We cannot refuse, by parity of reasoning, to conclude the same as to the

immediately succeeding act in the Divine operations. The arrangement of

the surface of the earth was now to be effected; and, just as one portion

of the waters was lifted and expanded into air, so, in consequence of a

different proportion in the elements, and evolution of new principles,

the seas were formed and gathered into the depressions occasioned by the

raising up of the dry land, its consolidation into rocks and mountains.

This is the starting point of geology. The science can get no deeper. It

begins all its researches, and builds all its calculations, upon that

crystalline crust which is termed primary, which is co-extensive with

the superficial area of the globe, which is found in every region, and

beneath which no explorations have anywhere been made. And wherefore

not assume this as an immediate formation, as a direct preparatory

arrangement, like the seas and atmosphere, for the life that was just to

be provided with a habitation upon it? A beginning for organic bodies

is demonstrable upon geological evidence. The lowest fossiliferous

rocks have been reached, and everywhere they are found to maintain the

same relative position. The inference, therefore, is legitimate, nay,

probable, that the primary formations of geologists constituted the

first dry land, as herein described; and that Time, calculated according

to the operations of natural mechanical laws, can enter in no way into

our speculations as to their origin. “And God said, Let the waters under

the heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land

appear: and it was so.”

The course of creation proceeds. “And God called the dry land earth, and

the gathering together of the waters called he seas.” The globe was thus

divided into land and ocean. An atmosphere embraces the whole, tempering

the heat and cold of the one, receiving the exhalations of the other,

and both prepared for the ministrations required of them. The dry earth

is represented as being first the seat of organic life. The new and bare

surface is covered with herbage. The grasses, shrubs, and trees all start

into being, prepared each for the diffusion and continuance of their

kind, by yielding seed and fruit. And then commenced on the theater of

our globe the successive evolution of the _principle of life_, subtile,

active, prolific, in all the boundless prodigality of nature, and

mysterious still as the essence and fount of all-creative Being.

At this part of the narrative it is generally supposed, according to the

common reading, that there is a retrograde step, as it were, introduced.

The day and night have been made to precede the creation of the sun and

moon; and now to supply the deficiency we are told of the appointment of

these luminaries in the heavens “to give light upon the earth.” But three

days and three nights have already revolved. Doubtless they have, but not

without light, for light has been created; and not without a provision

for the night, for the light has been divided from the darkness.

The earth has been revolving upon its own axis; that occasioned the

succession of day and night then as now. Another motion is communicated,

whereby it revolves in its orbit and circles round the sun; that causes

the variety of the seasons, and the divisions of the year. The luminous

matter diffused through space, and equally shining upon all bodies, has

been assembled into the great central orbs, to be the dispensers each of

light and heat to their respective systems; and upon these arrangements

being established, both days and nights, seasons and years, are all

dependent upon, as they all arise from, the revolution of the planets

round the central luminary. “And God said, Let there be lights in the

firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them

be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years.”

“And God _made_ two great lights; he _made_ the stars also.” The original

does not bear out the sense of there being in these instances an act of

creation; neither does the English term itself always imply that meaning.

Light-bearers, or the depositories of illumination, is the true rendering

of the Hebrew. The Septuagint translators have used similar relative

terms, and in our own language the expression “made” often signifies

fashioned, formed, used, constrained. And so the phrase here refers not

to the creation, but to the uses of bodies already described as being

in existence, and created along with all matter in the beginning. But

now they are invested with new properties, are arranged so as to perform

new functions, and stand in relations each to each, at the bidding of

Him who brought them into being. Next to the summoning of the universe

into existence, this was the most stupendous act of Divine power, and

we know as much of the one as of the other. Some of the properties of

matter we are acquainted with. The laws of motion we can define in some

measure, and calculate also their effects. But whence the one, and

_how_ the arbitrary appointment of the other, through all the infinite

diversity of systems and spheres—precise, harmonious, and orderly—baffles

all the ingenuity of science to determine. Mark, too, the order of the

introduction of this new class of facts, just in the due course and

regulation of nature. When life is mentioned, and the earth is clothed

with verdure, the seasons begin their round, and the divinely-instructed

historian acquaints us with the cause. “And God set them in the firmament

of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and to rule over the day and

over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness.”

The waters are now replenished with their stores of animal life, and by

the same act of creation the air receives its stock of winged tribes.

Then follows, as the work of another distinct period of time, the

introduction of the terrestrial races—the living creature after his

kind—the cattle—and creeping thing—and beast of the earth after his kind.

The description here is general. The orders, genera, and species are not

named. Still the catalogue is large and amply descriptive. The various

types of organic structure are alluded to, and each term or epithet

of the quadruple list is elastic enough to embrace one and all the

diversified families of the most methodical naturalist. “And God made the

beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every

creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, each after his kind.”

Such is the account, the order, and course of creation, as set forth

in the inspired record. The description of the various generative acts

is simple, distinctive, and consonant with the energies of the Will by

which they are performed. The whole narrative is one of many, within the

compass of the sacred volume, in which a strict adherence to the letter

leads to a sound interpretation. The wisdom of man will be confounded

when it tries to fathom the methods and devices of the divine Artificer

in originating his works. His safety will often be in distrusting his

own understanding, in not magnifying overmuch the ingenuity of his

own speculations, and in sometimes believing that even science will

be exalted by approximating to, rather than by departing from, the

literalities of Scripture.

