the time by water;\nand there must have formed over it, ere another overflow of trap took\nplace, a thin sedimentary bed charged with fragments of the plants of\nthe period, and visited, when in the course of deposition, by some of\nits fishes.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 129.\n\nSPHENOPTERIS BIFIDA.\n\n(_Burdiehouse._)]\n\nEven among the vegetable organisms of our Coal Measures, already\npartially described and figured, much remains to be accomplished in the\nway of restoration. Portions of _Sphenopteris bifida_, for instance, a\nfern of the Lower Carboniferous rocks have been repeatedly figured; but\na beautiful specimen on the table, which exhibits what seems to be the\ncomplete frond of the plant, will give, I doubt not, fresh ideas\nrespecting the general framework, if I may so speak, of this skeleton\nfern, to even those best acquainted with the figures; and an elaborate\nrestoration of its contemporary, _Sphenopteris affinis_ (see\nfrontispiece) which I completed from a fine series of specimens in my\ncollection, will be new, as a whole, to those most familiar with this\ncommonest of the Burdiehouse fossils. From comparisons instituted\nbetween minute portions of this Sphenopteris and a recent fern, it has\nbeen held considerably to resemble a Davallia of the West Indies;\nwhereas it will be seen from the entire frond that it was characterized\nby very striking peculiarities, exemplified, say some of our higher\nbotanical authorities, to whom I have submitted my restoration, by no\nfern that now lives. The frond of _Davallia Canariensis_, though unlike\nin its venation, greatly resembles in general outline one of the larger\npinnae of _Sphenopteris affinis_; but these pinnae form only a small part\nof the entire frond of this Sphenopteris. It was furnished with a stout\nleafless rachis, or leaf-stalk, exceedingly similar in form to that of\nour common brake (_Pteris aquilina_). So completely, indeed, did it\nexhibit the same club-like, slightly bent termination, the same gradual\ndiminution in thickness, and the same smooth surface, that one\naccustomed to see this part of the bracken used as a thatch can scarce\ndoubt that the stipes of Sphenopteris would have served the purpose\nequally well; nay, that were it still in existence to be so employed, a\nroof thatched with it, on which the pinnae and leaflets were concealed,\nand only the club-like stems exposed, row above row, in the style of the\nfern-thatcher, could not be distinguished, so far as form and size went,\nfrom a roof thatched with brake. High above the club-like termination of\nthe rachis the stem divided into two parts, each of which, a little\nhigher up, also divided into two; these in turn, in at least the larger\nfronds, also bifurcated; and this law of bifurcation,--a marked, mayhap\nunique, peculiarity in a fern,--regulated all the larger divisions of\nthe frond, though its smaller pinnae and leaflets were alternate. It was\na further peculiarity of the plant that, unlike the brake, it threw off,\nere the main divisions of its rachis took place, two pinnae placed in the\nalternate order, and of comparatively small size. The frond of\n_Sphenopteris bifida_ was of a more simple form than that of its larger\ncongener, and not a little resembled a living fern of New Zealand,\n_Coenopteris vivipara_. It was tripinnate; its secondary stems were\nplaced directly opposite on the midrib, but its tertiary ones in the\nalternate arrangement; and its leaflets which were also alternate, were\nas rectilinear and slim as mere veins, or as the thread-like leaflets of\nasparagus. Like the fronds of Coenopteris when not in seed, it must\nhave presented the appearance of the mere macerated framework of a fern.\nI need scarce remark that, independently of the scientific interest\nwhich must attach to restorations of these early plants, they speak\npowerfully to the imagination, and supply it with materials from which\nto construct the vanished landscapes of the Carboniferous ages. From one\nsuch restored fern as the two now submitted to the Association, it is\nnot difficult to pass in fancy to the dank slopes of the ancient land of\nthe Lower Coal Measures, when they waved as thickly with graceful\nSphenopteres as our existing hill sides with the common brake; and when\nevery breeze that rustled through the old forests bent in mimic waves\ntheir slim flexible stems and light and graceful foliage.\n\nIn 1844, when Professor Nicol, of Marischal College, Aberdeen, appended\nto his interesting \"Guide to the Geology of Scotland,\" a list of the\nScottish fossils known at the time, he enumerated only two vegetable\nspecies of the Scotch Oolitic system,--_Equisetum columnare_ and\n_Pinites_ or _Peuce Eiggensis_; the former one of the early discoveries\nof our distinguished President, Sir Roderick Murchison; the latter, of\nthe late Mr. William Nicol of Edinburgh. Chiefly from researches in the\nLias of Eathie, near Cromarty, and in the Oolites of Sutherland and the\nHebrides, I have been enabled to increase the list from two to rather\nmore than fifty species,--not a great number, certainly, regarded as the\nsole representative of a flora; and yet it may be deemed comparatively\nnot a very small one by such as may remember, that in 1837, when Dr.\nBuckland published the second edition of his \"Bridgewater Treatise,\"\nAdolphe Brogniart had enumerated only seventy species of plants as\noccurring in all the Secondary formations of Europe, from the Chalk to\nthe Trias inclusive. In a paper such as the present I can of course do\nlittle more than just indicate a few of the more striking features of\nthe Scottish flora of the middle Secondary ages. Like that of the period\nof the true Coal, it had its numerous coniferous trees. As shown by the\nfossil woods of Helmsdale and Eigg, old Oolitic Scotland, like the\nScotland of three centuries ago, must have had its mighty forests of\npine;[54] and in one respect these trees seem to have more nearly\nresembled those of the recent pine forests of our country than the trees\nof the coniferous forests of the remote Carboniferous era. For while we\nscarce ever find a cone associated with the coniferous woods of the Coal\nMeasures,--Lindley and Hatton never saw but one from all the English\ncoal fields, and Mr. Alexander Bryson of Edinburgh, only one from all\nthe coal fields of Scotland,--tree-cones of at least four different\nspecies, more probably of five, are not rare in our Scottish deposits of\nthe Lias and Oolite. It seems not improbable that in the Carboniferous\ngenera Pinites, Pitus, and Anabathra, which approach but remotely to\naught that now exists, the place of the ligneous scaly cone may have\nbeen taken, as in the junipers and the yews, by a perishable berry;\nwhile the Pines and Araucarians of the Oolite were, like their congeners\nin recent times, in reality coniferous, that is, cone-bearing trees. It\nis another characteristic of these Secondary conifers, that while the\nwoods of the Palaeozoic periods exhibit often, like those of the\ntropics, none of the dense concentric lines of annual growth which mark\nthe reign of winter, these annual lines are scarce less strongly\nimpressed on the Oolitic woods than on those of Norway or of our own\ncountry in the present day. In some of the fossil trees these yearly\nrings are of great breadth; they seem to have sprung up in the rich soil\nof sheltered hollows and plains, and to have increased in diameter from\nhalf an inch to three quarters of an inch yearly; while in other trees\nof the same species the yearly zones of growth are singularly\nnarrow,--in some instances little more than half a line in thickness.\nRooted on some exposed hill side, in a shallow and meagre soil, they\nincreased their diameter during the twelvemonth little more than a line\nin the severer seasons, and little more than an eighth part of an inch\neven when the seasons were most favorable. Further, whether the rings be\nlarge or small, we ordinarily find them occurring in the same specimens\nin groups of larger and smaller. In one of my Helmsdale specimens,\nindicative generally of rapid growth, there are four contiguous annual\nrings, which measure in all an inch and two twelfths across, while the\nfour contiguous rings immediately beside them measure only half an inch.\n\"If, at the present day,\" says a distinguished fossil botanist, \"a warm\nand moist summer produces a broader annual layer than a cold and dry\none, and if fossil plants exhibit such appearances as we refer in recent\nplants to a diversity of summers, then it is reasonable to suppose that\na similar diversity formerly prevailed.\" The same reasoning is of course\nas applicable to _groups_ of annual layers as to _single_ annual layers;\nand may we not venture to infer from the almost invariable occurrence of\nsuch groups in the woods of this ancient system, that that\nill-understood law of the weather which gives us in irregular\nsuccession groups of colder and warmer seasons, and whose operation, as\nBacon tells us, was first remarked in the provinces of the Netherlands,\nwas as certainly in existence during the ages of the Oolite as at the\npresent time?\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 130.\n\nCONIFERS?]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 131.\n\nCONIFER TWIGS.]\n\nTwigs which exhibit the foliage of these ancient conifers seem to be\nless rare in our Scotch deposits than in those of England of the same\nage. My collection contains fossil sprigs, with the slim needle-like\nleaves attached, of what seem to be from six to seven different\nspecies; and it is worthy of notice, that they resemble in the group\nrather the coniferae of the southern than those of the northern\nhemisphere. One sprig in my collection seems scarcely distinguishable\nfrom that of the recent _Altingia excelsa_; another, from that of the\nrecent _Altingia cunninghami_. Lindley and Hutton figure in their fossil\nflora a minute branch of _Dacrydium cupressinum_, in order to show how\nnearly the twigs of a large tree, from fifty to a hundred feet high, may\nresemble some of the \"fossils referable to Lycopodiaceae.\" More than one\nof the Oolitic twigs in my collection are of a resembling character, and\nmay have belonged either to cone-bearing trees or to club mosses.\nRespecting, however, the real character of at least one of the\nspecimens,--a minute branch from the Lias of Eathie, with the leaflets\nattached,--there can be no mistake. The thicker part of the stem is in\nsuch a state of keeping, that it presents to the microscope, in a sliced\npreparation, the internal structure, and exhibits, as in recent\nconiferous twigs of a year's growth, a central pith, a single ring of\nreticulated tissue arranged in lines that radiate outwards, and a thin\nlayer of enveloping bark. Nothing, then, can be more certain than that\nthis ancient twig, which must be accepted as representative of the\nfoliage of whole forests of the Secondary ages in Scotland, formed part\nof a conifer of the Lias; and the foliage of several of the other twigs,\nits contemporaries, though I have failed to demonstrate their true\ncharacter in the same way, bear a scarce less coniferous aspect. The\ncones of the period, from the circumstance that they are locked up in a\nhard limestone that clings closely around their scales, and from the\nfurther circumstance that the semi-calcareous lignite into which they\nare resolved is softer and less tenacious than the enclosing matrix,\npresent, when laid open, not their outer surfaces, but mere sections of\ntheir interior; and give, in consequence, save in their general\nproportions and outline, but few specific marks by which to distinguish\nthem. We see, however, in some cases in these sections what would be\notherwise unseen,--the flat naked seeds lying embedded in their hollow\nreceptacles between the scales, and in as perfect a state of keeping as\nthe seeds of recent pines that had ripened only a twelvemonth ago. Had\nnot the vitality of seeds its limits in time, like life of all other\nkinds, one might commit these perfect fossil germs to the soil, in the\nhope of seeing the old extinct forests called, through their agency, a\nsecond time into existence. Of three apparent species of cones which\noccur in the Eathie Lias, the smallest seems to have resembled in size\nand appearance that of the Scotch fir; the largest, which consisted from\nbottom to top, as seen in section, of from nine to ten scales, appears\nto have been more in the proportions of the oblong oval cones of the\nspruce family; while a cone of intermediate length, but of considerably\ngreater breadth, assumed the rounded form of the cones of the cedar. I\nhave found in the same deposit what seems to be the sprig of a conifer,\nwith four apparently embryo cones attached to it in the alternate order.\nThese are rather more sessile than the young cones of the larch; but the\naspect of the whole is that of a larch twig in early summer, when the\nminute and tender cones, possessed of all the beauty of flowers, first\nappear along its sides.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 132.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 133.\n\nZAMIA.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 134.\n\nZAMIA.]\n\nAmong conifers of the Pine and Araucarian type we mark the first\nappearance in this system, in at least Scotland, of the genus Thuja. One\nof the Helmsdale plants of this genus closely resembles the common Arbor\nVitae (_Thuja occidentalis_) of our gardens and shrubberies. It exhibits\nthe same numerous slim, thick-clustered branchlets, covered over by the\nsame minute, sessile, scale-like leaves; and so entirely reminds one of\nthe recent Thuja, that it seems difficult to conceive of it as the\nmember of a flora so ancient as that of the Oolite. But not a few of the\nOolitic plants in Scotland bear this modern aspect. The great\ndevelopment of its Cycadaceae,--an order unknown in our Coal\nMeasures,--also forms a prominent feature of the Oolitic flora. One of\nthe first known genera of this curious order,--the genus\nPterophyllum,--appears in the Trias. It distinctively marks the\ncommencement of the Secondary flora, and intimates that the once great\nPalaeozoic flora, after gradually waning throughout the Permian ages, and\nbecoming extinct at their close, had been succeeded by a vegetation\naltogether new. At least one of the Helmsdale forms of this family is\nidentical with a Yorkshire species already named and figured,--_Zamia\npectinata_: a well marked Zamia which occurs in the Lias of Eathie\nappears to be new. Its pinnate leaves were furnished with a strong woody\nmidrib, so well preserved in the rock, that it yields its internal\nstructure to the microscope. The ribbon-like pinnae or leaflets were\nrectilinear, retaining their full breadth until they united to the stem\nat right angles, but set somewhat awry; and, like several of the recent\nZamiae, they were striped longitudinally with cord-like lines. (Fig.