extinct, or, if still existing, as in the case of the tapir, are greatly diminished in size. From these facts, we have evidence that the antediluvian climate was peculiarly genial, and therefore we need not be surprised to find that it was far more favourable to human life, than the mingled and polluted atmosphere in which we at present exist.*

* In this view of the superior salubrity of the antediluvian climate, the author is directly opposed to the speculations of Bishop Sherlock, who imagines that the curse pronounced on the ground, rested upon it'in all its rigour, only till the flood, up to which period it rendered the work and toil necessary to raise from the ground a sufficient support for life, a grievous and irksome burden;' but that, after this catastrophe, that part of the curse which referred to the soil was removed, and the world was, in this respect restored to its primeval beauty and fertility. This strange notion rests for its support on two texts of Scripture, the first of which is the reason given by Lamech for naming his first-born son Noah, which means comfort, viz. 'This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed,' (Gen. v. 29). Those who have noted the custom which prevailed from the earliest times, of recording a reason for the naming of children at or soon after their birth, will scarcely see in this passage any thing more than the delight and pious gratitude of a father, for the gift of a son who should assist him in his agricultural labours. The Bible is full of similar birth-day sayings; thus Eve called her first-born son Cain, which signifies gotten, for she said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord;' and when, after the murder of Abel, she had another son, she called him Seth, which signifies appointed. 'For God,' said she, 'hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.' Many other instances might be mentioned.

The other text on which Sherlock builds his theory, can scarcely be considered of greater weight. It is the promise contained in the two last verses of the eighth chapter of Genesis. 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, neither will I again smite any more every thing living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.' The Bishop argues that these words intimate the removal of the curse, and the restoration of a greater stability of the seasons; but surely this is an unwarranted stretch of the meaning of a text which simply declares that no such calamity as the flood shall ever again visit the earth. The vigour of the human constitution, in the antediluvian ages, which is distinctly asserted, is alone sufficient to overturn the Bishop's theory; and the same thing seems to follow from the fact, that

In another respect, too, the aspect of the antediluvian world must have been considerably different from its present state. Since that early period, a deluge has swept over its surface with tremendous force, levelling hills, filling up valleys, scooping out ravines, altering the bed of the ocean, and blotting out, perhaps, whole continents from the map of the world, while it raised others in their place. By the action of this great catastrophe, very large additions must have been made to the productive soil of the earth, from the effects of detrition; but even then the soil appears to have been abundant, at least in many and extensive portions of the globe; and, whatever changes have been made, of which we shall speak more particularly in another paper, the general character of the terraqueous globe, and its inhabitants, must have been, with the exceptions already hinted at, nearly the same as at present. There was not only an abundant vegetation on its surface, but there were metals (brass and iron) which the labour of man could reach, and his ingenuity could convert to his use. Fire must have been employed in smelting and manufacturing these metals; and from the slight hints which the sacred historian affords, it would appear, that the domestic arrangements of families could not have greatly dif fered from our own.

This may suffice as a rapid introduction to the changes which I shall next have occasion to notice,-those which were occasioned by the universal deluge. Meanwhile, what a wonderful period have we been surveying!—a new world of organized beings has been created, and has perished. It came fair and perfect from the hands of its Creator. Throughout its whole bounds, there was no evil, no deformity, no death. The eye of the Almighty, as he beheld His work, 'saw that it was good.' It was created for the happiness of every living creature, and it completely answered the end. Every thing in the complicated machinery of Nature, was

the gift of animal food was not added to that of vegetables, till after the flood,,—an indication of the superior fertility and abundance, in the earliest ages, of plants fit for human subsistence.

with the nicest skill adjusted to all the rest, so that there was no jarring, no interference. All was peace, and harmony, and joy. But the adversary and destroyer came. By a mysterious providence, he was permitted to prevail. Moral evil was introduced into the rational creation, and a new order of things arose. A state of universal blessedness was converted into a state of human discipline. New adjustments became necessary, and were accomplished. The animal and vegetable world, the earth, the sea, and the air, were all accommodated to this wonderful revolution. Wintry storms desolated the land, and chafed the raging sea; earthquakes shook the solid globe; volcanoes poured forth their liquid fire; lightnings flashed, and thunder rent the sky ;-decomposition, decay, and death, became the common law of organized existences;-while man, the guilty author of all this disorder, refusing to learn under the rod, waxed only more and more rebellious, till the whole world was filled with violence, and the measure of his iniquity being full, the sentence came forth from the Creator, 'Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under the heavens; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.' How mysterious was the forbearance which permitted the rebellion, but how just was the judgment which punished it!

THIRTEENTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

V. GEOLOGY.-INDICATIONS OF THE ACTION OF THE DELUGE AT THE PERIOD ASSIGNED TO IT IN SCRIPTURE.

I AM now to consider the geological indications of that universal deluge, by which a new epoch was formed in the his tory of the world, and by which, while the increasing wickedness of the human race, then existing, was visited by the Divine Governor with a signal display of his displeasure, a new order of things was prepared.

The account which the sacred historian gives of this awful event, is, that 'the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high hills which were under the whole heaven were covered; and all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.' It appears further from the Divine record, that, in the sixth month from the commencement of the catastrophe, the waters began to subside; and that at the end of a year, the seas were collected, or rapidly collecting, into their present channels, and the earth had become so dry, at least in the higher grounds, as to be again fit for the habitation of living crea

tures.

It has been too justly alleged, that there is a tendency to scepticism in the minds of scientific men; that, whether it be from a pride of understanding, which induces them to look down with contempt on the opinions of the vulgar, or from a consciousness of enlarged ideas, which inclines them to distrust, as contracted or superstitious, the views they have acquired in the nursery and in their elementary schools of instruction, they frequently feel a pleasure in adopting views and maintaining principles at variance with revealed truth. At all events, the Mosaic account of the deluge, as well as of the creation, was certainly received with incredulity by those individuals who, about the beginning of the present century, took the lead in geological investigations; and I am by no means sure, that this reproach does not still attach to many who affect the name of philosophical inquirers. Brydone endeavoured to throw doubt on the scriptural account, by an allegation (which was completely overturned, however, by subsequent discoveries), regarding the time requisite for converting lava into vegetable soil, which would have given an

antiquity to the earth's present surface, far beyond the period of the flood; and Bailly used, for the same purpose, and with similar success, the false and vain-glorious chronology of the Hindoos.

Happily, however, a philosopher of a different stamp has arisen, who, rigidly questioning Nature, without reference to any pre-conceived opinion, and without regard, I believe, even to the authority of Scripture, has come to the conclusion, that the appearances on the surface of the earth, indicate the origin of its present state, as having taken its date at a period corresponding with wonderful exactness to the Mosaic account. The words in which M. Cuvier states this satisfactory opinion, are sufficiently pointed and precise. 'I conclude,' he observes, with MM. Deluc and Dolomieu, that, if there be any fact well established in geology, it is this, that the surface of our globe has suffered a great and sudden revolution, the period of which cannot be dated further back than 5000 or 6000 years. This revolution has, on the one hand, engulphed, and caused to disappear, the countries formerly inhabited by men, and the animal species at present best known; and, on the other, has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus converting its channel into the now habitable earth.'*

* That the Supreme Being, not only in the ordinary course of His providence, but even when he interferes to execute judgment, generally makes use of second causes, seems to be admitted. In the case of the deluge, He probably did not deviate beyond what is stated in the Sacred Volume, from this usual mode of operation, and human curiosity has led to the inquiry by what natural powers the flood was effected. That there are agents in nature quite sufficient, in point of force and extent, to produce the effects described, cannot be doubted. The most obvious of these is thus stated by Dr. Fitton, in his Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings. The evidence in proof of great and frequent movements of the land itself, both by protrusion and subsidence, and of the connexion of these movements with the operation of volcanoes, is so various and so strong, derived from so many quarters on the surface of the globe, and every day so much extended by recent inquiry, as almost to demonstrate that these have been the causes by which those great revolutions were effected; and, although the action of the inward forces which protrude