No. CCXXVIII.

THE present state of geological knowledge, with its possible application to purposes of economic utility, is a subject well worthy of consideration. It is not absolutely necessary to understand a thing ourselves, in order to be convinced that it may be serviceable to others, or beneficial to society at large. The interest attached to this diversified, romantic, and highly fascinating science, is not confined to the student, who collects minerals and fossils for private instruction or amusement; or to the solitary philosopher, who buries himself in books and museums, dreaming away existence in the acquirement of information, which often perishes with himself. It extends to the engineer, the agriculturist, the miner, the mechanic, the artisan, the architect of the palace, and the labourer who cultivates the soil--to nearly all who are engaged in the practical avocations of ordinary life, with many of the simplest of which its most important discoveries are connected.

In devoting a short article to this topic, we propose to occupy the space allotted, in general remarks and a few general deductions, rather than in a minute or connected review of the books named at foot, referring to them (and others) as occasion may require. These works are among the most recent, and may be classed with the most valuable contributions to a

field of literature, well stocked with distinguished writers and eminent authorities. Even fifteen years ago, Professor Phillips in his "Guide to Geology," while giving a selection of authors, who illustrate the history of particular formations or districts, says, "many of great merit, especially foreign, are unavoidably omitted. The mere list of eminent authors, and titles of their works, would fill a volume."

Since that date, with the progressive advancement of the science, the illustrative publications have increased in a tenfold ratio.

A great proportion of the standard works on geology are inaccessible to the general reader, from the expensive form in which they have appeared. Others from having been privately printed. The latter practice seems both ill-judged and inconsistent (not to say, selfish) on any subject embracing general utility. A particular instance may be named in Professor M'Coy's "Synopsis of the Carboniferous, or Mountain Limestone District of Ireland;" an admirable treatise (and the only one) on a most important formation, teeming with organic remains to such an extent, that it may be said, almost without exaggeration, to be entirely composed of them. A very li mited impression was struck off, and the copies were either distributed in public libraries, or given to a few favoured

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individuals. Neither interest nor disbursement can place this volume on the shelves of the geological collector.

The "Palæontographical Society," established in 1848, deserves the utmost praise and encouragement. For a trifling annual subscription of one guinea, an average of three monographs in quarto is supplied to each member. The plates are beautifully executed, and the letter-press descriptions written by the leading professors of the day. We know no other channel through which the same amount of value could be obtained for the same money. There has also lately been instituted, under the superintendence of an experienced geologist, Mr. E. Charlesworth, Curator of the York Museum, a "British Natural History Society," the object of which is, by raising a fund, to distribute among the subscribers series of fossils, so as to enable them, at a comparatively very small cost, to establish a large collection. Above forty thousand specimens have thus been distributed in sets, derived hitherto from the tertiary deposits of the Isle of Wight, and the adjacent Hampshire cliffs. These specimens are very perfect and beautiful, and if adequately encouraged, the conductors purpose extending their arrangements to collecting and distributing, in a similar way, the fossils of the mountain limestone of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Kildare. A single subscription of 12s. 6d. entitles the party to a suite of one hundred specimens, embracing examples of forty species; and so on in a similar proportion, by doubling or trebling the amount paid. The geological student should not suffer the advantages offered by these societies to escape, or lose the opportunity of thus acquiring knowledge with a trifling expenditure of time and money, two valuable commodities, which all cannot afford to disburse with equal liberality.

"The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." These clear and impresive words of the Psalmist are selected by the Rev. Dr. J. Pye Smith, to head the opening chapter of his most agreeable and instructive volume, on the relation between Scripture and Geology, published about twelve years since. He has chosen them as an apposite text to introduce his subject, nor should they ever be lost sight of in

pursuing geological inquiry, or in examining the phænomena so plainly and palpably preserved and held forward to the eye and heart desirous of knowledge, for the express purpose of investigation.