\n133.) Even the mode of decay of this Zamia, as shown by the abrupt\ntermination of its leaflets, exactly resembled that of its existing\ncongeners. (Fig. 134.) The withered points of the pinnae of recent Zamiae\ndrop off as if clipped across with a pair of scissors; and in fossil\nfronds of this Zamia of the Lias we find exactly the same clipped-like\nappearance. (Fig. 135.) Another Scotch Zamia (Fig. 136), which occurs in\nthe Lower Oolite of Helmsdale, resembles the Eathie one in the breadth\nof its leaflets, but they are not wholly so rectilinear, diminishing\nslightly towards their base of attachment; they are ranged, too, along\nthe stem or midrib, not at a right angle, but at an acute one; the line\nof attachment is not set awry, but on the general plane of the leaf; and\nthe midrib itself is considerably less massive and round. A third\nspecies from the same locality bears a general resemblance to the\nlatter; but the leaflets are narrower at the base, and, as the print\nindicates (Fig. 136), so differently attached to the stem, that from the\npressure in the rock most of them have become detached; while yet a\nfourth species (Fig. 137), very closely resembles a Zamia of the\nScarborough Oolite,--_Z. lanceolata_. The leaflets, however, contract\nmuch more suddenly from their greatest breadth than those of\n_lanceolata_, into a pseudo-footstalk; and the contraction takes place\nnot almost equally on both sides, as in that species, but almost\nexclusively on the upper side. And so, provisionally at least, this\nHelmsdale Zamia may be regarded as specifically new.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 135.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 136.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 137.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 138.\n\nCONE.]\n\nWith the leaves of the Eathie Zamia, we find, in this northern outlier\nof the Lias, cones of a peculiar form, which, like the leaves\nthemselves, are still unfigured and undescribed, and some of which could\nscarce have belonged to any coniferous tree. In one of these (Fig. 138),\nthe ligneous bracts or scales, narrow and long, and gradually tapering\ntill they assume nearly the awl-shaped form, cluster out thick from the\nbase and middle portions of the cone, and, like the involucral\nappendages of the hazel-nut, or the sepals of the yet unfolded rose-bud,\nsweep gracefully upwards to the top, where they present at their margins\nminute denticulations. In another species the bracts are broader,\nthinner, and more leaf-like: they rise, too, more from the base of the\ncone, and less from its middle portions; so that the whole must have\nresembled an enormous bud, with strong woody scales, some of which\nextended from base to apex. The first described of these two species\nseems to have been more decidedly a _cone_ than the other; but it is\nprobable that they were both connecting links between such leathern\nseed-bearing flowers as we find developed in _Cycas revoluta_, and such\nseed-bearing cones as we find exemplified in _Zamia pungens_. The\nbud-like cone, however, does not seem to have been that of a Cycadaceous\nplant, as it occupied evidently not a terminal position on the plant\nthat bore it, like the cones of Zamia or the flowers of Cycas, but a\nlateral one, like the lateral flowers of some of the Cactus tribe.\nAnother class of vegetable forms, of occasional occurrence in the\nHelmsdale beds, seems intermediate between the Cycadaceae and the ferns:\nat least, so near is the approach to the ordinary fern outline, while\nretaining the stiff ligneous character of Zamia, that it is scarce less\ndifficult to determine to which of the two orders of plants such\norganisms belonged, than to decide whether some of the slim graceful\nsprigs of foliage that occur in the rocks beside them belonged to the\nconifers or the club mosses. And I am informed by Sir Charles Lyell,\nthat (as some of the existing conifers bear a foliage scarce\ndistinguishable from that of Lycopodiaceae), so a recently discovered\nZamia is furnished with fronds that scarce differ from those of a fern.\nEven _Zamia pectinata_ may, as Sternberg remarks, have been a fern.\nLindley and Hutton place it merely provisionally among the Cycadaceae, in\ndeference to the judgment of Adolphe Brogniart, and point out its\nresemblance to _Polypodium pectinatum_; and a small Helmsdale frond\nwhich I have placed beside it bears the impress of a character scarce\nless equivocal. The flora of the Oolite was peculiarly a flora of\nintermediate forms.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 139.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 140.]\n\nWe recognize another characteristic of our Oolitic flora in its\nsimple-leaved fronds, in some of the species not a little resembling\nthose of the recent Scolopendrium, or Hart's-Tongue fern,--a form\nregarded by Adolphe Brogniart as peculiarly characteristic of his third\nperiod of vegetation. These simple ferns are, in the Helmsdale deposits,\nof three distinct types. There is first a lanceolate leaf, from two and\na half to three inches in length, of not unfrequent occurrence, which\nmay have formed, however, only one of the four leaflets, united by their\npseudo-footstalks, which compose the frond of Glossopteris,--a\ndistinctive Oolitic genus. There is next a simple ovate lanceolate\nleaf, from four to five and a half inches in length, which in form and\nvenation, and all save its _thrice_ greater size, not a little resembles\nthe leaflets of a Coal Measure neuropteris,--_N. acuminata_. And, in the\nthird place, there are the simple leaves that in general outline\nresemble, as I have said, the fronds of the recent Hart's-Tongue fern\n(_Scolopendrium vulgare_), except that their base is lanceolate, not\ncordate. Of these last there are two kinds in the beds, representative\nof two several species, or, as their difference in general aspect and\ndetail is very great, mayhap two several genera. The smaller of the two\nhas a slender midrib, depressed on its upper side, and flanked on each\nside by a row of minute, slightly elongated protuberances, but elevated\non the under side, and flanked by rows of small but well marked grooves,\nthat curve outwards to the edges of the leaf. The larger resemble a\nTaeniopteris of the English and Continental Oolites, save that its midrib\nis more massive, its venation less at right angles with the stem, its\nbase more elongated, and its size much greater. Some of the Helmsdale\nspecimens are of gigantic proportions. From, however, a description and\nfigure of a plant of evidently the same genus,--a Taeniopteris of the\nVirginian Oolite, given by Professor W.B. Rogers of the United\nStates,--I find that some of the American fronds are larger still. My\nlargest leaf from Helmsdale must have been nearly five inches in\nbreadth; and if its proportions were those of some of the smaller ones\nof apparently the same species from the same locality, it must have\nmeasured about thirty inches in length. But fragments of American leaves\nhave been found more than six inches in breadth, and whose length cannot\nhave fallen short of forty inches. The Taeniopteris, as its name bears,\nis regarded as a fern. From, however, the leathern-like thickness of\nsome of the Sutherland specimens,--from the great massiveness of their\nmidrib,--from the rectilinear simplicity of their fibres,--and, withal,\nfrom, in some instances, their great size,--I am much disposed to\nbelieve that in our Scotch, mayhap also in the American species, it may\nhave been the frond of some simple-leaved Cycas or Zamia. But the point\nis one which it must be left for the future satisfactorily to settle;\nthough provisionally I may be permitted to regard these leaves as\nbelonging to some Cycadaceous plant, whose fronds, in their venation\nand form, resembled the simple fronds of Scolopendrium, just as the\nleaves of some of its congeners resembled the fronds of the pinnate\nferns.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 141.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 142.]\n\nI have already referred to the close resemblance which certain\nCycadaceous genera bear to certain of the fern family. In at least two\nspecies of Pterophyllum,--_P. comptum_ and _P. minus_,--the divisions of\nthe leaflets seem little else than accidental rents in a simple frond;\nin _P. Nelsoni_ they are apparently _nothing_ more; and similar\ndivisions, evidently, however, the effect of accident, and less rounded\nat their extremities than in at least _P. comptum_, we find exhibited by\nsome of the Helmsdale specimens of Taeniopteris (See Fig. 142, p. 488.)\nBut whatever the nature of these simple fronds, they seem to impart much\nof its peculiar character, all the world over, to the flora of the\nOolitic ages.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 143.\n\nPECOPTERIS OBTUSIFOLIA.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 144.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 145.\n\nPACHYPTERIS.]\n\nThe compound ferns of the formation are numerous, and at least\nproportionally a considerable part of them seem identical in species\nwith those of the Oolite of England. (See Fig. 143.) Among these there\noccur _Pecopteris Whitbiensis_, _Pecopteris obtusifolia_, _Pecopteris\ninsignis_,--all well marked English species; with several others. It\nhas, besides, its apparent ferns, that seem to be new--(Fig. 144)--that\nare at least not figured in any of the fossil floras to which I have\naccess,--(Fig. 145),--such as a well defined Pachypteris, with leaflets\nbroader and rounder than the typical _P. lanceolata_, and a much stouter\nmidrib; a minute Sphenopteris too, and what seems to be a Phlebopteris,\nsomewhat resembling _P. propinqua_, but greatly more massive in its\ngeneral proportions. The equisetacea we find represented in the Brora\ndeposits by _Equisetum columnare_,--a plant the broken remains of which\noccur in great abundance, and which, as was remarked by our President\nmany years ago, in his paper on the Sutherlandshire Oolite, must have\nentered largely into the composition of the bed of lignite known as the\nBrora Coal. We find associated with it what seems to be the last of the\nCalamites,--_Calamites arenaceus_,--a name, however, which seems to have\nbeen bestowed both on this Oolitic plant and a resembling Carboniferous\nspecies. The deposit has also its Lycopodites, though, from their\nresemblance in foliage to the conifers, there exists that difficulty in\ndrawing the line between them to which I have already adverted. One of\nthese, however, so exactly resembles a lycopodite of both the Virginian\nand Yorkshire Oolite,--_L. uncifolius_,--that I cannot avoid regarding\nit as specifically identical; and it seems more than doubtful whether\nthe stem which I have placed among the conifers is not a lycopodite\nalso. It exhibits not only the general outline of the true club moss,\nbut, like the fossil club mosses too, it wants that degree of\nligniferous body in the rock which the coniferous fossils almost always\npossess. Yet another of the organisms of the deposit seems to have been\neither a lycopodite or a fern. Its leaflets are exceedingly minute, and\nset alternately on a stem slender as a hair,--circumstances in which it\nresembles some of the tiny lycopodites of the tropics, such as\n_Lycopodium apodium_. I must mention, however, that the larger plant of\nthe same beds which I have placed beside it, and which resembles it so\nclosely that my engraver finds it difficult to indicate any other\ndifference between them than that of size, appears to be a true fern,\nnot a lycopodium. To yet another vegetable organism of the system,--an\norganism which must be regarded, if I do not mistake its character, as\nat once very interesting and extraordinary, occurring as it does so low\nin the scale, and bearing an antiquity so high,--I shall advert, after a\npreliminary remark on a general characteristic of the flora to which it\nbelongs, but to which it seems to furnish a striking exception.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 146.\n\nPHLEBOPTERIS.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 147.]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 148.]\n\nFrom the disappearance of many of those anomalous types of the Coal\nMeasures which so puzzle the botanist, and the extensive introduction of\ntypes that still exist, we can better conceive of the general features\nand relations of the flora of the Oolite than of those of the earlier\nfloras. And yet the general result at which we arrive may be found not\nwithout its bearing on the older vegetations also. Throughout almost all\nthe families of this Oolitic flora, there seems to have run a curious\nbond of relationship, which, like those ties which bound together some\nof the old clans of our country, united them, high and low, into one\ngreat sept, and conferred upon them a certain wonderful unity of\ncharacter and appearance. Let us assume the ferns as our central group.\nThough less abundant than in the earlier creation of the Carboniferous\nsystem, they seem to have occupied, judging from their remains, very\nconsiderable space in the Oolitic vegetation; and with the ferns there\nwere associated in great abundance the two prevailing families of the\nPterides,--Equiseta and Lycopodia,--plants which, in most of our modern\ntreatises on the ferns proper, take their place as the fern allies. (See\nFig. 148.) Let us place these along two of the sides of a pentagon,--the\nLycopodia on the right side of the ferns, the Equiseta on the left;\nfurther, let us occupy the two remaining sides of the figure by the\nConiferae and the Cycadaceae,--placing the Coniferae on the side next the\nLycopodia, and the Cycadaceae, as the last added keystone of the\nerection, between these and the Equiseta. And now, let us consider how\nvery curious the links are which give a wonderful unity to the whole. We\nstill find great difficulty in distinguishing between the foliage of\nsome of even the existing club mosses and the conifers; and the ancient\nLepidodendra are very generally recognized as of a type intermediate\nbetween the two. Similar intermediate types, exemplified by extinct\nfamilies, united the conifers and the ferns. The analogy of _Kirchneria_\nwith the _Thinnfeldia_, says Dr. Braun, is very remarkable,\nnotwithstanding that the former is a fern, and that the latter is ranked\namong conifers. The points of resemblance borne by the conifers to the\nhuge Equiseta of the Oolitic period seem to have been equally striking.\nThe pores which traverse longitudinally the channelled grooves by which\nthe stems of our recent Equiseta are so delicately fluted, are said\nconsiderably more to resemble the discs of pines and araucarians than\nordinary stomata. Mr. Francis does not hesitate to say, in his work on\nBritish Ferns, that the relation of this special family to the Coniferae\nis so strong, both in external and internal structure, that it is not\nwithout some hesitation he places them among the fern allies; and it has\nbeen ascertained by Mr. Dawes, in his researches regarding the calamite,\nthat in its internal structure this apparent representative of Equiseta\nin the earlier ages of the world united \"a network of quadrangular\ntissue similar to that of Coniferae to other quadrangular cells arranged\nin perpendicular series,\" like the cells of plants of a humbler order.\nThe relations of the Cycadacean order to ferns on the one hand, and to\nthe Coniferae on the other, are equally well marked. As in the ferns, the\nvenation of its fronds is circinate, or scroll-like,--they have in\nseveral respects a resembling structure,--in at least one recent species\nthey have a nearly identical form; and fronds of this fern-like type\nseem to have been comparatively common during the times of the Oolite.