II. Compare now the epochs of geology with the DAYS of Scripture,

and there will be observed at least a remarkable coincidence between

them. The fossiliferous systems of the one are nearly the same in

number with the descriptive paragraphs in the other. The order in the

creation of organized bodies, the progression of life upon the earth,

are also wonderfully striking in the records of both. The lowest of our

fossiliferous deposits contain the impressions of plants—these stand

at the beginning of the Mosaic list. The same groups, and the whole of

the next in succession, are characterized by the prevailing abundance

of marine tribes—the waters, according to the sacred narrative, then

received their command, and multiplied abundantly the moving creature

that hath life. Vegetables and animals, still of _the waters_, continue

to increase during the carboniferous era, when a new system succeeds, and

in this the foot-prints of birds are distinctly traced—so it was in the

same order of succession that the winged fowl is sent forth into the open

firmament of heaven. The Lias and Oolite formations immediately follow,

filled with monsters of the deep, saurians and flying lizards,—the text

speaks of the “great whales” of the period, as distinguished among the

productions of the waters. The Wealden Chalk, and Tertiaries are replete

with all kinds of reptiles, mammals, and quadrupeds—the horse, urus, and

other forms of cattle—and so, in like manner, the last in the Mosaic

list, as the highest in the geological strata, are the types of every

beast, cattle, and creeping thing.

Now, can this running parallel be accidental or intended? Did the writer

of the one record know anything of the contents of the other? Does the

course of creation, as detailed in the strata of the earth, follow as

a necessary consequence from the nature of things? or as the arbitrary

appointment of Him who made them? Would plants, fishes, reptiles, fowl,

mammals, all emerge in this precise order of succession, by any known

law of organic structure? Or could not the first and last, or any of

the intermediate kinds, have been at once, and as adaptively, brought

together in one and the same period of time? Was the writer of the

Genesis acquainted with the rich exuberant flora of the carboniferous

age? and was it meant as a true exposition of its history that there were

as yet no beasts or quadrupeds upon the earth to enjoy it? And knowing of

it, as well as of all the other superficial arrangements,—the upheaval

of the crust, the rise of mountains, the alternate shifting of sea and

land,—does he describe the progress of organic creation precisely as it

occurred, and as the changes of the planet became ADAPTIVE?

The series of creative acts terminates in the introduction of Man upon

the stage of terrestrial being. “And God said, Let us make man in our

image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of

the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all

the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

Here both narratives are completely at one as to man’s place in the

course as well as system of creation. No fragment of his race has been

detected in any of the rocky strata of the earth. Every other organic

thing, of every class, and order, and tribe, has its representative in

one or other of the geological epochs. Man stands apart and alone in

the geology as in the history. No mere link in the chain of organic

existence, not a being of mere earthy mold, but fashioned in the image of

his Maker, and fitted to explore, to understand, and to exercise dominion

over the works of his creation. How much, again, in all this last and

highest evolution of creative might, is the conclusion confirmed, and

arrived at from so many converging lines, that the sacred record was

INTENDED to embody an actual account of the creation of our globe, in

its various primordial arrangements as well as in all its consecutive

events, until its majestic close in the human epoch? For, looking back

and comparing the whole narrative with the facts of geology, is it not

highly probable that we have in that account distinctly shadowed forth

the progressive researches of the science, the great physical truths

of creation, as symbolized in the rocks? The brilliant vista through

millions of untold ages, and upon scenes supposed to be unnoticed and

unrecorded, vanishes indeed at the admission of this principle of

interpretation. But a more consistent view of the world’s history—of the

comparative longevity of its successive tribes—of the various changes

and alterations which its surface has undergone—and a less violence far

to the obvious import of the sacred text—form no unpleasing substitutes

on which, amidst such lures to doubt, bewilderment, and error, faith and

reason will equally incline to repose.

III. The conclusions which have been, or which may be, deduced from a

comparative examination of geology and the Mosaic record, fall to be

noticed.

1. In order to preserve the literal rendering of the six days of

creation, it is maintained that the Mosaic record takes no account

whatever of any of the geological formations described. After the

intimation, “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”—the close of the EPOCHS, with all their complement of strata

and fossils, was accomplished; and then, as descriptive of the era of

man, with all his living cotemporaries, and the several days with the

works therein accomplished, the new order of events referred to in

the text commences with the declaration, “and the Spirit of God moved

upon the face of the waters.” The discoveries of geology are thus all

cast back upon unrecorded anterior periods, and with regard to which

the sacred record is silent; while of the new series of events, in

precisely the same order of succession and enlarged amount of normal

organic being, there is a defined literal account. This may be regarded

as the generally received interpretation among the leading geologists as

well as of a large class of eminent divines. It was early and eagerly

adopted by Dr. Chalmers. The proof of its soundness is made to hinge

upon certain ingenious criticisms regarding the terms _bara_, _asah_,

_yatzan_, which in the common version of the Hebrew text are translated

_created_, _made_, _formed_. According to the new rendering, wherever

any of these words occur in any of the verses _after_ the second, they

are to be restricted to the simple act of fashioning, arranging, and

constructing new bodies out of pre-existing matter. Hence, all the

initial and secondary actings noticed in the narrative are in this manner

clearly distinguishable. It is farther argued, that all the secondary

class of arrangements are distinctively pointed to, and separated from

the primordial, by the formula of expression, “and God said,” which is

introduced at the commencement of each of the six days, but not prefixed

to the initial creative act of all matter in the beginning.

Now, against this mode of argument it may be objected that much of it

does not bear upon the question at issue. The discrepancy is one more

of things than of words. It is the physical solution, rather than the

critical, that is the important matter of inquiry; and this no mere

verbal emendations of the text will altogether and consistently help out.

