GEOLOGY. THE term Geology is derived from ge, the earth, and logos, word, or discourse; and is therefore equivalent to a treatise concerning the earth. The direct object of this science is to unfold the solid substance of the earth, to discover by what causes its several parts have been either arranged or disorganized, and from what operations have originated the general stratification of its materials, the inequalities of its surface, and the vast variety of bodies that enter into its composition. It will be evident, that to go into the details of this science can form no part of the object of this work; but there are a few branches of the subject which we cannot be allowed to pass over, in consequence of their intimate connexion with some important particulars of the sacred writings. There is no necessity to revive here the controversy which once disturbed the Grecian schools, concerning the eternity of matter, and the spontaneous formations of atoms. Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others, continued to maintain the barrier against the influx of principles so destructive of the moral happiness of man. Dr. Cudworth, in his True Intellectual System of the Universe,' spent the better periods of his life in bringing forward their ancient arguments, connected with the advantages of modern literature, with a view to put the free-thinkers of his time entirely out of countenance. Moralists, poets, and divines, acknowledge their obligations for his labors. But truth must still be clad in armor. The warring passions of men against the laws of heaven, ever raise their weapons against the doctrines of revelation. Every now and then, a new enemy approaches our flanks, wishful that we should not perceive his manœuvres till he has struck the blow. He approaches in the garb of science, and gains our ear as the friend of reason and of truth. Having obtained some ascendancy by his wisdom, and pleased us by his eloquence, he slides imperceptibly to the eternal war which the ocean has waged against the cliffs and promontories, and to the immeasurable periods which our continents have endured. Now, if these doctrines be really founded, and by fair deductions, from the characters of the earth, then Moses is in error, and the ancient patriarchs were ignorant of the origin of the world; then the claims of revelation are nugatory, and impositions on the credulity of the public. If the history of nature do not afford arguments, and speak with a thousand voices of conviction to the mind,-if the earth itself do not furnish chronometers of a comparative juve nile existence, we have but to retire in vanquished silence, leaving the palm in the hand of infidelity. Because, if matter really be eternal, the Being to whom we ascribe the glory of creation, is dependent on matter, and no longer a free, but a necessary agent, who ought not to be adored, because he cannot hear or save. Just the reverse of this is the Christian faith. We believe that the Supreme Being alone is eternal, independent of all creatures, and infinitely happy in himself. We regard the creation as a voluntary overflowing of his goodness, that intelligent beings might be happy in the contemplation of his works, and in the enjoyment of his favor. We admire the creation in order to adore the Creator. We see all nature full of his perfections. In the immensity of the creatures, and in the variety of their forms, we trace the wisdom of a God, who, in the formation of every creature, and the connexion of cause and consequence, had every possible plan before him, and has, in all cases chosen that which was best. Foreseeing the solar influence of the torrid zones, he has provided cooling fruits to allay the heats of fevers, breezes almost constant to cool the air, and provided the camel with an upper stomach, to hold a supply of water while crossing the parched deserts. Equally aware of the northern cold, he has there provided more solid food for man, the warmest wools for sheep which prefer the hills, and soft and open furs for beasts which pierce the thicket. Every creature in the mineral, the vegetable and the animal kingdom, alike discovers his wisdom, his goodness, and his care. Hence arises the impossibility of superadding the least improvement to the works of nature; for whatever has once received the finish of God, can never receive the smallest augmentation from the genius of man. The contrast, therefore, between the believer and the unbeliever is wide and striking. While the mere geologist contemplates the mines and abysses of nature,-while he is awed by the falling of precipitous cliffs, and while he trembles at an imaginary sinking of continents, and the consequent rise of others out of the sea, he looks into the abysses of his tomb-the tomb into which he is about to fall and rise no more: whereas, the Christian student looks through all nature with cheerful eyes. When he sees the mineral kingdom abounding in beauties, beauties which in their kind equal those of the vegetable and animal kingdom, he is transported with the thought, that the God who made all these beauties by his fiat, is himself infinitely more glorious than his works.* From the surveys which have been made of the solid crust of the earth, so far as it has been penetrated into, it is evident that the rudimental materials of the globe existed at its earliest period, in one confused and liquid mass; that they were afterwards separated and arranged by a progressive series of operations, and an uniform system of laws, the more obvious of which appear to be those of *Sutcliffe's Introduction to the Study of Geology, pp. 4-6. It is much to be regretted that this excellent little work is not more generally known. gravity and crystallization; and that they have since been convulsed and dislocated by some dreadful commotion and inundation that have extended to every region, and again thrown a great part of the organic and inorganic creation into confusion. Hence have originated the Plutonic and the Neptunian hypotheses: the former ascribing the origin of the world, in its present state, to igneous fusion; the latter, to aqueous solution. Both of these theories are of a very early date, and both of them have been agitated in ancient as well as in modern times, with considerable warnth and plausible argument. The principal champions of the Plutonic system, in later times, are Dr. Hutton, Professor Playfair, and Sir James Hall; names of high literary rank, but most powerfully opposed by the distinguished authorities of Werner, Saussure, Kirwan, Cuvier, and Jameson, who are supported by the general voice of scientific men. Of these theories, the Plutonic is perhaps best entitled to the praise of boldness of conception and unlimited extent of view. It aspires, in many of its modifications, not only to account for the present appearances of the earth, but for that of the universe; and traces out a scheme by which every planet, or system of planets, may be continued indefinitely, and perhaps forever, by a perpetual series of restoration and balance. With this system the Neptunian forms a perfect contrast. It is limited to the earth, and to the present appearances of the earth. It resolves the genuine origin of things into the operation of water; and while it admits the existence of subterranean fires to a certain extent, and that several of the phænomena that strike us most forcibly may be the result of such an agency, it peremptorily denies that such an agency is the sole or universal cause of the existing state of things, or that it could possibly be, rendered competent to such an effect. More especially should we feel disposed to adhere to this theory, from its general coincidence with the geology of the Scriptures. The Mosaic narrative, indeed, with bold and soaring pinions, takes a comprehensive sweep through the vast range of the solar system, if not through that of the universe; and in its history of the simultaneous origin of this system, touches chiefly upon geology, as the part most interesting to ourselves; but so far as it enters upon this doctrine, it is in sufficiently close accordance with the Neptunian scheine,—with the great volume of nature as now cursorily dipped into. The narrative opens with a statement of three distinct facts, each following the other in a regular series, in the origin of the visible world. First, an absolute creation, as opposed to a mere remodification of the heaven and the earth, which constituted the earliest step in the creative process. Secondly, the condition of the earth when it was thus primarily brought into being, which was that of an amorphous or shapeless waste. And thirdly, a commencing, effort to reduce the unfashioned mass to a condition of order and harmony. In the beginning,' says the sacred historian, |