\nOn the other hand, the Cycadaceae manifest close relations to the\nconifers. Both have their seeds originally naked; both are cone-bearing;\nboth possess discs on the sides of their cellules; and in both, in the\ntransverse section, these cellules are subhexagonal, and radiate from a\ncentre. Such were the very curious relations that united into one great\nsept the prevailing members of the Oolitic flora; and similar bonds of\nconnection seem to have existed in the floras of the still earlier ages.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 149.\n\nIMBRICATED STEM.\n\n(_Helmsdale._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 150.\n\n(_Helmsdale._)]\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 151.]\n\nIn the Oolite of Scotland I have, however, at length found trace of a\nvegetable organism that _seems_ to have lain, if I may so express\nmyself, outside the pentagon, and was not a member of any of the great\nfamilies which it comprised. (See Fig. 151.) I succeeded about four\nyears ago in disinterring from the limestone of Helmsdale what\n_appears_ to be a true dicotyledonous leaf, with the fragment of another\nleaf, which I at first supposed might have belonged to a plant of the\nsame great class, but which I now find might have been a portion of a\nfern. When _Phlebopteris Phillipsii_ was first detected in the Oolite of\nYorkshire, Lindley and Hatton, regarding it as dicotyledonous,\noriginated their term Dictyophillum as a general one for all such\nleaves. But it has since been assigned to a greatly lower order,--the\nferns; and Sir Charles Lyell has kindly shown me that an exotic fern of\nthe present day exhibits exactly such a reticulated style of venation as\nmy Helmsdale fragment. (See Fig. 152, p. 497.) The other leaf, however,\nthough also fragmentary, and but indifferently preserved, seems to be\ndecidedly marked by the dicotyledonous character; and so I continue to\nregard it, provisionally at least, as one of the first precursors in\nScotland of our great forest trees, and of so many of our flowering and\nfruit-bearing plants, and as apparently occupying the same relative\nplace in advance of its contemporaries as that occupied by the conifer\nof the Old Red Sandstone in advance of the ferns and Lycopodaceae with\nwhich I found it associated. In the arrangement of its larger veins the\nbetter preserved Oolitic leaf somewhat resembles that of the buckthorn;\nbut its state of keeping is such that it has failed to leave its\nexterior outline in the stone.\n\n[Illustration: Fig. 152.]\n\nOne or two general remarks, in conclusion, on the Oolite flora of\nScotland may be permitted me by the Association. In its aspect as a\nwhole it greatly resembles the Oolite flora of Virginia, though\nseparated in space from the locality in which the latter occurs by a\ndistance of nearly four thousand miles. There are several species of\nplants common to both, such as _Equisetum columnare_, _Calamites\narenaceus_, _Pecopteris Whitbiensis_, _Lycopodites uncifolius_, and\napparently _Taeniopteris magnifolia_; both, too, manifest the great\nabundance in which they were developed of old by the beds of coal into\nwhich their remains have been converted. The coal of the Virginia Oolite\nhas been profitably wrought for many years: it is stated by Sir Charles\nLyell, who carefully examined the deposit, and has given as the results\nof his observation in his second series of Travels in the United States,\nthat the annual quantity taken from the Oolitic pits by Philadelphia\nalone amounted to ten thousand tons; and though, on the other hand, the\nSutherlandshire deposit has never been profitably wrought, it has been\nat least wrought more extensively than any other in the British Oolite.\nThe seam of Brora, varying from three feet three to three feet eight\ninches in thickness, furnished, says Sir Roderick Murchison, between the\nyears 1814 and 1826, no less than seventy thousand tons of coal. Such is\nits extent, too, that nearly thirty miles from the pit's mouth (in\nRoss-shire under the Northern Sutor) I have found it still existing,\nthough in diminished proportions, as a decided coal seam, which it must\nhave taken no small amount of vegetable matter to form. And almost on\nthe other side of the world, nearly five thousand miles from the\nSutherland beds, and more than eight thousand miles from the Carolina\nones, the same Oolitic flora again appears, associated with beds of\ncoal. At Nagpur in Central India the Oolitic Sandstones abound in simple\nfronded ferns, such us Taeniopteris and Glossopteris, and has its\nZamites, its coniferous leaves, and its equisetaceae.\n\nCompared with existing floras, that of our Scottish Oolite seems to have\nmost nearly resembled the flora of New Zealand,--a flora remarkable for\nthe great abundance of its ferns, and its vast forests of coniferous\ntrees, that retain at all seasons their coverings of acicular spiky\nleaves. It is to this flora that _Dacrydium cupressinum_,--so like a\nclub moss in its foliage,--belongs; and _Podocarpus ferrugineus_,--a\ntree which more closely resembles in its foliage the Eathie conifer,\nsave that its spiky leaves are somewhat narrower and longer than any\nother with which I am acquainted. About two thirds of the plants which\ncover the plains, or rise on the hill-sides of that country, are\ncryptogamic, consisting mainly of ferns and their allies; and it is a\ncurious circumstance,--which was, however, not without precedent in the\nmerely physical conditions of the Oolitic flora of Scotland,--that so\nshallow is the soil even where its greatest forests have sprung up, and\nso immediately does the rock lie below, that the central axes of the\ntrees do not elongate downwards into a tap, but throw out horizontally\non every side a thick network of roots, which rises so high over the\nsurface as to render walking through the woods a difficult and very\nfatiguing exercise. The flora of the Oolite, like that of New Zealand,\nseems to have been in large part cryptogamic, consisting of ferns and\nthe allied horse-tail and club moss families. Its forests seem to have\ncontained only cone-bearing trees; at least among the many thousand\nspecimens of its fossil woods which have been examined, no tissue of the\ntrue, dicotyledonous character has yet been found; and with the\nexception of the leaves just described, all those yet found in the\nSystem, which could have belonged to true trees, are of the acicular\nform common to the Coniferae, and show in their dense ligneous structure\nthat they were persistent, not deciduous. Nor is there evidence wanting\nthat many of the Coniferae of the period grew in so shallow a soil, that\ntheir tap-roots were flattened and bent backwards, and they were left to\nderive their sole support, like the trees of the New Zealand forests,\nfrom such of their roots as shot out horizontally. We even know the\nnature of the rock upon which they rested. As shown by fragments still\nlocked up among the interstices of their petrified roots, it was an Old\nRed flagstone similar to that of Caithness in the neighborhood of Wick\nand Thurso, and containing the same fossil remains. In the water-rolled\npebbles of the Conglomerate of Helmsdale and Port Gower,--pebbles\nencrusted by Oolitic corals, and enclosed in a calcareous paste,\ncontaining Oolitic belemnites and astreae,--I have found the well marked\nfishes and fucoids of the Old Red Sandstone. As shown by the appearance\nof the rounded masses in which these lay, they must have presented as\nancient an appearance in the times of the Lower Oolite as they do now;\nand the glimpse which they lent of so remote an antiquity, through the\nmedium of an antiquity which, save for the comparison which they\nfurnished the means of instituting, might be well deemed superlatively\nremote, I have felt singularly awe-inspiring and impressive. Macaulay\nanticipates a time when the traveller from some distant land shall take\nhis stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to survey the ruins of St.\nPaul's. In disinterring from amid the antique remains of the Oolite the\nimmensely more antique remains of the Old Red Sandstone, I have felt as\nsuch a traveller would feel if, on setting himself to dig among the\nscattered heaps for memorials of the ruined city, he had fallen on what\nhad been once the Assyrian Gallery of the British Museum, and had found\nmingling with the antiquities of perished London the greatly older and\nmore venerable antiquities of Nineveh or of Babylon. The land of the\nOolite in this northern locality must have been covered by a soil\nwhich,--except that from a lack of the boulder clays it must have been\npoorer and shallower,--must have not a little resembled that of the\nlower plains of Cromarty, Caithness, and Eastern Ross. And on this\nPalaeozoic platform, long exposed, as the Oolitic Conglomerates\nabundantly testify, to denuding and disintegrating agencies,--a platform\nbeaten by the surf where it descended to the sea level, and washed in\nthe interior by rivers, with here a tall hill or abrupt precipice, and\nthere a flat plain or sluggish morass,--there grew vast forests of\ncone-bearing trees, tangled thickets of gigantic equisetaceae, numerous\nforms of Cycas and Zamia, and wide-rolling seas of fern, amid whose open\nspaces club mosses of extinct tribes sent forth their long, creeping\nstems, spiky and dry, and thickly mottled with pseudo-spore-bearing\ncatkins.\n\nThe curtain drops over this ancient flora of the Oolite in Scotland; and\nwhen, long after, there is a corner of the thick enveloping screen\nwithdrawn, and we catch a partial glimpse of one of the old Tertiary\nforests of our country, all is new. Trees of the high dicotyledonous\nclass, allied to the plane and the buckthorn, prevail in the landscape,\nintermingled, however, with dingy funereal yews; and the ferns and\nequisetae that rise in the darker openings of the wood approach to the\nexisting type. And yet, though _eons_ of the past eternity have elapsed\nsince we looked out upon Cycas and Zamia, and the last of the Calamites,\nthe time is still early, and long ages must lapse ere man shall arise\nout of the dust, to keep and to dress fields waving with the productions\nof yet another and different flora, and to busy himself with all the\nlabor which he taketh under the sun. Our country, in this Tertiary time,\nhas still its great outbursts of molten matter, that bury in fiery\ndeluges many feet in depth, and many square miles in extent, the debris\nof wide tracts of woodland and marsh; and the basaltic columns still\nform in its great lava bed; and ever and anon, as the volcanic agencies\nawake, clouds of ashes darken the heavens, and cover up the landscape as\nif with accumulated drifts of a protracted snow storm. Who shall\ndeclare what, throughout those long ages, the history of creation has\nbeen? We see at wide intervals the mere fragments of successive floras;\nbut know not how what seem the blank interspaces were filled, or how, as\nextinction overtook in succession one tribe of existences after another,\nand species, like individuals, yielded to the great law of death, yet\nother species were brought to the birth, and ushered upon the scene, and\nthe chain of being was maintained unbroken. We see only detached bits of\nthat green web which has covered our earth ever since the dry land first\nappeared; but the web itself seems to have been continuous throughout\nall time; though ever as breadth after breadth issued from the creative\nloom, the pattern has altered, and the sculpturesque and graceful forms\nthat illustrated its first beginnings and its middle spaces have yielded\nto flowers of richer color and blow, and fruits of fairer shade and\noutline; and for gigantic club mosses stretching forth their hirsute\narms, goodly trees of the Lord have expanded their great boughs; and for\nthe barren fern and the calamite, clustering in thickets beside the\nwaters, or spreading on flowerless hill slopes, luxuriant orchards have\nyielded their ruddy flush, and rich harvests their golden gleam.\n\nTHE END.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The Prayer will be found at the end of these Memorials.\n\n[2] The same revolver proved to be the instrument of death to another\nperson, two days after. The circumstances are thus related in the\n_Edinburgh Witness_ of December 27:--\n\n\"A most melancholy event, arising out of the following circumstances,\noccurred yesterday in the shop of Mr. Thomson, gunmaker. In the\nbeginning of July, last year, Mr. Hugh Miller bought a six-shot\nrevolving chamber pistol, size of ball ninety-two to the pound, from the\nlate firm of Messrs. Alexander Thomson & Son, gunmakers, 16 Union Place.\nA few days after, he called and said he thought it a little stiff in its\nworkings, and got it made to revolve more readily. The pistol has not\nbeen seen by Mr. Thomson since then; but in his absence a few minutes at\ndinner yesterday, Professor Miller called about twenty minutes from two,\nand asked Mr. Thomson's foreman how many of the six shots had been\nfired. He added, 'Mind, it is loaded.' The foreman, instead of removing\nthe breech or chamber to examine it, bad incautiously turned the pistol\nentire towards his own person, and lifting up the hammer with his\nfingers, while he counted the remaining loaded chambers, he must have\nslipped his fingers while the pistol was turned to his own head. It\nexploded, and the ball lodging in the angle of his right eye, he fell\nback a lifeless corpse. The pistol is a bolted one, which permits of\nbeing carried loaded with perfect safety. Having been wet internally,\nrust may have stopped the action of the bolt. It is a singular fact that\nHugh Miller dropped the pistol into the bath, where it remained for\nseveral hours. This may account for the apparent incaution of Mr.\nThomson's foreman.\"\n\n[3] See _ante_, p. 9.\n\n[4] The horizontal lines in this diagram indicate the divisions of the\nvarious geologic systems; the vertical lines the sweep of the various\nclasses or sub-classes of plants across the geologic scale, with, so far\nas has yet been ascertained, the place of their first appearance in\ncreation; while the double line of type below shows in what degree the\norder of their occurrence agrees with the arrangement of the botanist.\nThe single point of difference indicated by the diagram between the\norder of occurrence and that of arrangement, viz., the transposition of\nthe gymnogenous and monocotyledonous classes, must be regarded as purely\nprovisional. It is definitely ascertained that the Lower Old Red\nSandstone has its coniferous wood, but not yet definitely ascertained\nthat it has its true monocotyledonous plants; though indications are not\nawanting that the latter were introduced upon the scene at least as\nearly as the pines or araucarians; and the chance discovery of some\nfossil in a sufficiently good state of keeping to determine the point\nmay, of course, at once retranspose the transposition, and bring into\ncomplete correspondence the geologic and botanic arrangements.\n\n[5] The horizontal lines of the diagram here indicate, as in Fig. 1, the\ndivisions of the several geologic systems; the vertical lines represent\nthe leading divisions and classes of animals, and, as shown by the\nformations in which their earliest known remains occur, the probable\nperiod of their first appearance in creation; while the double line of\ntext below exhibits the complete correspondence which obtains between\ntheir occurrence, in nature and the Cuvierian arrangement. The line\nrepresentative of the Radiata ought perhaps to have been elevated a\nlittle higher than either of its two neighbors.