Observe the character of the acts spoken of after the second verse and

introduction of the expression, “and God said;”—the calling light into

being, the separation of the darkness, the division of day and night, the

formation of an atmosphere, the fixed position of the firmament above

and the waters beneath, and the separation of the dry land. These are

the acts of the first and second days. But what of them _before_ this?

These elements and their arrangement were all required, and must have

all existed, during the epochs recorded in geology. That is admitted.

The light needed no renewal after any geological transposition of the

land and sea. The revolutions of the heavenly bodies would be equally

unaffected, and days, seasons, and years would remain and proceed in the

same order of succession. The firmament and atmosphere would continue to

occupy their relative positions. And so, according to the _usus loquendi_

and legitimate import of all the terms employed in the text, we are

reading of things that were neither in being nor in operation _before_,

but which now for the first time are represented as being summoned into

existence. We are equally unprepared for the admission made by some

of the friends of revelation, that Moses knew not the full amount and

nature of the knowledge conveyed in his narrative, just as “he was not

aware of the profound spiritual meaning of much of the ritual which

he was employed to institute. It was an obscure text, which awaited

the Divine commentary of the christian dispensation.”[16] There is no

analogy between the subjects. The law was confessedly a preparatory,

incompleted dispensation. The order of creation as traced by Moses

embraces substantively everything which creation contains—the elements,

disposition, and collocation of its parts—and that he saw not through the

whole of a future, unfulfilled plan, furnishes no good ground for the

assumption that he was ignorant of or purposely passes over the history

of millions of years of the very subject on which he was inspired to

write, and on which he was to build his whole system of theism and of

grace. This mode of interpretation, beside, assumes a _hiatus_ in the

text for which there is no just warrant, either in the verbal structure

of the narrative, or in the physical character and order of the events

described. It has always appeared to us to proceed upon principles of

explication which violate all the canons of a pure and severe criticism,

which indulgently gives way to new and gratuitously assumed difficulties,

and which would leave nothing in any writing except what the reader

chooses to find in it.

2. The principle of interpreting _the days_ in Genesis as periods of

indefinite time, and within which the several geological _formations_

were successively evolved. They who adopt this hypothesis can plausibly

argue that the _order_ of creative acts as revealed in the sacred record,

harmonizes in a very remarkable manner with the course of creation

as detailed in the researches of geology. Hereby a comparison can be

distinctly instituted, and a parallelism observed betwixt the peculiar

work of each day and the leading phenomena displayed in the earth’s

crust—from the first appearance of dry land, when organic bodies had

not been as yet created, and the primary rocks in which none have been

detected—up through the silurian, devonian, and carboniferous series, in

all which plants and marine organisms only are found—and onward until

we reach the tertiary strata, where, in succession, the revealed order

of animal life is so remarkably coincident. The details of the science

are not indeed to be all, and minutely, read in the narrative. But the

main truths and the leading dogmata are there; and if any departure from

the literal rendering of the text can be permitted, so as to fit in and

adjust the geological phenomena, it may be justly contended that there is

less of violence and straining by the substitution of periods for days,

than by casting aside the whole genetic description as having no bearing

whatever upon the primary cosmogony of the globe. Then the various

events, it may be farther argued, as recorded in the text—the creation

of light—the formation of a firmament—the division of day and night—the

appointment of seasons and years—the gathering together of the waters,

and the elevation of the dry land—are all so described and placed in

such juxta-position as can only be applicable to primary creative acts,

to things which were not before, and which now for the first time were

brought into being and condition.

The abettor of this view and mode of reconciliation will likewise

avail himself, in defense of its being an orthodox interpretation, of

the latitude of meaning ascribed to the term “day,” in the Scriptures

themselves. Even in the second chapter of the Divine word, and applied to

the very subject in question—the order of creation—he finds the term to

be used in an indefinite sense: “These are the generations of the heavens

and of the earth, when they were created in the DAY that the Lord God

made the earth and the heavens, and EVERY PLANT of the field.” The solemn

announcement at the close of this world’s drama will not fail also to

be adverted to—“in the last days perilous times shall come”—wherein

periods of longer or shorter duration are implied as existing in the

midst of days. Frequently too there occur the expressions: the day of

grace—the day of salvation—the day of the Lord—the day of trial—the day

of redemption—terms all of unlimited import and not to be defined by the

planetary diurnal calendar, but to be determined by the arrangements of

a dispensation in which man is viewed as a moral accountable being, and

not by any necessities in which his physical condition and the world

he inhabits are concerned. Thus by adopting this hypothesis, which

assumes the entire narrative as a consecutive description of the order

of creation, every day as bearing the initiative of its own class of

phenomena, the plan and quality of the Divine works as all delineated

and shadowed out, the progressive succession of the whole organic and

inorganic historically described, and the phenomena, and the terms

descriptive of them, are asserted to be in their proper places, and in

harmony each with each.

3. There is another mode of defending the text in consistency with the

general facts of the science, by assuming that the course of creation

indicated through the epochs was in all its characteristic features

_reproduced_, and substantially represented in the cosmogonic period of

the Mosaic account. We have noticed from time to time, in the different

stages of our description, in what the analogies consisted. In the

earliest, as well as in the last, organic fossil types, there is the

most perfect identity with all the vegetable and animal forms described

in the narrative. The order of their reappearance is likewise similar.

Moses, it is here supposed, saw the casting of the same molds, the agency

of the same hand, and the “day” to be successively the period for the

reproduction of the work.