These physical evidences of other dispositions of the material world, distinct from, and by myriads of ages antecedent to those which now exist, were not placed where they are without object or arrangement. Neither did they assume special form and classified position, by chance, by any self-dependent faculty, and immutable progressive law in nature, nor by any exercise of inherent, individual power or attribute. They are there by the single fiat or will of the Creator of all things; so arranged and planned in the changes and revolutions of matter produced by his omnipotent wisdom, to instruct MAN, the representative of himself on earth, his last and greatest work, made expressly after his own image, unconnected with, and unproduced by any inferior or intermediate agency, his sole responsible creature ; and to assist him in the development of truth. They are land-marks, and directing beacons, designed by a superintending power to encourage and enlighten him in his course; and not breakers, shifting sands, or bewildering meteors, to entangle and destroy his vessel, or drive him from his haven of refuge. The organic remains of former worlds, so profusely distributed throughout our planet in its present state, have been aptly designated " Medals of Creation," and " Footprints of the Creator," To prove that they are so, to ascertain their history, to apply the knowledge thence derived to our own moral and intellectual improvement, and in so doing to glorify the one great source from whence all things emanate; this must surely be considered an ennobling and profitable exercise of man's intellect a just adaptation of the faculties and opportunities which have been pre-eminently accorded to him.

To this sole end, and with this single object, the rational disciples of geology employ their time, and direct their endeavours. The visions of enthusiasm, and the mischievous dogmas of infidelity, will in due course be reduced to reason, or compelled to retire from the field of discussion. Magna est veritas et prevalebit. In this case, all must be

clear and convincing. Objection must be answered by fact, and argument vanquished by instance. Positive proof must be opposed to ingenious sophistry. In mere commonplace disquisitions, obscurity is injurious; on a leading point of ethical truth or religious conviction, mystification or doubt is fatal.

The scriptural passage quoted above has often been used and appealed to, as bearing directly on the subject of geology. That it does so, appears sufficiently evident, but only in connexion with all other matters comprised within the system or arrangement of the universe. Each separate operation of nature, each minute illustration of the presiding providence which governs the external world, is included in the sentence. Any attempt at individual, exclusive application (which has more than once been set forward in the case of geology), is equally unnecessary and untenable. Such narrow reasoning weakens its own cause by relying on evidence which proves nothing.

Not very many years since, when geology began to assume general importance, to attract general attention, and to be received as an acknowledged science, religious people became alarmed, lest, as they said and feared, too close an investigation of the new and startling doctrine should impugn the Mosaic history of creation, or strike at the foundations of revealed religion. The clamour was natural, but the cause imaginary. The sound geologists, convinced they were right, boldly challenged the most scrutinising inquiry. Never mind, said they, apparent discrepancies at first sight. They exist only on the surface, and will easily be reconciled. They resemble the morning mists which herald the brightness of day, and will all disappear as the subject is more carefully examined. The writings of Moses are inspired; the Bible is, unquestionably, the Word of God; it is a true record. The evidences of geology are actual, not imaginary. They are physical, tangible, before us, around us, in our hands, subject to our sight, and offered to our researches. They prove themselves. They are not arguments, but facts. You cannot deny them, for if you do, your own senses

Many prejudices were to be encountered, and many difficulties surmounted, although, fortunately, the days of darkness and tyranny had gone by, when Galileo was consigned to the dungeons of the Inquisition for demonstrating the rotatory motion of the earth, and Harvey had to encounter the tender investigation of the Star Chamber for discovering the circulation of the blood. Towards the end of the last century, the Canon Recupero, a learned naturalist of Catania, had like to have got into trouble with his Diocesan for discovering the antiquity of Etna, which, though a mountain of yesterday when compared with the Grampians of Scotland, the Mendips of Somerset, or the Granites of Wicklow, he ascertained to be at least more than 14,000 years old. It requires two thousand years and upwards to form a scanty soil on the surface of a lava. In sinking a pit near Iaci Reale, of a great depth, seven distinct lavas were pierced through, one under the other, the surfaces of which were parallel, and most of them covered with a thick bed of rich earth. "The eruption which formed the lowest of these lavas," says the Canon, "if we may be allowed to reason from analogy, must have flowed from the mountain at least 14,000 years ago." Recupero who was timid and orthodox, was exceedingly embarrassed by his own discoveries. Moses, he said, hung like a dead weight upon him, and blunted all his zeal for inquiry, while, at the same time, he could not reject the physical evidences he beheld. The Bishop of Catania settled the question, by ordering him instantly to make his mountain young enough to agree with Moses, or take the consequences. could have wished," says Bishop Watson, "he had shut up his mouth with an argument, rather than the threat of an ecclesiastical censure.'