\n\n[6] Fig. 14, Neuropteris Loshii. Fig. 15, Neuropteris gigantea. Fig. 16,\nNeuropteris acuminata. Fig. 17, Sphenopteris affinis. Fig. 18,\nPecopteris heterophylla. Fig. 19, Sphenopteris dilitata.\n\n[7] Fig. 21, _r a_, Rachis, greatly thickened towards its base by\nnumerous aerial roots, shot downwards to the soil, and which closely\ncover the stem.\n\n[8] Fig. 22, _m_, Cellular tissue of the centre of rachis; _d_, similar\ntissue of the circumference; _f_, _v_, darkly-colored woody fibres of\ngreat strength, the \"internal buttresses\" of the illustration; _e_, the\nouter cortical portion formed by the bases of the leaves.\n\n[9] Fig. 23, Branching stem, with bark and leaves. Fig. 24. Extremity of\nbranch. Fig. 25, Extremity of another branch, with indication of\ncone-like receptacle of spores or seed.\n\n[10] No true fossil palms have yet been detected in the great Oolitic\nand Wealden systems, though they certainly occur in the Carboniferous\nand Permian rocks, and are comparatively common in the earlier and\nmiddle Tertiary formations. Much cannot be founded on merely negative\nevidence; but it would be certainly a curious circumstance should it be\nfound that this graceful family, first ushered into being some time in\nthe later Palaeozoic periods, was withdrawn from creation during the\nMiddle ages of the earth's history, to be again introduced in greatly\nmore than the earlier proportions during the Tertiary and recent\nperiods.\n\n[11] Leaf of a tree allied to the maple.\n\n[12] Leaf of a tree allied to the elm.\n\n[13] Here, as in the former diagrams (Figs. 1 and 4), the horizontal\nlines represent the divisions of the great geologic systems; while the\nvertical lines indicate the sweep of the several orders of fishes across\nthe scale, and the periods, so far as has yet been determined, of their\nfirst occurrence in creation.\n\n[14] Some of these _dragons_ of the Secondary ages were of very\nconsiderable size. The wings of a Pterodactyle of the Chalk, in the\npossession of Mr. Bowerbank, must have had a spread of about eighteen\nfeet; those of a recently discovered Pterodactyle of the Greensand, a\nspread of not less than twenty-seven feet. The _Lammer-geyer_ of the\nAlps has an extent of wing of but from ten to eleven feet; while that of\nthe great Condor of the Andes, the largest of flying birds, does not\nexceed twelve feet.\n\n[15] _a_, Palaeotherium magnum. _b_, Palaeotherium minus. _c_,\nAnoplotherium commune.\n\n[16] It will be seen that there is no attempt made in this lecture to\nrepresent the great Palaeozoic division as characterized _throughout its\nentire extent_ by a luxuriant flora. It is, on the contrary, expressly\nstated here, that the \"plants of its earlier and terminal formations\n(_i.e._ those of the Silurian, Old Red, and Permian Systems) were _few\nand small_,\" and that \"it was _only during the protracted eons of the\ncarboniferous period that they received their amazing development,\nunequalled in any previous or succeeding time_.\" Being thus express in\nmy limitation, I think I have just cause of complaint against any one\nwho represents me us unfairly laboring, in this very composition, to\nmake it be believed that the _whole_ Palaeozoic period was characterized\nby a gorgeous flora; and as thus sophistically generalizing in the first\ninstance, in order to make a fallacious use of the generalization in the\nsecond, with the intention of misleading non-geologic readers. Such,\nhowever, as may be seen from the following extracts from the\n\"Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science at Philadelphia,\" is the\ncharge preferred against me by a citizen of the United States.\n\n\"Mr. William Parker Foulke asked the attention of the Society to a\nlecture by Mr. Hugh Miller, recently republished in the United States\nunder the title of 'The Two Records, Mosaic and Geological,' and made\nsome remarks upon the importance of maintaining a careful scrutiny of\nthe logic of the natural sciences.... Mr. Miller teaches that, in the\nattempt to reconcile the two 'records,' there are only three periods to\nbe accounted for by the geologist, viz. 'the period of _plants_; the\nperiod of _great sea monsters and creeping things_; and the period of\n_cattle and beasts of the earth_;' and that the first of these periods\nis represented by the rocks grouped under the term _Palaeozoic_, and is\ndistinguished from the _Secondary_ and _Tertiary_ chiefly by its\ngorgeous flora; and that the geological evidence is so complete as to be\npatent to all, that the first great period of organized being was, as\ndescribed in the Mosaic record, peculiarly a period of herbs and trees,\nyielding seed after their kind. The general reader, not familiar with\nthe details of geological arrangement, could not fail to infer from such\na statement, used for such a purpose, that the Palaeozoic rocks are\nregarded by geologists as forming one group representative of one\nperiod, which can properly be said to be distinguished as a _whole_ by\nits gorgeous flora; and that it is properly so distinguished _for the\nargument in question_. It was familiar to the Academy, as well as to Mr.\nMiller, that from the _carboniferous_ rocks downward (backward in order\nof time), there have been discriminated a large number of periods,\ndiffering from one another in mineral and in organic remains; and that\nthe proportion of the _carboniferous_ era to the whole series is small,\nwhether we regard the thickness of its deposits or its conjectural\nchronology. It in only of this _carboniferous_ era, _the latest of this\nseries_, that the author's remarks could be true; and even of this, if\ntaken for the entire surface of the earth, it could not be truly\nasserted that 'the evidence is so complete as to be patent to all,' that\nthe quantity of its vegetable products distinguishes it from the earth's\nsurface during the era in which we live. To confound by implication all\nthis periods termed Palaeozoic, so as to apply to them as a whole what\ncould be true, if at all, only of the _carboniferous_ period, is a\nfallacious use of a generalization _made for a purpose_, and upon a\nprinciple not properly available for the writer's argument,\" &c. So far\nthe \"Proceedings\" of the Academy.\n\nThis, surely, is very much the reverse of fair. I, however, refer the\nmatter, without note or comment (so far at least as it involves the\nquestion whether Mr. Foulke has not, in the face of the most express\nstatement on my part, wholly misrepresented me), to the judgment of\ncandid and intelligent readers on both sides of the Atlantic.\n\nI know not that I should recognize Mr. Foulke as entitled, after such a\ndisplay, to be dealt with simply as the member of a learned society who\ndiffers from me on a scientific question; nor does his reference to the\n\"carboniferous era\" as \"the _latest_ of the\" Palaeozoic \"series,\" and his\napparent unacquaintance with that Permian period, in reality the\nterminal one of the division during which the Palaeozoic forms seem to\nhave gradually died away, in order to give place to those of the\nSecondary division, inspire any very high respect for his acquirements\nas a geologist. Waiving, however, the legitimacy of his claim, I may be\npermitted to repeat, for the further information of the non-geological\nreader, that the _carboniferous_ formations, _wherever they have yet\nbeen detected_, justify, in the amazing abundance of their carbonized\nvegetable organisms, the name which they bear. Mr. Foulke, in three\nshort sentences, uses the terms \"carboniferous era,\" \"carboniferous\nrocks,\" \"carboniferous period,\" four several times; and these terms are\nderived from the predominating amount of carbon (elaborated of old by\nthe plants of the period) which occurs in its several formations. The\nvery language which he has to employ is of itself a confirmation of the\nstatement which he challenges. For so \"patent\" is this _carboniferous_\ncharacter of the system, that it has given to it its universally\naccepted designation,--the verbal sign by which it is represented\nwherever it is known. Mr. F. states, that \"if taken for the entire\nsurface of the earth,\" it cannot be truly asserted that the\ncarboniferous flora preponderated over that of the present time, or, at\nleast, that its preponderance could not be regarded as \"patent to all,\"\nThe statement admits of so many different meanings, that I know not\nwhether I shall succeed in replying to the special meaning intended by\nMr. Foulke. There are no doubt carboniferous deposits on the earth's\nsurface still unknown to the geologist, the evidence of which on the\npoint must be regarded, in consequence, not as \"patent to all,\" but as\n_nil_. They are witnesses absent from court, whose testimony has not yet\nbeen tendered. But equally certain it is, I repeat, that wherever\ncarboniferous formations _have_ been discovered and examined, they have\nbeen found to bear the unique characteristic to which the system owes\nits name,--they have been found charged with the carbon, existing\nusually as great beds of coal, which was elaborated of old by its\nunrivalled flora from the elements. And as this evidence is certain and\npositive, no one would be entitled to set off against it, as of equal\nweight, the merely negative evidence of some one or two deposits of the\ncarboniferous age that did not bear the carboniferous character, even\nwere such known to exist; far less is anyone entitled to set off against\nit the _possibly_ negative evidence of deposits of the carboniferous age\nnot yet discovered nor examined; for that would be simply to set off\nagainst good positive evidence, what is no evidence at all. It would be\nto set off the _possible_ evidence of the absent witnesses, not yet\nprecognosced in the case, against the express declarations of the\nwitnesses already examined, and strong on the positive side.\n\nSurely an American, before appealing, in a question of this kind, to the\nbare possibility of the existence somewhere or other of barely negative\nevidence, ought to have bethought him of the very extraordinary positive\nevidence furnished by the carboniferous deposits of his own great\ncountry. The coal fields of Britain and the European continent had been\nwrought for ages ere those of North America were known, and for ages\nmore after it had been but ascertained that the New, like the Old World,\nhas its Coal Measures. And during the latter period the _argument_ of\nMr. Foulke might have been employed, just as now, and some member of a\nlearned society might have urged that, though the coal fields of Europe\nbore evidence to the former existence of a singularly luxuriant flora,\nbeyond comparison more vast than the European one of the present day,\nthe same could not be predicated of the American coal fields, whose\ncarbonized remains _might_ be found representative of a flora which had\nbeen at least not more largely developed than that existing American\nflora to which the great western forests belong. Now, however, the time\nfor any such argument has gone by; the American coal fields have been\ncarefully explored; and what is the result? The geologist has come to\nknow, that even the mighty forests of America are inconsiderable,\ncompared with its deposits of coal; nay, that all its forests gathered\ninto one heap would fail to furnish the materials of a single coal seam\nequal to that of Pittsburg; and that centuries after all its thick woods\nshall have disappeared before the axe, and it shall have come to present\nthe comparatively bare, unwooded aspect of the long civilized countries\nof Southern Europe, it will continue to derive the elements of its\ncommercial greatness, and the cheerful blaze of its many millions of\ndomestic hearths, from the unprecedentedly luxurious flora of the old\ncarboniferous ages. Truly, very wonderful are the coal fields of\nNorthern America! If geologists inferred, as they well might, that the\nextinct flora which had originated the European coal vastly outrivalled\nin luxuriance that of the existing time, what shall be said of that\nflora of the same age which originated the coal deposits of Nova Scotia\nand the United States,--deposits _twenty times as great_ as all those of\nall Europe put together!\n\n[17] Such is also the view taken by the author of a recently published\nwork, \"The Genesis of the Earth and of Man.\" \"Christian philosophers\nhave been compelled to acknowledge,\" says this writer, \"that the Mosaic\naccount of creation is only reconcileable with demonstrated facts, by\nits being regarded as a record of _appearances_; and if so, to vindicate\nthe truth of God, we must consider it, so far as the acts are concerned,\nas the relation of a revelation to the _sight_, which was sufficient for\nall its purposes, rather than as one in words; though the words are\nperfectly true as describing the revelation itself, and the revelation\nis equally true as showing man the principal phenomena which he would\nhave seen had it been possible for him to be a witness of the events.\nFurther, if we view the narrative as the description of a series of\nvisions, while we find it to be perfectly reconcileable with the\nstatement in other parts of Scripture, that in six days the Lord made\nheaven and earth, we remove, with other difficulties, the only strong\nobjection to the opinion of those who regard the 'six days' as periods\nof undeflnable duration, and who may even believe that we are now in the\n'seventh day,'--the day of rest or of cessation from the work of\ncreation. Certainly, 'the day of God,' and 'the day of the Lord,' and\nthe 'thousand two hundred and threescore days,' of the Revelation of St.\nJohn, and the 'seventy weeks' in the Prophecy of Daniel, are not to be\nunderstood in their primary and natural senses,\" &c., &c.\n\n[18] \"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all\nthat in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed\nthe Sabbath day, and hallowed it.\"\n\n[19] Forbes and Hanley enumerate one hundred and sixty bivalves, and two\nhundred and thirty-two univalves,--in all three hundred and ninety-two\nspecies, as the only known shell-bearing molluscs of the existing\nBritish seas.\n\n[20] Principles of Zoology: touching the Structure, Development,\nDistribution, and Natural Arrangement of the Races of Animals, living\nand extinct. With numerous Illustrations. For the Use of Schools and\nColleges. Part I., \"Comparative Physiology.\" By Louis Agassiz and\nAugustus A. Gould. Boston: Gould & Lincoln.\n\n[21] _a_, Articulating surface of joint. _b_, Fragment of column,\nexhibiting laterally the tooth processes, so fitted into each other as\nto admit of flexure without risk of dislocation. The uppermost joint\nshows two lateral cavities for the articulation of auxiliary arms.\n\n[22] Perhaps one strengthening principle more might be enumerated as\noccurring in this curious piece of mechanism. In the layer of the nether\nplate, the fibres, instead of being laid in parallel lines, like the\nthreads in the moleskin of my illustration, seem to be _felted_\ntogether,--an arrangement which must have added considerably to their\ncoherency and powers of resistance.