Read now consecutively the whole account, and observe how the Historian

passes in review the entire series of the Divine acts, and runs over

again the great master-keys of this harmonious system. He is present, so

to speak, when, in the beginning, the matter of the heaven and the earth

was created. He witnesses the arrangement of the parts, which before

were without form and void. He hears the command,—LET THERE BE LIGHT.

And now, as the mighty structure expands in vision before the eye of

his mind, the firmament and the waters and the dry land separating and

drawing off to their respective places, he introduces a record of the

period within which the several operations were effected. How long is

that period? Just the division of time with which he was acquainted,

and which he knew was amply sufficient for the completion of all the

operations in question. The acts are successive. The will that performed

them is omnipotent. Everything followed in its order and in the time that

all creative power commanded it to be. Hence the days, with regard to all

the initial acts, both of creation and arrangement, were literally of the

duration assigned in the text. After the introduction of organic life on

the third day, geology speaks definitively as to the successive order of

the kinds and families of the structural forms created. But it gives no

sign, and can give none, as to the portion of time required for their

creation. It may have been an instant or a day,—a week or a period. The

revealed account speaks positively upon the point; and shows how, at the

bidding of the Divine will, the various elements—the water, the earth,

the air—were replenished with their respective tribes in the old as in

the new world, and under all the phases and epochs of their being.

The inspired narrative, it may be alleged, according to this view, is

not only consistent with itself, but becomes a sublime illustrative

introduction to the book of revelation. The matter of the heaven and the

earth was the effect of a single command. The separation of its elements

was the instantaneous effect of another.—Upon the creation of light, a

division is given to time, and the morning and the evening hours were

established. The arrangements of the second day followed, and were all

completed in the period assigned. So with the remanent days and their

respective included operations. The eye of the historian sees nothing

intervening betwixt the cause and the effect; his mind is fixed upon the

action, not the manner of its accomplishment; and knowing the whole to be

the result of the same power and the arrangement of the same providence,

he combines in one cycle or WEEK the entire series of events, one day

of which unto the Eternal is as a thousand, and a thousand, but as one

day. The work all accomplished, the immediately revolving period of time

was established as the Sabbath of the Lord. Having made man in his own

image, with knowledge to apprehend and adore the author of his being, the

divine Architect RESTED; he ceased from any farther acts of creation;

nothing of any material existence, nor of any living thing, has been

added to his works since the completion of the six days, and so the rest

has continued and will continue to the end of time—a Sabbath hallowed by

the structure of the globe and the beneficence of the Creator.

These are some of the methods by which the geologist aims in bringing

the conclusions of his science within the scope of the Mosaic record,

and in freeing his speculations from all their incumbrances and

responsibilities. There is still a great deal to be accomplished, even

with all these approximations, toward a right and full and literal

comparison with the sacred text. There is indeed no real conflict between

the discoveries of geology and the declarations of the divine oracles;

and, with so many doors of retreat from or avenues of approach into the

inviting fields of its research, no friend of the truth need be afraid

of an excursion through the most intricate depths of creation’s works.

Meanwhile, the metaphysicians have all been driven from the field, with

all their untenable dogmas about the eternity of matter. Geologists

repudiate the doctrine, and their science refutes it. But there is such

a thing as others rashly rushing to conclusions, wherever they can see

tendencies or leanings to countenance their impious materialism. In this

direction, many think that geology, however falsely, wholly inclines.

And even now it is better, infinitely better, to rest with unhesitating

confidence in the received interpretation of Scripture than be borne

away by sweeping generalizations, built most certainly somewhere upon

loose conflicting elements of calculation. Countless millions of years

are, we admit, as nothing in the records of eternity—of no account with

the Everlasting of days. Nevertheless, if the time can be reduced, as

unquestionably there are data for the reduction, the epochs and the days

approximate all the closer; the speculations of the science are brought

into better keeping with the dicta of revelation; farther discoveries

will lead to farther adjustments; until what was done for the interests

of the one by detecting the miscalculations of Hindoo astronomy, will

again be effected for the other by scanning more intelligibly the

geological horoscope.—And thus removing every ground of suspicion or

offense, will serve to bring this interesting branch of knowledge from

the outer court of the Gentiles to the innermost shrine of the TEMPLE OF

TRUTH.

The father of the Inductive Philosophy thus expresses his views: “In the

works of creation, we behold a twofold emanation of the Divine virtue; of

which the one relates to its power, the other to its wisdom. The former

is especially observed in the creating the material mass; the latter, in

the disposing the beauty of its form. This being established, it is to be

remarked, that there is nothing in the history of creation to invalidate

the fact, that the mass and substance of heaven and earth was created,

_confusa_, undistinguishable, in one moment of time; but that the six

days were assigned for disposing and adjusting it.”[17] This was emitted

at a time when geology was in its nonage; the strata of the earth and

their singular fossil contents were as yet unexplored;—still it is the

oracular voice of one who had looked through the physical universe with

the glance of science and of genius, and who knew and sought it only in

relation to the Creator and his Word.

CONCLUSION.

THE CREATOR.

The magnificent work of creation, whose course we have been tracing in

some of its primordial arrangements, in the geological phenomena of the

earth’s crust, and in its relations to the vast planetary system of

which it is a member, is the result over all of design and intelligence.