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But time and the hour" have worked their full effect; and, with

very few exceptions, those who cavilled against the existence of earlier forms of matter, have discovered that the reasoning submitted to them was sound, the test unimpeachable, and the result satisfactory. Geology, fairly interpreted, supports natural and revealed religion, in every point. The pious alarmists have gained an additional entrenchment where they apprehended a breaching battery.

Then arose ingenious, multiplied, and inconclusive discussions, on the supposed length of the six days of creation. Whether each was a year, or a lustrum, or a decade, or a century, or simply twenty-four hours, according to our present division and estimate of time. All this afforded good scope for theological eloquence and argumentation, with, as usual, some sacrifice of temper, but was and is quite unncessary for geological proof or purpose. The first two verses of Genesis were all that either required. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth-and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." There is an interval of undefined duration between these two epochs, that of the first production of matter, and the time when it had become shapeless. This interval suffices for all the successive cataclysms, which alternately submersed and upheaved the various ingredients of which our planet the earth is composed, until it was finally remodelled from its last chaotic state for the reception of man, its new inhabitant, with the new race of animals, then also for the first time created, to be subject to his rule, and subservient to his necessities.

It is needless here to recapitulate the arguments leading to this conclusion, so ably and convincingly set forth by Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster, Dr. Pye Smyth, Professor Sedgwick, Professor Silliman, of Yale College, Connecticut, Dr. Conybeare, Mr. Joshua Trimmer, and other eminently learned and religious authorities. For a single selection, the opinion of the late Dr. Chalmers (who examined long and decided cautiously) may be introduced, as quoted by the Dean of Westminster in his celebrated Bridgewater Treatise, entitled, "Geology and Mineralogy considered with Reference to Natural Theology:"

"I have great satisfaction in finding

that the view of this subject, which I have here expressed, and have long entertained, is in perfect accordance with the highly valuable opinion of Dr. Chalmers, recorded in the following passages of his Evidence of the Christian Revelation,' Chap. VII. :- Does Moses ever say, that when God created the heavens and the earth, he did more at the time alluded to than transform them out of previously existing materials? Or does he ever say that there was not an interval of many ages between the first act of creation described in the first verse of the book of Genesis, and said to have been performed at the beginning, and those more detailed operations, the account of which commences at the second verse, and which are described to us as

having been performed in so many days? Or, finally, does he ever make us understand that the genealogies of man went any farther than to fix the antiquity of the species, and, of consequence, that they left the antiquity of the globe a free subject for the speculation of philosophers.'

On the influence of progressive proof as leading to conviction, no case more decisive could be produced than that of so clear an arguer, and so thoroughly a religious man as Dr. Chalmers. In his work on the Evidences of Christianity, already referred to, he devoted a chapter to the refutation of what he then called the "scepticism of geologists." Twenty years after, in his publication on Natural Theology, he commenced his considerations respecting the origin of the world with a section headed, "The Geological Argument in behalf of a Deity."

It having been found that Scripture and geology might easily be reconciled by those who were desirous of finding them in accordance, some writers who still questioned the great antiquity of the earth, although they could not dispute the evidence of successive changes, set themselves to prove that all these transformations in the crust or surface of the terrestrial globe had taken place within the six thousand and odd years which have elapsed since the creation of man; that the powers of Omnipotence had been quiescent except during that inconsiderable segment of time; that stratification and fossilisation of every kind were produced at the Noachian Deluge; and that all which geology presents and claims, must be taken as tokens and relics of that mighty but recent occurrence. Among the earliest and best-known supporters of this