\n\n[23] Fig. 102, Clymenia Sedwicki; Fig. 103, Gyroceras Eifelensis; Fig.\n104, Cirrus Goldfussii.\n\n[24] Berosus, Hieronymus, Mnaseas, Nicolaus, Manetho, Mochus, and\nHestaeus.\n\n[25] See Cory's \"Ancient Fragments.\"\n\n[26] As was common in Bible illustrations published in our own country a\ncentury and a half ago, the old Greek artist has introduced into his\nmedal two points of time. Two of the figures represent _Noe_ and his\nwife quitting the ark; while the other two exhibit them as seated within\nit. An English print of the death of Abel, now before me, which dates a\nlittle after the times of the Revolution, shows, on the same principle,\nthe two brothers, represented by four figures,--two of these quietly\noffering up their respective sacrifices in the background, and the other\ntwo grappling in deadly warfare in front.\n\n[27] \"In preparing the 'Horae Biblicae Quotidianae,' he [Dr. Chalmers]\nhad beside him, for use and reference, the Concordance, the Pictorial\nBible, Poole's Synopsis, Henry's Commentary, and Robertson's Researches\nin Palestine. These constituted what he called his Biblical Library.\n'There,' said he to a friend, pointing, as he spoke, to the above named\nvolumes as they lay together on his library table, with a volume of the\n'Quotidianae,' in which he had just been writing, lying open beside\nthem,--'these are the books I use: all that is Biblical is\nthere.'\"--_Dr. Hanna's Preface to \"Daily Scripture Readings.\"_\n\n[28] The raven is said to live for more than a hundred years. I am,\nhowever, not prepared to say that it was the same pair of birds that\nused, year after year, to build on the same rock-shelf among the\nprecipices of Navity, from the times of my great-grandfather's boyhood\nto those of my own.\n\n[29] The following estimate of the air-breathing vertebrates (that of\nthe \"Physical Atlas,\" second edition, 1856) may be regarded as the\nlatest. It will he seen that it does not include the cetacea or the\nseals:--\n\n SPECIES.\n Quadrumana 170\n Marsupialia 123\n Edentata 28\n Pachydermata 39\n Terrestrial Carnivora 514\n Rodentia 604\n Ruminantia 180\n ---- 1658\n Birds 6266\n Reptiles 657\n Turtles 8}\n Sea Snakes 7} 15\n ---- 642\n\nGreat as is this number of animals, compared with those known a century\nago, there are indications that the list is to be increased rather than\ndiminished. Even by the latest European authorities the reindeer is\nrepresented as consisting of but a single species, common to the\nsub-arctic regions of both the Old and New Worlds; whereas in the\n\"Canadian Naturalist\" for 1856 I find it stated, on what seems to be\ncompetent authority, that America has its two species of reindeer, and\nthat they both differ from the European species.\n\n[30] If I do not introduce here the argument founded on the great age of\ncertain gigantic trees, such as the Baobab of intertropical Africa, or\nthe Taxodium of South America, it is not because I have any reason to\nchallenge the estimates of Adamson or Candolle. The one tree may have\nlived its five thousand, the other its six thousand, years; but as the\ngrounds have been disputed on which the calculations respecting their\nvast age have been founded, and as they cannot be reexamined anew by the\nreader, I wholly omit the evidence, in the general question, which they\nhave been supposed to furnish.\n\n[31] The following excellent remarks on the economy of miracle, by\nChalmers, bear very directly on this subject:--\"It is remarkable that\nGod is sparing of miracles, and seems to prefer the ordinary processes\nof nature, if equally effectual for the accomplishment of his purposes.\nHe might have saved Noah and his family by miracles; but he is not\nprodigal of these, and so he appointed that an ark should be made to\nbear up the living cargo which was to be kept alive on the surface of\nthe waters; and not only so, but he respects the laws of the animal\nphysiology, as he did those of hydrostatics, in that he put them by\npairs into the ark, male and female, to secure their transmission to\nafter ages, and food was stored up to sustain them during their long\nconfinement. In short, he dispenses with miracles when these are not\nrequisite for the fulfilment of his ends; and he never dispenses with\nthe ordinary means when these are fitted, and at the same time\nsufficient, for the occasion.\"--_Daily Scripture Readings_, vol. i. p.\n10.\n\n[32] For a brief but masterly view of these ancient cosmogonies, see the\nRev. D. Macdonald's \"Creation and the Fall.\" Edinburgh: Constable & Co.\n\n[33]\n\n 1. The great surrounding oceans.\n 2. Caspian Sea.\n 3. River Phison.\n 4-4. Points of the Compass.\n 5. Mediterranean Sea.\n 6. Red Sea.\n 7-8. Persian Gulf, with the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.\n 9. River Gihon.\n\n\n\n[34]\n\n 1. The sun Occident.\n 2. The sun orient.\n 3. The Heavens.\n 4. Great mountain behind which the sun is hidden when it is night.\n 5. The Mediterranean Sea.\n 6. Red Sea.\n 7. Persian Gulf.\n 8. Garden of Eden.\n 9. Great surrounding ocean\n 10. The Creator looking down upon his work, and seeing that all was good.\n\n\n\n[35] The very different terms which Mr. Powell employs in characterizing\nthe anti-geologists, from those which he makes use of in denouncing the\nmen honestly bent on reconciling the enunciations of revelation with the\nfindings of geologic science,--a class which included in the past,\ndivines such as Chalmers, Buckland, and Pye Smith, and comprises divines\nsuch as Hitchcock and the Archbishop of Canterbury now,--is worthy of\nbeing noted. In two sermons, \"Christianity without Judaism,\" written by\nthis clergyman of the Church of England, to show that all days of the\nweek are alike, and the Christian Sabbath a mere blunder, I find the\nfollowing passage:--\"Some divines have consistently rejected all geology\nand all science as profane and carnal; and some even, when pretending to\ncall themselves men of science, have stooped to the miserable policy, of\ntampering with the truth, investing the real facts in false disguises,\nto cringe to the prejudices of the many, and to pervert science into a\nseeming accordance with popular prepossessions.\" I cannot believe that\nthis will be regarded as justifiable language: it seems scarce worthy of\na man of science; and will, I fear, only be accepted as good in evidence\nthat the _odium theologicum_ is not restricted to what is termed the\northodox side of the Church.\n\n[36] The gentleman here referred to lectured no later than October,\n1853, against the doctrines of the geologists; and modestly chose as the\nscene of his labors the city of Hutton and Playfair. What he set himself\nspecially to \"demonstrate\" was, as he said, that the geologic \"theories\nas to antiquity of the earth, successive eras, &c., were not only\nfallacious and unphilosophical, but rendered nugatory the authority of\nthe sacred Scriptures.\" Not only, however, did he exert himself in\ndemolishing the geologists as infidel, but he denounced also as unsound\nthe theology of good old Isaac Watts. The lines taught us in our\ninfancy,--\n\n \"Let dogs delight to bark and bite,\n For God hath made them so,\"\n\nwere, he remarked, decidedly heterodox. They ought to have run\ninstead,--\n\n \"Let dogs delight to bark and bite,\n _Satan_ hath made them so\"!!!\n\n\n\n[37] \"A Brief and Complete Refutation of the Anti-Scriptural Theory of\nGeologists.\" By a Clergyman of the Church of England. London: Wertheim &\nMacintosh. 1853.\n\n[38] Newspaper Report of Meeting of the British Association held at York\nin September, 1844.\n\n[39] See \"Primary and Present State of the Solar System, particularly of\nour own Planet;\" and \"Exposure of the Principles of Modern Geology.\" By\nP. M'Farlane, Author of the \"Primary and Present State of the Solar\nSystem.\" Edinburgh: Thomas Grant.\n\n[40] One of the more brilliant writers of the present day,--a native of\nthe picturesque village in which this anti-geologist resides,--describes\nin a recent work, with the enthusiasm of the poet, the noble mountains\nwhich rise around it. I know not, however, whether my admiration of the\npassage was not in some degree dashed by a few comic notions suggestive\nof an \"imaginary conversation,\" in the style of Landor, between this\npopular author and his anti-geologic townsman, on the merits of hills in\ngeneral, and in especial on the claims of those which encircle Comrie\n\"as the mountains are round about Jerusalem.\" The two gentlemen would, I\nsuspect, experience considerable difficulty in laying down, in such a\ndiscussion, their common principles.\n\n[41] \"Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies.\" By\nGranville Penn, Esq. London, 1825.\n\n[42] \"Statesman and Record,\" October 6th, 1846.\n\n[43] Sir Charles Lyell's statement is by no means so express or definite\nas it is represented to be in this passage, in which I have taken the\nevidence of his opponents regarding it. What he really says (see his\n\"Principles,\" second edition, 1832) is what follows:--\"_If_ the ratio of\nrecession had never exceeded fifty yards in forty years, it must have\nrequired nearly ten thousand years for the excavation of the whole\nravine; but no probable conjecture can be offered as to the quantity of\ntime consumed in such an operation, because the retrograde movement may\nhave been much more rapid when the whole current was confined within a\nspace not exceeding a fourth or fifth of that which the Falls now\noccupy.\" In the eighth edition of the same work, however, published in\n1850, after he had examined the Falls, there occurs the following\nre-statement of the case:--\"After the most careful inquiries I was able\nto make during my visit to the spot in 1841-42, I came to the conclusion\nthat the average [recession] of one foot a year would be a much more\nprobable conjecture than that of one and a quarter yards. In that case\nit would have required _thirty-five thousand years_ for the retreat of\nthe Falls from the escarpment of Queenston to their present site. It\nseems by no means improbable that such a result would be no exaggeration\nof the truth, although we cannot assume that the retrograde movement has\nbeen uniform. At some points it may have receded much faster than at\npresent; but in general its progress was probably slower, because the\ncataract, when it began to recede, must have been nearly twice its\npresent height.\"\n\n[44] \"Scottish Christian Herald,\" 1838, vol. iii., p. 766.\n\n[45] The substance of this and the following lecture was originally\ngiven in a single paper, before the Geological Section of the British\nAssociation, held at Glasgow in September 1855. So considerable have\nbeen the additions, however, that the one paper has swelled into two\nlectures. Most of the added matter was at first thrown into the form of\nNotes; but it was found, that from their length and frequency, they\nwould have embarrassed the printer, mayhap the reader also; and so most\nof the larger ones have been introduced into the text within brackets.\n\n[46] A curious set of these, with specimens of the smooth-stemmed fucoid\ncollected by Mr. John Miller of Thurso,--a meritorious laborer in the\ngeologic field,--were exhibited at Glasgow to the Association. The\nlarger stems were thickly traversed in Mr. J. Miller's specimens by\ndiagonal lines, which seemed, however, to be merely lines of rhomboidal\nfracture in the glassy coal into which the plants were converted, and\nnot one of their original characters.\n\n[47] I must, however, add, that there was found in the neighborhood of\nStromness about fifteen years ago, by Dr. John Fleming, a curious\nnondescript vegetable organism, which, though equivocal in character and\nappearance, was in all probability a plant of the sea. It consisted of a\nflattened cylinder, in some of the specimens exceeding a foot in length\nby an inch in breadth, and traversed on both the upper and under sides\nby a mesial groove extending to the extremities. It bore no external\nmarkings, and the section exhibited but an indistinct fibrous structure,\nsufficient, however, to indicate its vegetable origin. I have not\nhitherto succeeded in finding for myself specimens of this organism,\nwhich has been named provisionally, by Dr. Fleming, _Stroma obscura_;\nbut it seems not improbable that certain supposed fragments of wood,\ndetected by Mr. Charles Peach in the Caithness Flagstones, but which do\nnot exhibit the woody structure, may have belonged to it.\n\n[48] I figured this species from an imperfect Cromarty specimen fifteen\nyears ago. (See \"Old Red Sandstone,\" first edition, 1841, Plate VII.\nFig. 4). Of the greatly better specimens now figured I owe the larger\none (Fig. 120) to Mrs. Mill, Thurso, who detected it in the richly\nfossiliferous flagstones of the locality in which she resides, and\nkindly made it over to me; and the specimen of which I have given a\nmagnificent representation (Fig. 12, p. 55) to my friend Mr. Robert\nDick. I have, besides, seen several specimens of the same organism, in a\nbetter or worse state of keeping, in the interesting collection of the\nRev. Charles Clouston, Sandwick, near Stromness.\n\n[49] \"Frogspawn is full of eyes [that is, black eye-like points], and\nevery eye is a tadpole.\"\n\n[50] Mr. Page figures, in his \"Advanced Text Book of Geology\" (p. 127),\na few circular markings from the Forfarshire beds, which he still\nregards as spawn, probably that of a Crustacean, and which certainly\ndiffer greatly in appearance from the markings found enclosed in the\napparent spathes.\n\n[51] Since these sentences were written I have seen a description of\nboth the plants of the Upper Old Red to which they refer, in an\ninteresting sketch of the geology of Roxburgshire by the Rev. James\nDuncan, which forms part of a recent publication devoted to the history\nand antiquities of the shire. \"In the red quarry of Denholm Hill there\noccurs,\" says Mr. Duncan, \"a stratum of soft yellowish sandstone, which\ncontains impressions of an apparent fucoid in considerable quantity. One\nor several linear stems diverge from a point, and throw off at acute\nangles, as they grow upwards, branches or leaves very similar to the\nstem, which are in turn subdivided into others. The width of the stalks\nis generally about a quarter of an inch, the length often a foot. The\ncolor is brown, blackish-brown, or grayish. The same plant also occurs\nin the whitestone quarry [an overlying bed] in the form of Carbonaceous\nimpressions. There can be little doubt that it is a fucoid. The general\nmode of growth greatly resembles that of certain seaweeds; and in some\nspecimens we have seen the branches dilated a little at the extremities,\nlike those of such of the living fuci as expand in order to afford space\nfor the fructification. It is deserving of remark, that the plant is\nseldom observed lying horizontally on the rock in a direction parallel\nto its stratification, but rising up through the layers, so as only to\nbe seen when the stone is broken across; as if it had been standing\nerect, or kept buoyant in water, while the stony matter to which it owes\nits preservation was deposited around it.