The changes wrought in the earth’s structure and framework, from period

to period, have not been brought about by merely mechanical changes of

physical conditions. There are order and method in the inorganic, no

less than in the organic forms, into which matter in any of the earth’s

revolutions has been cast. There is prospective contrivance each for

each. The alterations made in the outward surface, whether of sea or

land, have been always such as were best adapted to the habits and

requirements of successive living tribes. And the whole amount of change,

in both departments of nature, has ever been in such measure and degree

as to show, from the beginning, a persistent principle of stability

in the system, and a wise, all-controlling arm to be regulating and

directing everything. The invisible things of God, from the creation of

the world, are clearly seen; and we cannot, if we would, rid ourselves

of the thought, that somewhere and beyond, there is, not a “primitive

cause”[18] only, but a Divine Being, the master of the universe,

potentially in and present through all things.

Aristotle concludes his treatise “De Mundo,” with observing, that to

treat of the world without saying anything of its Author would be

impious, and he proceeds to show, on various grounds, the traces of an

all-governing Deity. Newton concludes his great work, the “Principia,”

by some reflections on the nature of the Supreme Cause, and infers from

the structure of the visible world, “that it is governed by one almighty

and all-wise Being, who rules the world, not as its soul, but as its

Lord, exercising an absolute sovereignty over the universe, not as over

his own body, but as over his work; and acting in it according to his

pleasure, without suffering anything from it.” Speaking of the laws by

which God governs the world, and giving his definition of the term LAW,

Boyle says, “I look upon a law as a moral, not physical cause, as being,

indeed, but a rational thing, according to which an intelligent and

free agent is bound to regulate its actions. But inanimate bodies are

utterly incapable of understanding what it is, or what it enjoins, or

when they act conformably or unconformably to it: therefore, the actions

of inanimate bodies, which cannot incite or moderate their own actions,

are produced by real power, not by laws.” “Hence,” says Whewell, in his

Bridgewater Treatise, “hence we infer that the intelligence by which the

law is ordained, the power by which it is put in action, must be present

at all times, and in all places where the effects of the law occur: that

thus the knowledge and the agency of the Divine Being pervade every

portion of the universe, producing all action and passion, all permanence

and change. The laws of nature are the laws which He, in his wisdom,

prescribes to his own acts; his universal presence is the necessary

condition of any course of events, his universal agency the only origin

of any efficient force.”

The researches of science, the deeper they go into the secrets of nature,

issue in the surest and brightest disclosures of the Divine Architect

of the universe. We are enabled, by the lights which are furnished by

the various branches of ascertained knowledge, to read in some degree

the mind and purpose of God in the creations of his hand. We see in

many instances what is actually intended by certain arrangements and

combinations,—why, and for what end, objects are constructed in a

particular way, and how it is that trains of events are made to follow in

one uniform order rather than in any other. The universe, we discover,

is not only bound by laws permanent and unchanging: the laws themselves

have an end to serve, a particular result to accomplish. Accumulations

of matter are brought together with a definite precise view; living

substances are constructed with organs suited to their conditions of

existence; relations of air, earth, and water, are established, which

nicely answer the functions to be performed; and in ten thousands of

cases are manifested the form, size, position, qualities of hardness,

softness, and cohesion in the individual parts which can best secure

their own special well-being along with the general conservation of the

framework to which they are attached. How admirably, from age to age,

do the organic as well as the inorganic structures of the geological

narrative illustrate the truth of these remarks, where the manifestations

of design are as numerous as the objects of creation, and as legible as

if God had written their import by his own finger? The oldest, equally

with the newest, book of nature, discloses the records of his will.

We read them in the varied language traced and stereotyped upon their

stony leaves. And in perusing the diversified contents of this wonderful

volume, we cannot rise without the conviction that the being, attributes,

and character of its Author, are brightly and indelibly impressed on

every page.

The argument for the existence of a DESIGNING AGENT in the creation

and arrangements of a material world, may be thus illustrated: A rude,

unshapely piece of stone—say the “stone upon the heath”—does not at once

impress the spectator with the conviction that it was made and placed

where it is, by a designing intelligent being. But let it be chiseled

into form, give it symmetry and proportion, and he immediately concludes

that this is the result of skill and intention. Look at a piece of

machinery—its framework of wood—its springs of iron—its wheels, beams and

axles, composed of different metals, and arranged in different forms—and

the inference is irresistible, that neither the forest, nor the quarry,

nor the mine, yielded the materials in their present shape, nor combined

among themselves to put them together.—Reason seeks for a different kind

of agency, and experience tells that the mind and the hand of man have

been there. We see water converted into steam, the steam brought into

contact with a piece of metal, the vapor confined within an inclosure and

acted upon by a condenser; and through means of this simple arrangement

and the application of this natural power, duly regulated and sustained,

we discern the triumph of mind over matter—the marvels which human

industry and intelligence have been able to achieve. This combination

of materials is not a thing of life.—Chance has produced none of these

arrangements. The whole is the result of design, of aiming intention,

of calculating intelligence. Examine the telescope, its apparatus of

lenses, reflectors, and mirrors: look through that narrow tube as it is

pointed in a clear starry night to the azure vault; and your shout of

astonishment, when you first behold the increased magnitude of these

orbs—their separation into systems and clusters—firmaments ascending in

gradations of brilliancy, one above another—and the infinitely remote,

studded and glowing with higher and higher galaxies—will partake of

a mingled feeling of admiration at the immensity and grandeur of the

universe—the wisdom and skill which combined to frame the instrument that

brings within your ken, and enables you to gaze on, the glorious vision.

Now, in nature, we find the same indications of design, the same

surprising combinations of skill, instruments framed with matchless

wisdom and the most exquisite contrivance. Nay, all here, in every

department of creation, leaves human ingenuity at an immeasurable

distance. No statuary can rival that which is exhibited in the rocks,

gems, and crystals of the earth. Machinery is transcendently surpassed,

in the forms of every organic thing beneath or around, in minuteness,

adaptation, and balancing of parts,—the steam-engine in energy and

power—the ship by a more refined and skillful equipment of ropes,

pulleys, and sails—and the telescope is not for a moment to be compared

with the human eye in the beauty of its construction, the power of its

movements, the amazing swiftness and variety of its glance.—But there

is design and intelligence manifested in the works of man. They could

not arrange themselves. They must have had an artificer. Draw near, look

unto the works of creation, what cumulative evidence of their intelligent

author, conclusive as the severest demonstrations of science. Man asks

for a sign from heaven. Ten thousand intimations are given—millions,

indeed, of miraculous contrivances meet him in every department of the

universe.

This earth, however, is not an isolated body in the universe; it

forms one of a system of worlds, and its geological history cannot

be regarded as complete until we have viewed it in some of its more

extended relations. The course of creation is traced in the planetary

system, a series of masses of matter assuming one form, moving in one

plane, following in one orbital path, revolving around a common center,

enlightened and warmed by a common sun, and obedient, one and all, to the

same great law of gravitation. The mighty problem of the universe has

been solved upon the simple assumption, that a piece of our earth is like

a piece of the other planets; that the properties of matter here are as

the properties of matter above; and as the laws of motion and attraction

below, so are they on high, and throughout infinite space. Astronomy thus

derives all its achievements as a science from the earth, and the cause

of the motions of the heavenly orbs is ascertained from experiments on

the matter of the earth, which first led to the knowledge of regular

dynamical laws. The field of astronomical research, in consequence, is

not only the most wonderful, but it is also that in which our knowledge

is the most accurate. Distant and infinitely remote as are the objects of

the science, there is yet in no other department of natural philosophy

results of investigation so completely satisfactory. With the precision

of geometry, and the minute accuracy of numbers, the astronomer

calculates the particular place of every one of the bodies of the solar

system, at any particular hour and moment of the day. He determines the

precise rate of their motions, and positions which they occupied in

relation to the earth, in every past period of their history however

remote, and even corrects the notations of former observers. He shows

their relative distances, weights, dimensions, and influences upon one

another; estimates the length of their days and years, eccentricities and

perturbations; and describes the orbits in which they severally move, in

their steady unwearied march through the heavens.—The undeniable effect

of results like these, is to impress deeper upon the inquiring mind the

conviction of foresight, method, and design in the vast system of which

the earth is but a part; and as the earth gives lead to, and indicates

some of the first lessons in, astronomy, so we derive in return a fuller

knowledge of its various relations and past history than its own single

geological tables can unfold.

When we proceed to speculate about the _manner_ of Deity’s actings,

difficulties at once meet us in every quarter, partly from our utter

incapacity to comprehend and partly from the imperfections of human

language to express—even were our comprehension adequate to the task—the

essential qualities of Deity himself. As the _anima mundi_, the ancients

represented the Divine Being, as both the active and self-moving

principle in nature, and likewise as passive, and acted upon by the

external world. Newton, in order to express his idea of the Divine

omnipresence, employed the term _sensorium_, as denoting the mode in

which he was enabled to perceive whatever passed in space fully and

intimately. And while nothing was farther from the mind of the great

philosopher than the ascription of bodily organs to the Divinity, he

had to defend himself from much bitter and vehement controversy in

consequence. Equally liable to misrepresentation, and from the sane

cause—the imperfection of language—was the manner in which Newton spoke

of the eternity or infinity of the Supreme Being, as if he regarded

him as present in all parts of time and space by _diffusion_: whereas

his notion simply was, that since He is necessarily and essentially

present in all parts of space and duration, space and duration must also

necessarily exist. Durat semper, et adest ubique, et existendo semper et

ubique, durationem et spatium constituit,—is the tenet which he held.

No less difficult is it to express correctly the inference which we may

legitimately deduce of the PERSONALITY of the Godhead from the works

and course of creation. And yet the idea is immediately consequent

upon the conviction of a Divine existence, and is inseparable from it.

The conception of both is necessarily involved in the same process of

thought. Wherever we trace the actings of mind or of intelligence, the

impress of design or the operations of a discriminating, discerning

cause, reference is at one and the same instant made to a distinct

personal subsistence. Power, wisdom, and goodness, may, indeed, be

regarded in one way as abstract qualities. We can reason about them, and

hold them up to our contemplation, as something distinct or different

from the bodies in which they reside. Hence all our speculations

respecting the laws of nature, the primary and secondary qualities

of matter, the relations of cause and effect, to which principle

of abstraction in man the various sciences owe their origin. The

inductive philosophy is entirely built upon it. The creations of poetry,

the peopling of the streams, groves, and mountains, with the ideal

impersonations of fancy, are derived from the same source; while, by

lifting us above the dominion of mere sense and attention to our physical

wants, our spiritual energies are thereby awakened, and the soul enabled

by its own inner visions to hold communings with new worlds, and to

anticipate a new life.