\" Mr. Duncan, after next\nreferring to the remains of what he deems a land plant, derived from the\nsame deposit, and which, though sadly mutilated, presents not a little\nof the appearance of the naked framework of a frond of Cyclopterus\nHibernicus divested of the leaflets, goes on to describe the apparent\ncalamite of the formation. \"The best preserved vegetable remain yet\nfound in Denholm Hill quarry,\" he says, \"is the radical portion of what\nwe cannot hesitate to call a species of calamite. The lower part is\nregularly and beautifully rounded, bulging and prominent, nearly four\ninches in diameter. About an inch from the bottom it contracts somewhat\nsuddenly in two separate stages, and, from the uppermost sends up a stem\nabout an inch in diameter, and nearly of the same length, where it is\nbroken across. At the origin of this stem the small longitudinal ridges\nare distinctly marked; and the whole outline of the figure, though\nconverted into stone, is as well defined as it could have been in the\nliving plant.\" Mr. Duncan accompanies his description with a figure of\nthe organism described, which, however, rather resembles the bulb of a\nliliaceous plant than the root of a calamite, which in all the better\npreserved, specimens contracts, instead of expanding, as it descends.\nThe apparent expansion, however, in the Old Red specimen may be simply a\nresult of compression in its upper part: the under part certainly much\nresembles, in the dome-like symmetry of its outline, the radical\ntermination of a solitary calamite.\n\n[52] \"Though the coal of Sabero is apparently included in Devonian\nrocks,\" says Sir Roderick Murchison, \"M. Casiano de Prado thinks that\nthis appearance may be do to inverted folds of the strata.\" On the other\nhand, M. Alcide D'Orbigny regards it us decidedly Old Red; and certainly\nits Sphenopteris and Lepidodendron bent much more the aspect of Devonian\nthan of Carboniferous plants.\n\n[53] Now, alas! no more. In Mr. Gourlay the energy and shrewd business\nhabits of the accomplished merchant were added to an enlightened zeal\nfor general science, and no inconsiderable knowledge in both the\ngeologic and botanic provinces. The marked success, in several respects,\nof the brilliant meeting of the British Association which held in\nGlasgow in September 1855, was owing in no small measure to the\nindefatigable exertions and well calculated arrangements of Mr. Gourlay.\n\n[54] Trees must have been very abundant in what is now Scotland in these\nSecondary ages. Trunks of the common Scotch fir are of scarce more\nfrequent occurrence in our mosses than the trunks of somewhat resembling\ntrees among the shales of the Lower Oolite of Helmsdale. On examining in\nthat neighborhood, about ten years since, a huge heap of materials which\nhad been collected along the sea shore for burning into lime in a\ntemporary kiln, I found that more than three fourths of the whole\nconsisted of fragments of coniferous wood washed out of the shale beds\nby the surf, and the remainder of a massive Isastrea. And only two years\nago, after many kilnfuls had been gathered and burnt, his grace the Duke\nof Argyll found that fossil wood could still he collected by cartloads\nalong the shore of Helmsdale. The same woods also occur at Port Gower,\nKintradwell, Shandwick, and Eathie. In the Island of Eigg, too, in an\nOolite deposit, locked up in trap, and whose stratigraphical relations\ncannot in consequence be exactly traced, great fragments of _Pinites\nEiggensis_ are so abundant, that, armed with a mattock, I have dug out\nof the rock, in a few minutes, specimens enough to supply a dozen of\nmuseums. In short, judging from its fossiliferous remains, it seems not\nimprobable that old Oolitic Scotland was as densely covered with\nconiferous trees as the Scotland of Roman times, when the great\nCaledonian forest stretched northwards from the wall of Antoninus to the\nfurthest Thule.\n\n\n\n\n IMPORTANT\n LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC WORKS,\n PUBLISHED BY\n GOULD AND LINCOLN,\n 59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.\n\n * * * * *\n\nANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY;\n\nOr, Year Book of Facts in Science and Art. By DAVID A. WELLS, A.M. 12\nmo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n This work, commenced in the year 1850, and issued in the month of\n January, annually, embraces an enumeration and description of every\n Important Invention, Discovery, or Scientific Theory, reported\n during the year. Each volume is distinct in itself, and contains\n ENTIRELY NEW MATTER, with a fine portrait of some person\n distinguished for his attainments in science and art.\n\n\nLAKE SUPERIOR;\n\nIts Physical Character, Vegetation, and Animals. By L. AGASSIZ, and\nothers. One volume, octavo, elegantly Illustrated. Cloth. $3.50.\n\n\nTHE PLURALITY OF WORLDS.\n\nNew Edition. With a SUPPLEMENTARY DIALOGUE, in which the author's\nreviewers are reviewed. 12mo. cloth, $1.00\n\n This masterly production, which has excited so much Interest in\n this country and in Europe, will now have increased attraction in\n the SUPPLEMENT, in which the author's reviewers are triumphantly\n reviewed.\n\n\nCOMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.\n\nBy Prof. C. TH. VON SIEBOLD and H. STANNIUS. Translated, with Notes,\nAdditions, &c., By WALDO J. BURNETT, M.D. One vol., octavo, cloth,\n$3.00.\n\n This is unquestionably the best and most complete work of its class\n ever yet published.\n\n\nWORKS BY HUGH MILLER.\n\nTHE FOOTPRINTS OF THE CREATOR; or, The Asterolepis of Stromness. With\nIllustrations. Memoir of the Author by LOUIS AGASSIZ. 12mo. cloth,\n$1.00.\n\nMY SCHOOLS and SCHOOLMASTERS; or, The Story of my Education. With an\nelegant Likeness. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n This is a personal narrative of a deeply interesting and\n instructive character, concerning one of the most remarkable men of\n the age.\n\nTHE OLD RED SANDSTONE; Or, New With Walks in an Old Field. Illustrated\nwith Plates and Geological Sections. 12 mo, cloth, $1.00.\n\nFIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. With a fine Engraving of\nthe Author. 12mo, cl., $1.00.\n\n A thrillingly interesting and very instructive book of travels;\n presenting the most perfectly life-like views of England and its\n people, to be found in the language.\n\nDR. BUCKLAND said, \"He would give his left hand to possess such powers\nof description as this man.\"\n\n\nTHE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.\n\nIts Typical Forms and Primeval Distribution. By CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH,\nWith an Introduction, containing an Abstract of the Views of Blumenbach,\nPrichard, Bachman, Agassiz, and other writers of repute. By SAMUEL\nKNEELAND, Jr., M.D. With elegant Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n It is a book of learning, and full of interest, and may be regarded\n as among the comparatively few real contributions to\n science--[Christian Witness.]\n\n\nTHESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES.\n\nSo classified and arranged as to facilitate the expression of ideas, and\nassist in literary composition. By PETER MARK ROGET. Revised and Edited,\nwith a List of Foreign Words Defined in English, and other additions, by\nBARNAS SEARS, D.D., President of Brown University. A New American, from\nthe late stereotype London edition, with ADDITIONS AND IMPROVEMENTS.\n12mo, cloth, $1.50.\n\n This edition contains Important additions of words and phrases NOT\n IN THE ENGLISH EDITION, making it in all respects MORE FULL AND\n PERFECT THAN THE AUTHOR'S EDITION. The work has already become one\n of standard authority, both in this country and in Great Britain.\n\n\nTHE ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY.\n\nAdapted to Schools and Colleges. With numerous Illustrations. By J.R.\nLOOMIS. Lewisburg University, Pa. 12mo, cloth, 75 cts.\n\n It is surpassed by no work before the American public. We hope that\n every teacher among our readers will examine the work and put the\n justness of our remarks to the test of his judgment and\n experience.--M.B. ANDERSON, LL. D.--[Pres. of Rochester University,\n N.Y.]\n\n This is just such a work as is needed for all our schools. It\n should take its place as a text-book in all the schools of the\n land.--[N.Y. Observer.]\n\n\nTHE EARTH AND MAN.\n\nBy Prof. ARNOLD GUYOT. With Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n\nINFLUENCE OF THE HISTORY OT SCIENCE UPON INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION.\n\nBy WILLIAM WHEWELL, D.D. 16mo, cloth, 25 cents.\n\n\nPRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY.\n\nWith illustrations. By LOUIS AGASSIZ and AUGUSTUS A. GOULD. 12mo, cloth,\n$1.\n\n This work places us in possession of information half a century in\n advance of all our elementary works on this subject.--PROF. JAMES\n HALL.\n\n A work emanating from so high a source hardly requires commendation\n to give it currency. Simple and elementary in its style, full in\n its illustrations, comprehensive in its range.--[Silliman's\n Journal.]\n\n The best book of the kind in our language.--[Christian Examiner.]\n\n Zoology is an interesting science, and is here treated with a\n masterly hand.--[Scientific American.]\n\n\nTHE LANDING AT CAPE ANNE;\n\nOr, The Charter of the First Permanent Colony on the Territory of the\nMassachusetts Company. Now discovered and first published from the\n_original manuscript_. By JOHN WINGATE THORNTON. Octavo, Cloth, $1.50.\n\n\nGEOLOGICAL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCES.\n\nWith an Explanatory Text, Geological Sections, and Plates of the Fossils\nwhich characterize the Formations. By JULES MARCOU. Two volumes. Octavo,\ncloth, $3.00.\n\n --> The Map is elegantly colored, and done up with\n linen cloth back, and folded in octavo form, with thick cloth\n covers.\n\n\nKNOWLEDGE IS POWER.\n\nA view of the Productive Forces of Modern Society, and the Results of\nLabor, Capital and Skill. By CHARLES KNIGHT. With numerous\nIllustrations. American edition. Revised, with Additions, by DAVID A.\nWELLS, editor of the \"Annual of Scientific Discovery.\" 12mo, cloth,\n$1.25.\n\n\nCYCLOPAEDIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS.\n\nA choice selection of Anecdotes of the various forms of Literature, of\nthe Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, Poetry, Painting and\nSculpture, and of the most celebrated Literary Characters and Artists of\ndifferent Countries and Ages, &c. By KAZLITT ARVINE, A.M. With numerous\nIllustrations. 725 pages, octavo, cloth, $3.00.\n\n This is unquestionably the choicest collection of ANECDOTES ever\n published. It contains THREE THOUSAND AND FORTY ANECDOTES, and more\n than ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS. It is admirably adapted\n to literary and scientific men, to artists, mechanics, and others,\n as a DICTIONARY FOR REFERENCE, in relation to facts on the\n numberless subjects and characters introduced.\n\n\nKITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOPAEDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE.\n\nCondensed from the larger work, by the author, JOHN KITTO, D.D. Assisted\nby JAMES TAYLOR, D.D. With _over_ 500 _Illustrations_. Octavo, 812 pp.,\ncloth, $3.00.\n\n This work answers the purpose of a commentary, while at the same\n time it furnishes a complete DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, embodying the\n products of the best and most recent researches in biblical\n literature, in which the scholars of Europe and America have been\n engaged. It is not only intended for ministers and theological\n students, but is also particularly adapted to parents,\n Sabbath-school teachers, and the great body of the religious\n public.\n\n\nHISTORY OF PALESTINE.\n\nWith the Geography and Natural History of the Country, the Customs and\nInstitutions of the Hebrews, etc. By JOHN KITTO, D.D. With upwards of\n200 Illustrations. 12mo, cloth. $1.25.\n\n Beyond all dispute this is the best historical compendium of the\n Holy Land, from the days of Abraham, to those of the late Pasha of\n Egypt, Mehemet Ali.--[Edinburgh Review.]\n\n --> In the numerous notices and reviews, the work has been strongly\n recommended, as not only admirably adapted to the FAMILY, but also as\n a text-book for SABBATH and WEEK DAY SCHOOLS.\n\n\n\nCHAMBERS'S CYCLOPAEDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.\n\nTwo large imperial octavo volumes of 1400 pages; with upwards of 300\nelegant Illustrations. By ROBERT CHAMBERS. Embossed cloth, $5.00.\n\n This work embraces about ONE THOUSAND AUTHORS, chronologically\n arranged and classed as Poets, Historians, Dramatists,\n Philosophers, Metaphysicians, Divines, etc., with choice selections\n from their writings, connected by a Biographical, Historical, and\n Critical Narrative; thus presenting a complete view of English\n literature from the earliest to the present time. Let the reader\n open where he will, he cannot fail to find matter for profit and\n delight. The selections are gems--infinite riches in a little room;\n in the language of another, \"A WHOLE ENGLISH LIBRARY FUSED DOWN\n INTO ONE CHEAP BOOK!\"\n\n\nCHAMBERS'S MISCELLANY OF USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE.\n\nBy WILLIAM CHAMBERS. With Illustrations. Ten vols., 16mo, cloth, $7.00.\n\n\nCHAMBERS'S HOME BOOK AND POCKET MISCELLANY.\n\nA choice Selection of Interesting and Instructive Reading for the Old\nand the Young. Six vols. 16mo, cloth, $3.00.\n\n This work is fully equal, if not superior, to either of the\n Chamber's other works in interest, containing a vast fund of\n valuable information, furnishing ample variety for every class of\n readers.\n\n\nCHAMBERS'S REPOSITORY OF INSTRUCTIVE AND AMUSING PAPERS.\n\nWith Illustrations. 16mo, cloth, bound. 4 vols. in two, $1.75; and 4\nvols. in one, $1.50.\n\n\nTHE CRUISE OF THE NORTH STAR;\n\nA Narrative of the Excursion of Mr. Vanderbilt's Party, in her Voyage to\nEngland, Russia, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Turkey, Madeira,\netc. By Rev. JOHN OVERTON CHOULES, D.D. With elegant Illustrations, etc.\n12mo, cloth, gilt back and sides, $1.50.\n\n\nVISITS TO EUROPEAN CELEBRITIES.\n\nBy the Rev. WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, D.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.\n\n A series of graphic and life-like Personal Sketches of many of the\n most distinguished men and women of Europe, with whom the author\n became acquainted in the course of several European tours, where he\n saw them in their own homes and under the most advantageous\n circumstances. \"It was my uniform custom, after every such\n interview, to take copious memoranda of the converation, including\n an account of the individual's appearance and manners; in short,\n defining as well as I could, the whole impression which his\n physical, intellectual, and moral man had made upon me.\" From the\n memoranda thus made, the material for the present instructive and\n exceedingly interesting volume is derived. Besides these \"pen and\n ink\" sketches, the work contains the novel attraction of a FAC\n SIMILE OF THE SIGNATURE of each of the persons introduced.\n\n\nPILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT; EXPLORATIONS OF THE NILE.\n\nWith Observations, illustrative of the Manners, Customs, etc. By Hon.\nJ.V.C. SMITH, M.D. With numerous elegant Engravings, 12mo; cloth, $1.25.\n\n\nTHE STORY OF THE CAMPAIGN.\n\nA complete Narrative of the War in Southern Russia. Written in a Tent in\nthe Crimea. By Major E. BRUCE HAMLEY, author of \"Lady Lee's Widowhood.