But the principle of abstraction does not stop here. It both separates

and combines. While it deals with the inferior manifestations of

ideal qualities, it unites and embodies into one—links the universe

to its Creator—represents him as the cause of all causes, the source

of all power, and the fountain of all life; out of whose boundless,

illimitable essence is the efflux of all being and existence. The

ancients erroneously clothed their conceptions of Godhead in human shape,

and multiplied the number of divinities to accord to the varieties of

human passion, making gods many, as there were principles of good or

evil in their own hearts; but still their superstition had a reality

and foundation in nature. Their mythology had its origin in a true,

though corrupted, theism; and giving form and locality to their numerous

divinities, they but obeyed the dictates of that sentiment of the

inner man, which, in unison with the voice of all creation, proclaims

the existence of a Being whose personal subsistence and personal

superintendence we necessarily associate with the laws and management of

nature. HE is there among his works, their Director as well as author.

The UNITY of the Divine Being follows, in like manner, from an extended

observation of the course of creation. There is but one God, as there

is but one system of nature—one universe where the same law which acts

upon all terrestrial bodies pervades all space, rules over the planets,

and guides systems of worlds in their courses. Our deepest researches

into the structure of the earth show, that the same forces have been

operative there, as are still traced in passing changes on the surface.

Similar organic forms were from the earliest periods in being, endowed

with similar instincts, performing the self-same functions in the

economy of nature, with their living types of the present day. The air,

the sea, the earth; plants, animals, and man, are under one scheme of

providence. The seasons are uniformly successive. Year to year we see the

same causes in operation. Time rolls on; changes, vast and progressive,

have been effected in the moral as well as physical aspect of the world,

while bodies remain essentially what they were before, the conditions of

sentient existence unaltered, and man occupies the same high intellectual

position in the great scale of being. The same government thus maintains

over all; the parts shifting and changing, the whole stable and

collectively advancing; bound together by one invisible chain, and moving

in obedience to one great principle of destiny and superintending will.

Hence, upon the presumption that the character of the works determines

the character of their author, the intelligent power which presides

over all this must necessarily be ONE. Since creation in its elements,

arrangements, and means of general harmony, is constructed upon a

plan, and since that plan manifests the most perfect order—deviations

controlled within limits, and convulsions only contributive to its

greater stability—the inference cannot be resisted, that the Creator is

essentially one in his being, as he is undivided in his purposes and

actings.

When we narrow the field of inquiry, and look to man alone, in his

relation to the external world, and the character of his moral

constitution, the conclusion becomes still more decided and apparent.

Here we see that the last of created beings is not only the highest in

the scale, but likewise in the most perfect and extensive unison with

the general scheme of nature. He spreads himself over the whole face of

creation, is capable of enduring all climes, of deriving sustenance from

the products of all countries, conveniences and the means of improvement

from the rocks of all ages. If we cannot demonstrate that this earth

was made exclusively for man’s use, we can still clearly show that he

participates more largely in its various products than any of its other

inhabitants, while it furnishes, not only to the individual, but to the

race, generation after generation, the amplest field of mental and moral

cultivation of which their natures are capable. The God of the outward

world is also, and pre-eminently, the God of man’s inner being. He who

created the light, likewise formed the human body. The potter of the

clay fashioned and quickened the immaterial spirit. The controller of

universal nature reigns supreme in the dominion of the soul. The power

that binds the planets in their orbits, gives law to the conscience,

constraining it to acknowledge in its perception of truth and homage to

virtue the reverence that is due to the One Righteous Governor over all.

Contemplated under this latter and most important aspect of our nature,

we are brought, in fact, into immediate communication with the undivided

Author of our being. The idea of many is excluded in the conviction

that truth and duty are one and unalterable. The gravitating principle

in matter is not more universal in its operation, nor more distinct in

its constraining influence over all bodies, than is the principle of

CONSCIENCE in referring the good and evil of all actions to the standard

of rectitude and tribunal of a righteous judge. Tribes, the most remote

from each other—the most debased in ignorance—the most polluted in

guilt—agree in this common attribute of humanity. Mankind do not, indeed,

acknowledge one and the same standard of morality, and in religious

observances there is the utmost diversity of opinion and practice. But

the sense of duty, the feeling of moral and religious obligation, is

universally discriminative of the human family; the sentiment of right

and wrong is engraven indelibly on all human hearts. And, amidst all the

ignorance or misconceptions that may prevail as to the merit or demerit

of particular actions, the moral principle points but to one foundation

of truth—the One Supreme—the Lord of conscience as of creation.