\"\nWith a new and complete Map of the Seat of War. 12mo. paper covers,\n37-1/2 cts.\n\n\nPOETICAL WORKS.\n\nMILTON'S POETICAL WORKS. With Life and Elegant Illustrations. 16mo,\ncloth, $1.00; fine cloth, gilt, $1.25.\n\nPOETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. With Life, and Illustrations on\nSteel. 16mo, cl., $1; fine cl., gilt, $1.25.\n\n\nCOMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER. With a Life, and Critical\nNotices of his Writings. With new and elegant Illustrations on Steel.\n16mo. cloth, $1.00; fine cloth, gilt, $1.25.\n\n --> The above Poetical Works, by standard authors, are all of uniform\n size and style, printed on fine paper, from clear, distinct type,\n with new and elegant illustrations, richly bound in full gilt, and\n plain; thus rendering them, in connection with the exceedingly LOW\n PRICE at which they are offered, the cheapest and most desirable of\n any of the numerous editions of these author's works now in the\n market.\n\n\nLIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN FOSTER.\n\nEdited by J.E. RYLAND, with Notices of Mr. Foster as a Preacher and a\nCompanion. By JOHN SHEPPARD. Two volumes in one, 700 pages. 12mo, cloth,\n$1.25.\n\n In simplicity of language, in majesty of conception, in the\n eloquence of that conciseness which conveys in a short sentence\n more meaning than the mind dares at once admit,--his writings are\n unmatched.--[North British Review.]\n\n\nGUIDO AND JULIUS.\n\nTho Doctrine of Sin and the Propitiator; or, the True Consecration of\nthe Doubter. Exhibited in the Correspondence of two Friends. By\nFREDERICK AUGUSTUS O. THOLUCH, D.D. Translated by JONATHAN EDWARDS\nRYLAND. With an Introduction by JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D. 16mo, cloth, 60\ncents.\n\n\nNEW AND COMPLETE CONDENSED CONCORDANCE\n\nTo the Holy Scriptures. By ALEXANDER CRUDEN. Revised and re-edited by\nRev. DAVID KING, L.L.D. Octavo, cloth backs, $1.25, sheep, $1.50.\n\n\n\n\n VALUABLE WORKS\n\n PUBLISHED BY\n\n GOULD AND LINCOLN,\n\n 59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON.\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN'S DAILY TREASURY.\n\nA Religious Exercise for Every Day in the Year. By E. TEMPLE. A new and\nimproved edition. 12mo. cloth, $1.00.\n\n A work for every Christian. It is indeed a \"Treasury\" of good\n things.\n\n\nTHE SCHOOL OF CHRIST;\n\nOr, Christianity Viewed in its Leading Aspects. By the Rev. A.L.R.\nFOOTE, author of \"Incidents in the Life of our Saviour,\" etc. 16mo,\ncloth, 50 cents.\n\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN LIFE.\n\nSocial and Individual. By PETER BAYNE, M.A. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n The demand for this extraordinary work, commencing before its\n publication, is still eager and constant. There is but one voice\n respecting it; men of all denominations agree in pronouncing it one\n of the most admirable works of the age.\n\n\nGOD REVEALED IN THE PROCESS OF CREATION.\n\nAnd by the Manifestation of Jesus Christ. Including an Examination of\nthe Development Theory contained in the \"Vestiges of the Natural History\nof Creation,\" By JAMES B. WALKER, author of \"Philosophy of the Plan of\nSalvation.\" 12mo, cloth, $1.00.\n\n\nPHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION.\n\nBy an AMERICAN CITIZEN. An Introductory Essay, by CALVIN E. STOWE, D.D.\nNew improved edition, with a SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER. 12mo, cloth, 75 cts.\n\n This book is generally admitted to be one of the best in the\n English language. The work has been translated into several\n different languages in Europe. A capital book to circulate among\n young men.\n\n\nA WREATH AROUND THE CROSS;\n\nOr, Scripture Truths Illustrated. By A. MORTON BROWN, D.D.\nRecommendatory Preface, by JOHN ANGELL JAMES. Beautiful Frontispiece.\n16mo, cloth, 60 cents.\n\n\nTHE BETTER LAND;\n\nOr, The Believer's Journey and Future Home. By REV. A.C. THOMPSON. 12mo,\ncloth, 85 cents.\n\n A most charming and instructive book for all now journeying to the\n \"Better Land,\" and especially for those who have friends already\n entered upon its never-ending joys.\n\n\nTHE MISSION OF THE COMFORTER.\n\nWith copious Notes. By JULIUS CHARLES HARE. With the Notes translated\nfor the American edition. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n\nDR. WAYLAND'S UNIVERSITY SERMON\n\nDelivered in the Chapel of Brown University. 12mo, cloth, S1.00.\n\n\nTHE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.\n\nAnd their Relations to Christianity. By FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, A.M.,\nProfessor of Divinity, King's College, London. 16mo, cloth, 60 cts.\n\n\nSACRED RHETORIC;\n\nOr, Composition and Delivery of Sermons. By HENRY. J. RIPLEY, Professor\nin Newton Theological Institution, Including Professor Ware's Hints on\nExtemporaneous Preaching. 12mo, 75 cts.\n\n\nTHE PREACHER AND THE KING;\n\nOr, Bourdalone in the Court of Louis XIV. An Account of that\ndistinguished Era, Translated from the French of L.F. BUNGENER. With an\nIntroduction by the Rev. GEORGE POTTS, D.D. New edition, with a fine\nLikeness, and a Sketch of the Author's Life. 12mo, cloth, $1.25.\n\n It combines substantial history with the highest charm of romance.\n Its attractions are so various that it can hardly fail to find\n readers of almost every description.--[Puritan Recorder.]\n\n\nTHE PRIEST AND THE HUGUENOT;\n\nOr, Persecution in the Age of Louis XV. Translated from the French of\nL.F. BUNGENER. 2 vols., 12mo, cloth, $2.25.\n\n --> This is truly a masterly production, full of interest, and may be\n set down as one of the greatest Protestant works of the age.\n\n\nFOOTSTEPS OF OUR FOREFATHERS.\n\nWhat they Suffered and what they Sought. Describing Localities and\nportraying Personages and Events conspicuous in the Struggles for\nReligious Liberty. By JAMES G. MIALL. Thirty-six fine Illustrations.\n12mo, $1.00.\n\n An exceedingly entertaining work. The reader soon becomes so deeply\n entertained that he finds it difficult to lay aside the book till\n finished,--[Ch. Parlor Mag.]\n\n A work absorbingly interesting, and very instructive.--[Western\n Lit. Magazine.]\n\n\nMEMORIALS OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY.\n\nPresenting, in a graphic, compact, and popular form, Memorable Events of\nEarly Ecclesiastical History, etc. By JAMES G. MIALL. With numerous\nelegant Illustrations. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.\n\n --> This, like the \"Footsteps of our Forefathers,\" will be found a\n work of uncommon interest.\n\n\nWORKS BY JOHN HARRIS, D.D.\n\nTHE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. Contributions to Theological Science. 12mo,\ncloth, $1.00.\n\nMAN PRIMEVAL; or, the Constitution and Primitive Condition of the Human\nBeing. With a fine Portrait of the Author. 12mo. cloth, $1.25\n\nPATRIARCHY; or, THE FAMILY. Its Constitution and Probation; being the\n_third_ volume of \"Contributions to Theological Science.\" $1.25.\n\nTHE GREAT TEACHER; or, Characteristics of our Lord's Ministry. With an\nIntroductory Essay. By H. HUMPHREY, D.D. 12mo, cloth, 85 cts.\n\nTHE GREAT COMMISSION; or, the Christian Church constituted and charged\nto convey the Gospel to the World. Introductory Essay by W.R. WILLIAMS,\nD.D. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.\n\nZEBULON; Or, the Moral Claims of Seamen. 18mo, cloth, 25 cts.\n\n\nPHILIP DODDRIDGE.\n\nHis Life and Labors. By JOHN STOUGHTON, D.D., with beautiful Illuminated\nTitle-page and Frontispiece, 16mo, cloth, 60 cents.\n\n\nTHE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.\n\nAs exhibited in the writings of its apologists, down to Augustine. By\nW.J. BOLTON, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. 12mo. cloth, 80\ncents.\n\n\nWORKS BY DR. TWEEDIE.\n\nGLAD TIDINGS; or, The Gospel of Peace. A series of Daily Meditations for\nChristian Disciples. By Rev. W.K. TWEEDIE, D.D. With elegant Illustrated\nTitle-page. 16mo, cloth, 63 cts.\n\nTHE MORN OF LIFE; or, Examples of Female Excellence. A Book for Young\nLadies. 16mo, cloth. _In press._\n\nA LAMP TO THE PATH; or, the Bible in the Heart, the Home, and the Market\nPlace. With an elegant Illustrated Title-page. 16mo, cloth. 63 cts.\n\nSEED TIME AND HARVEST; or, Sow Well and Reap Well. A Book for the Young.\nWith an elegant Illustrated Title-page. 16mo, cloth, 63 cts.\n\n --> The above works, by Dr. Tweedie, are of uniform size and style.\n They are most charming, pious, and instructive works, beautifully\n gotten up, and well adapted for \"gift-books.\"\n\n\nWORKS BY JOHN ANGELL JAMES.\n\nTHE CHURCH MEMBER'S GUIDE; Edited by J.O. CHOULES, D.D. New edition.\nWith an Introductory Essay by Rev. HUBBARD WINSLOW. Cloth, 33c.\n\nCHRISTIAN PROGRESS. A Sequel to the Anxious Inquirer. 18mo, cloth, 31c.\n\n --> One of the best and most useful works of this popular author.\n\nTHE CHURCH IN EARNEST. Seventh thousand. 18mo, cloth, 40 cents\n\n\nMOTHERS OF THE WISE AND GOOD.\n\nBy JABEZ BURNS, D.D. 16mo, cloth, 75 cents.\n\n We wish it were in every family, and read by every mother in the\n land.--[Lutheran Observer.]\n\n\nMY MOTHER;\n\nOr, Recollections of Maternal Influence. By a New England Clergyman,\nWith a beautiful Frontispiece. 12mo, cloth, 75 cents.\n\n This is one of the most charming books that have issued from the\n press for a long period. \"It is,\" says a distinguished author, \"one\n of those rare pictures painted from life with the exquisite skill\n of one of the 'Old Masters,' which no seldom present themselves to\n the amateur.\"\n\n\nTHE EXCELLENT WOMAN.\n\nWith an Introduction by Rev. W.B. SPRAGUE, D.D. Containing twenty-four\nsplendid Illustrations. 12mo. cloth, $1.00; cloth, gilt, $1.75; extra\nTurkey, $2.50.\n\n --> This elegant volume is an appropriate and valuable \"gift book\"\n for the husband to present the wife, or the child the mother.\n\n\nMEMORIES OF A GRANDMOTHER. By a Lady of Massachusetts. l6mo, cloth, 50\ncents.\n\n\nTHE MARRIAGE RING;\n\nOr, How to make Home Happy. By JOHN ANGELL JAMES. Beautiful illustrated\nedition 16mo, cloth, gilt, 75 cents.\n\n A beautiful volume, and a very suitable present to a newly-married\n couple.--[N.V. Christian Intelligencer]\n\n\nWORKS BY WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D.D.\n\nRELIGIOUS PROGRESS; Discourses on the Development of the Christian\nCharacter. 12mo, cloth, 85 cts.\n\n This work is from the pen of one of the brightest lights of the\n American pulpit. We scarcely know of any living writer who has a\n finer command of powerful thought and glowing, impressive language\n than he.--[DR. SPRAGUE, Alb. Atl.]\n\nLECTURES ON THE LORD'S PRAYER Third edition. 12mo, cloth, 85 cts.\n\n Their breadth of view, strength of logic, and stirring eloquence\n place them among the very best homilitical efforts of the age.\n Every page is full of suggestions as well as eloquence.--Ch. Parlor\n Mag.\n\nMISCELLANIES. New improved edition. _Price reduced._ 12mo, $1.25.\n\n\n\n\nVALUABLE WORKS.\n\n\nTHE HALLIG; OR, THE SHEEPFOLD IN THE WATERS. A Tale of Humble Life on\nthe Coast of Schleswig. Translated from the German of Biernatzski, by\nMrs. GEORGE P. MARSH. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author. 12mo.\ncloth. $1.00.\n\n The author of this work was the grandson of an exiled Polish\n nobleman. His own portrait is understood to be drawn in one of the\n characters of the Tale, and indeed the whole work has a substantial\n foundation in fact. In Germany it has passed through several\n editions, and is there regarded as the chef-d'oeuvre of the\n author. As a revelation of an entire new phase of human society, it\n will strongly remind the reader of Miss Bremer's tales. In\n originality and brilliancy of imagination, it is not inferior\n those;--its aim is far higher. The elegance of Mrs. Marsh's\n translation will at once arrest the attention of every competent\n judge.\n\n HON. ROBERT C. WINTHROP. \"I have read it with deep interest. Mrs.\n Marsh has given us an admirable version of a most striking and\n powerful work.\"\n\n FROM PROF. F.D. HUNTINGTON, D.D., IN THE RELIGIOUS MAGAZINE.\n \"Wherever the work goes it fascinates the cultivated and the\n illiterate, the young and the old, the devout and the careless. Our\n own copy is in brisk circulation. The vivid and eloquent\n description of the strange scenery, the thrilling accounts of the\n mysterious action of the waters and vapors of the Schleswig coast,\n &c., all form a story of uncommon attractions and unmingled\n excellence.\"\n\n DR. SPRAGUE IN ALBANY SPECTATOR. \"A rare and beautiful work. It is\n an interesting contribution to the physical geography of a part of\n Europe lying quite beyond the reach of ordinary observation, and as\n a genial and faithful sketch of human life under conditions which\n are hardly paralleled elsewhere.\"\n\n The tale is a novel one, containing thrilling scenes, as well as\n religious teachings.--PRESBYTERIAN.\n\n A beautiful and exquisite natural tale. In novelty of life and\n customs, as well as in nicely drawn shades of local and personal\n character the Hallig, is equalled by very few works of\n fiction.--BOSTON ATLAS.\n\n The story, which is deeply thrilling, is exclusively\n religious.--CH. SECRETARY.\n\n Here we have another such book as makes the reading of it a luxury,\n even in hot summer weather. It takes us to an island home, in the\n chill regions of the North Sea, and introduces us to pastoral\n scenes as lively and as edifying as those of Oberlin, in the Ban de\n la Roche.--SOUTHERN BAP.\n\n\nTHE CAMEL: His Organization, Habits and Uses, considered with reference\nto his Introduction into the United States. BY GEORGE P. MARSH, late U.\nS. Minister at Constantinople. 16mo, cloth. 75 cents.\n\n This book treats of a subject of great interest, especially at the\n present time. It furnishes the only complete and reliable account\n of the Camel in the language. It is the result of extensive\n research and personal observation, and it has been prepared with\n special reference to the experiment now being made by our\n Government, of domesticating the Camel in this country.\n\n A repository of interesting information respecting the Camel. The\n author collected the principal materials for his work during his\n residence and travels for some years in the East. He describes the\n species, size, color, temper, longevity, useful products, diet,\n powers, training and speed of the Camel, and treats of his\n introduction into the United States.--PHIL. CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.\n\n This is a most interesting book, on several accounts. The subject\n is full of romance and information; the treatment is able and\n thorough.--TEXAS CH. ADVOCATE.\n\n Our Government have taken measures for introducing the Camel into\n this country, and an appropriation of $30,000 has been made by\n Congress. It becomes a matter of practical importance, therefore,\n to obtain the fullest and most reliable information possible\n respecting the animal and his adaptation to this country. His\n advent among us will stimulate general curiosity, and raise a\n thousand questions respecting his character and habits of life, his\n powers of endurance, his food, his speed, his length of life, his\n fecundity, the methods of managing and using him, the cost of\n keeping him, the value of his carcass after death, &c. This work\n furnishes, in a small compass, all the desired information.--BOSTON\n ATLAS.\n\n A complete sketch of the habits and nature of the Camel is given,\n which has great interest. The value of the camel as a beast of\n burden is abundantly confirmed.--N.Y. EVANGELIST.\n\n\n\n\nIMPORTANT WORKS.\n\n\nANALYTICAL CONCORDANCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES; or, The Bible presented\nunder Distinct and Classified Heads or Topics. By JOHN EADIE, D.D., LL.\nD., Author of \"Biblical Cyclopaedia,\" \"Dictionary of the Bible,\" &c., &c.\nOne volume, royal octavo, 836 pp. Cloth. $3.00; sheep, $3.50. _Just\npublished._\n\n The publishers would call the special attention of clergymen and\n others to some of the peculiar features of this great work.\n\n 1. It is a concordance of _subjects_, not of _words_. In this it\n differs from the common concordance, which, of course, it does not\n supersede. Both are necessary to the Biblical student.\n\n 2. It embraces all the topics, both secular and religious, which\n are naturally suggested by the entire contents of the Bible. In\n this it differs from Scripture Manuals and Topical Text-books,\n which are confined to religious or doctrinal topics.\n\n 3. It contains _the whole of the Bible without abridgment_,\n differing in no respect from the Bible in common use, except in the\n classification of its contents.\n\n 4. It contains a synopsis, separate from the concordance,\n presenting within the compass of a few pages a bird's-eye view of\n the whole contents.\n\n 5. It contains a table of contents, embracing nearly two thousand\n heads, arranged in alphabetical order.\n\n 6. It is much superior to the only other work in the language\n prepared on the same general plan, and is offered to the public at\n much less cost.\n\n The purchaser gets not only a _Concordance_, but also a _Bible_, in\n this volume. The superior convenience arising out of this\n fact,--saving, as it does, the necessity of having two books at\n hand and of making two references, instead of one,--will be readily\n apparent.\n\n The general subjects (under each of which there are a vast number\n of sub-divisions) are arranged as follows, viz.:\n\n Agriculture,\n Animals,\n Architecture,\n Army, Arms,\n Body,\n Canaan,\n Covenant,\n Diet and Dress,\n Disease and Death,\n Earth,\n Family,\n Genealogy,\n God,\n Heaven,\n Idolatry, Idols,\n Jesus Christ,\n Jews,\n Laws,\n Magistrates,\n Man,\n Marriage,\n Metals and Minerals,\n Ministers of Religion,\n Miracles,\n Occupations,\n Ordinances,\n Parables and Emblems,\n Persecution,\n Praise and Prayer,\n Prophecy,\n Providence,\n Redemption,\n Sabbaths and Holy Days,\n Sacrifice,\n Scriptures,\n Speech,\n Spirits,\n Tabernacle and Temple,\n Vineyard and Orchard,\n Visions and Dreams,\n War,\n Water.\n\n That such a work as this is of exceeding great convenience is\n matter of obvious remark. But it is much more than that; it is also\n an instructive work. It is adapted not only to assist the student\n in prosecuting the investigation of preconceived ideas, but also to\n impart ideas which the most careful reading of the Bible in its\n ordinary arrangement might not suggest. Let him take up any one of\n the subjects--\"Agriculture,\" for example--and see if such be not\n the case. This feature places the work in a higher grade than that\n of the common Concordance. It shows it to be, so to speak, a work\n of more mind.\n\n No Biblical student would willingly dispense with this Concordance\n when once possessed. It is adapted to the necessities of all\n classes,--clergymen and theological students; Sabbath-school\n superintendents and teachers; authors engaged in the composition of\n religious and even secular works; and, in fine, common readers of\n the Bible, intent only on their own improvement.\n\n\nA COMMENTARY ON THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. By\nHORATIO B. HACKETT, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and\nInterpretation, in the Newton Theological Institution. --> A new,\nrevised, and enlarged edition. _In Press._\n\n --> This most important and very popular work, has been thoroughly\n revised (some parts being entirely rewritten), and considerably\n enlarged by the introduction of important new matter, the result of\n the Author's continued, laborious investigations since the publication\n of the first edition, aided by the more recent published criticisms\n on this portion of the Divine Word, by other distinguished Biblical\n Scholars, in this country and in Europe.\n\n\n\n\nAMOS LAWRENCE.\n\n\nDIARY AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LATE AMOS LAWRENCE; with a brief account\nof some Incidents in his Life. Edited by his son, WILLIAM R. LAWRENCE,\nM.D. With fine steel Portraits of AMOS and ABBOTT LAWRENCE, an Engraving\nof their Birth-place, a Fac-simile page of Mr. Lawrence's Hand-writing,\nand a copious Index. Octavo edition, cloth, $1.50. Royal duodecimo\nedition, $1.00.\n\nThis work was first published in an elegant octavo volume, and sold at\nthe unusually low price of $1.50. At the solicitation of numerous\nbenevolent individuals who were desirous of circulating the work--so\nremarkably adapted to do good, especially to young men--_gratuitously_,\nand of giving those of moderate means, of every class, an opportunity of\npossessing it, the royal duodecimo, or \"_cheap edition_,\" was issued,\nvarying from the other edition, only in a reduction in the size\n(allowing less margin), and the _thickness_ of the paper.\n\nWithin six months after the first publication of this work, _twenty-two\nthousand_ copies had been sold. This extraordinary sale is to be\naccounted for by the character of the man and the merits of the book. It\nis the memoir of a Boston merchant, who became distinguished for his\ngreat wealth, but more distinguished for the manner in which he used it.\nIt is the memoir of a man, who, commencing business with only $20, gave\naway in public and private charities, _during his lifetime_ more,\nprobably, than any other person in America. It is substantially an\n_autobiography_, containing a full account of Mr. Lawrence's career as a\nmerchant, of his various multiplied charities, and of his domestic life.\n\n \"We have by us another work, the 'Life of Amos Lawrence.' We heard\n it once said in the pulpit, 'There is no work of art like a noble\n life,' and for that reason he who has achieved one, takes rank with\n the great artists and becomes the world's property. WE ARE PROUD OF\n THIS BOOK. WE ARE WILLING TO LET IT GO FORTH TO OTHER LANDS AS A\n SPECIMEN OF WHAT AMERICA CAN PRODUCE. In the old world, reviewers\n have called Barnum THE characteristic American man. We are willing\n enough to admit that he is a characteristic American man; he is ONE\n fruit of our soil, but Amos Lawrence is another. Let our country\n have credit for him also. THE GOOD EFFECT WHICH THIS LIFE MAY HAVE\n IN DETERMINING THE COURSE OF YOUNG MEN TO HONOR AND VIRTUE IS\n INCALCULABLE.\"--MRS. STOWE, IN N.Y. INDEPENDENT.\n\n \"We are glad to know that our large business houses are purchasing\n copies of this work for each of their numerous clerks. Its\n influence on young men cannot be otherwise than highly salutary. As\n a business man, Mr. Lawrence was a pattern for the young\n clerk.\"--BOSTON TRAVELLER.\n\n \"We are thankful for the volume before us. It carries us back to\n the farm-house of Mr. Lawrence's birth, and the village store of\n his first apprenticeship. It exhibits a charity noble and active,\n while the young merchant was still poor. And above all, it reveals\n to us a beautiful cluster of sister graces, a keen sense of honor,\n integrity which never knew the shadow of suspicion, candor in the\n estimate of character, filial piety, rigid fidelity in every\n domestic relation, and all these connected with and flowing from\n steadfast religious principle, profound sentiments of devotion, and\n a vivid realization of spiritual truth.\"--NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW.\n\n \"We are glad that American Biography has been enriched by such a\n contribution to its treasures. In all that composes the career of\n 'the good man,' and the practical Christian, we have read few\n memoirs more full of instruction, or richer in lessons of wisdom\n and virtue. We cordially unite in the opinion that the publication\n of this memoir was a duty owed to Society.\"--NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.\n\n \"With the intention of placing it within the reach of a large\n number, the mere cost price is charged, and a more beautifully\n printed volume, or one calculated to do more good, has not been\n issued from the press of late years.\"--EVENING GAZETTE.\n\n \"This book, besides being of a different class from most\n biographies, has another peculiar charm. It shows the inside life\n of the man. You have, as it were, a peep behind the curtain, and\n see Mr. Lawrence as he went in and out among business men, as he\n appeared on change, as he received his friends, as he poured out,\n 'with liberal hand and generous heart,' his wealth for the benefit\n of others, as he received the greetings and salutations of\n children, and as he appeared in the bosom of his family at his own\n hearth stone.\"--BRUNSWICK TELEGRAPH.\n\n \"It is printed on new type, the best paper, and is illustrated by\n four beautiful plates. How it can be sold for the price named is a\n marvel.\"--NORFOLK CO. JOURNAL.\n\n \"It was first privately printed, and a limited number of copies\n were distributed among the relatives and near friends of the\n deceased. This volume was read with the deepest interest by those\n who were so favored as to obtain a copy, and it passed from friend\n to friend as rapidly as it could be read. Dr. Lawrence has yielded\n to the general wish, and made public the volume. It will now be\n widely circulated, will certainly prove a standard work, and be\n read over and over again.\"--BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER.\n\n\n\n\nMODERN ATHEISM.\n\n\nMODERN ATHEISM, under its Forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism,\nDevelopment, and Natural Laws. By JAMES BUCHANAN, D.D., LL. D. 12mo,\ncloth, $1.25.\n\n The Author of this work is the successor of Dr. Chalmers in the\n Chair of Divinity in the New College, Edinburgh, and the\n intellectual leader of the Scottish Free Church.\n\n FROM HUGH MILLER, AUTHOR OF \"OLD RED SANDSTONE,\" &c., &c.,--The\n work before us is one of at once the most readable and solid which\n we have ever perused.\n\n FROM THE \"NEWS OF THE CHURCHES.\"--It is a work of which nothing\n less can be said, than that, both in spirit and substance, style\n and argument, it fixes irreversibly the name of the author as a\n leading classic in the Christian literature of Britain.\n\n FROM HOWARD MALCOM, D.D., PRESIDENT OF LEWISBURG UNIVERSITY.--No\n work has come into my hands, for a long time, so helpful to me as a\n teacher of metaphysics and morals. I know of nothing which will\n answer for a substitute. The public specially needs such a book at\n this time, when the covert atheism of Fichte, Wolfe, Hegel, Kant,\n Schelling, D'Holbach, Comte, Crousse, Atkinson, Martineau, Leroux,\n Mackay, Holyoake, and others, is being spread abroad with all\n earnestness, supported, at least in some places, both by church\n influence and university honors. I cannot but hope that a work so\n timely, scholarly, and complete, will do much good.\n\n It is one of the most solid and remarkable books in its department\n of literature; one of the most scholarly and profound inductions of\n modern Christian literature.--WORCESTER TRANSCRIPT.\n\n Dr. Buchanan has earned a high and well-deserved reputation as a\n classical writer and close logical reasoner. He deals heavy, deadly\n blows on atheism in all its various forms; and wherever the work is\n read it cannot fail to do good.--CHRISTIAN SECRETARY.\n\n It is a work which places its author at once in the highest rank of\n modern religious authors. His analyses of the doctrines held by the\n various schools of modern atheism are admirable, and his criticism\n original and profound; while his arguments in defence of the\n Christian Faith are powerful and convincing. It is an attractive as\n well as a solid book; and he who peruses a few of its pages is, as\n it were, irresistibly drawn on to a thorough reading of the\n book.--BOSTON PORTFOLIO.\n\n The style is very felicitous, and the reasoning clear and cogent.\n The opposing theories are fairly stated and combated with\n remarkable case and skill. Even when the argument falls within the\n range of science, it is so happily stated that no intelligent\n reader can fail to understand it. Such a profound, dispassionate\n work is particularly called for at the present time.--BOSTON\n JOURNAL.\n\n It is justly described as \"a great argument,\" \"magnificent in its\n strength, order, and beauty,\" in defence of truth, and against the\n variant theories of atheism. It reviews the doctrines of the\n different schools of modern Atheism, gives a fair statement of\n their theories, answers and refutes them, never evading, but\n meeting and crushing their arguments.--PHILA. CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.\n\n Dr. Buchanan is candid and impartial, too, as a strong a man can\n afford to be, evades no argument, undertakes no opposing view, but\n meets his antagonists with the quiet and unswerving confidence of a\n locomotive on iron tracks, pretty sure to crush them.--CHRISTIAN\n REGISTER.\n\n We hail this production of a master mind as a lucid, vigorous,\n discriminating, and satisfactory refutation of the various false\n philosophies which have appeared in modern times to allure\n ingenuous youth to their destruction. Dr. Buchanan has studied them\n thoroughly, weighed them dispassionately, and exposed their falsity\n and emptiness. His refutation is a clear stream of light from\n beginning to end.--PHILA. PRESBYTERIAN.\n\n We recommend \"Modern Atheism\" as a book for the times, and as\n having special claims on theological students.--UNIVERSALIST\n QUARTERLY.\n\n It is remarkable for the clearness with which it apprehends and the\n fairness with which it states, not less than for the ability with\n which it replies to, the schemes of unbelief in its various modern\n forms. It will be found easy to read--though not light reading--and\n very quickening to thought, while it clears away, one by one, the\n mists which the Devil has conjured around the great doctrines of\n our Faith, by the help of some of his ingenious modern coadjutors,\n and leaves the truth of God standing in its serene and pristine\n majesty, as if the breath of hatred never had been breathed forth\n against it.--CONGREGATIONALIST.\n\n Dr. Buchanan has here gone into the enemy's camp, and defeated him\n on his own ground. The work is a masterly defence of faith against\n dogmatic unbelief on the one hand, and that universal skepticism on\n the other, which neither affirms nor denies, on the ground of an\n assumed deficiency of evidence as to the reality of God and\n religion.--N.Y. CHRISTIAN CHRONICLE.\n\n It is a clearly and vigorously written book. It is particularly\n valuable for its clear statement and masterly refutation of the\n Pantheism of Spinoza and his School.--CHRISTIAN HERALD.","title":"The Testimony of the Rocks: or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":155614}