The PERFECTIONS of the Supreme Being are, in like manner, as distinctly

notified in the works of creation as the fact of the mere existence of

a designing Creator. The immensity of the universe clearly demonstrates

the _power_ in which it originated, and by which all its movements are

still sustained, guiding the infinite systems of celestial bodies and

the geological revolutions of our own planet with the same ease that it

watches over and upholds the minutest objects in existence. There is

no exhausting nor wearing out of the energies of nature: the arm that

reared, still directs the stupendous fabric; and as skill and contrivance

are manifest in every part, the greatest simplicity combined with the

most exquisite adjustments, the utmost regularity prevailing in every

department, and no failure in the operations of a single law throughout

the vastness of creation, the conviction of consummate _wisdom_ and

of infinite _omniscience_ irresistibly strikes upon the mind. No less

clear and convincing are the evidences of _goodness_ in the system of

creation which we have been contemplating. The works, formed by the

Divine hand, and which now occupy the Divine care, are boundless in

extent, and of infinite variety; and they appear, to the eye of the

common observer, as well as to the searching intellect, all formed

for use, all rich in beauty, all indicative of beneficence. There is

not utility alone interwoven, but an inimitable loveliness painted on

the face and stamped on every department of nature; while creatures

innumerable, of various orders and of different structures, present

themselves to our view, which, by their creation and preservation—by

the powers they possess, and the enjoyments they attain—proclaim the

liberality of their author to be boundless. Nay, the inanimate parts of

nature bear testimony to the same truth; the sun warms and fertilizes

the earth; the earth affords nourishment, and furnishes a convenient

dwelling-place to the various living creatures that inhabit it; and thus

dead matter, in all its arrangements and under all its past changes, by

being framed in subserviency to the happiness of living and intelligent

beings, clearly evinces the goodness of its Creator. But to Man, in

addition, the inspiration of the Almighty has given understanding, and

has constituted him supreme in this lower world. Whoever considers his

nature and condition, the make of his body and the constitution of his

mind, the provision that is furnished for the supply of his animal wants,

the objects that are provided for the improvement of his intellectual

faculties, and the scope that is afforded for the exercise of his moral

affections, must acknowledge that, if the goodness of God be manifestly

displayed in the other works of his hands, it shines with peculiar luster

in the creation and preservation of man.

Thus, step by step, we rise to the loftiest conception which the human

mind can embrace—the conception of a God—the personality, unity, and

perfection of his being. How the conception of a Creator is formed, we

cannot otherwise describe than by saying, that it springs up in the mind

immediately upon the perception of an external world. It is not so much

an exercise of reason, or elaborate effort of the understanding; but is

rather a direct impression, traced at once upon the soul, as the image

of Deity reflected from his works. All men possess it, for all men are

so constituted, that they cannot look upon creation without the idea of

a Creator accompanying and flowing from the act. The conception will be

obscure, vague, and indistinct, according to the capacity, improvement,

and general knowledge of the individual. But the conception is there, as

necessarily as the effect follows the cause, the shadow the substance,

the image the object which occasioned it. The heavens DECLARE the glory

of God, the firmament SHOWS his handiwork, the earth bears the traces

of his path. And just in the degree in which we study and examine his

works—their uses and adaptations—their infinite variety, proportions,

regularity, and magnitude—are our convictions of his existence deepened,

our admiration of his being and attributes enhanced, our feeling of

security under his rule strengthened, and our sense of obligation and

responsibility increased and solemnized. Ignorance does not obliterate

the sense of Deity; it confuses and multiplies the image of his

existence: it leads to polytheism. Knowledge brightens the picture, and

represents the Creator, as reflected in his works, EXCELLENT, GLORIOUS,

AND INFINITELY PERFECT.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Playfair.

[2] Playfair.

[3] Works, vol. i, page 189.

[4] Dr. Dieffenbach’s New Zealand.

[5] The diamonds found in the Ural chain are supposed to be connected

with the carbonaceous grits of the devonian and carboniferous periods,

which have been transmuted into metamorphic micaceous rocks, and contain

the diamonds between the flakes of mica, just as garnets occur in

mica-schist. Captain Franklin discovered diamonds in Bundelkund, imbedded

in sandstone, with coal beneath, and supposed to belong to the true

carboniferous system.

[6] Westminster Review, No. LXXIX.

[7] The strata in which these tracks occur have since been carefully

investigated by Prof. H. D. Rogers, who has ascertained that they belong

truly to the carboniferous red shale, and are, therefore, of an age

essentially later than that attributed to them. In a communication made

to the American Association, Prof. Rogers says:—They occur, indeed, in

a geological horizon, only a few hundred feet below the conglomerate

which marks the beginning of the productive coal series, in which

series similar foot-prints, attributed to batrachian reptiles, had been

previously met with in Western Pennsylvania. Instead, therefore, of

constituting a register of the antique life earlier than any hitherto

discovered, by at least a whole chapter in the geological book, they

carry back its age only by a single leaf. The surfaces upon which

these interesting foot-prints abound are the smooth, divisional plains

separating the beds of red sandstone, and are invariably coated with a

fine impalpable material of a once slimy and soft mud; and everything

in the texture of these surfaces goes to prove that they were in

contact with the air, and were the stages of rest between the alternate

depositions of the strata. Many of them are covered with ripple-lines and

water-marks, suggestive of the shelving shore, and, with few exceptions,

they are spotted over with little circular impressions, imputed to the

pattering of rain. All over the successive floors of this ancient world,

as delicate and impressible in their texture as so much wax or parchment,

are the footsteps and the trails of various creeping things,—the prints

of some unknown four-footed creature, thought to be reptilian in its

nature, but of whose true affinities the Professor expressed his doubts,

trails analogous to those of worms and molluscs, and various other marks,

written in hieroglyphics too ancient to be interpreted. The larger

foot-prints are, for the most part, five-toed, alternate in the steps,

and with the fore feet as large nearly as the hind ones; marks of the

scratching and slipping of the feet, and the half effacing passage of the

tail, or of some soft portion of the body, are often distinctly legible.

Prof. Agassiz stated his doubts as to the reptilian character of the

foot-prints noticed, and, after describing the difference in the

arrangement of the locomotive organs of the modern and the ancient

fishes, gave it as his belief, that in those early periods there were

fishes of a structure which permitted them to walk upon all fours.

[8] Rapport sur les Poissons Fossiles de l’Argile de Londres.

[9] Lyell’s Principles of Geology, vol. i, p. 269.

[10] Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, by Richard Verstegan. London,

8vo, 1605. Noticed in “Chambers’ Journal,” June, 1846.

[11] Dr. Pye Smith on Scripture Geology.

[12] This branch of the argument has also been minutely and ingeniously

extended in the last work of Mr. Hugh Miller, “Foot-prints of the

Creator,” where the author dwells particularly on the comparative

measurements of the different fossils found in different formations; a

masterly and felicitous addition to the side of truth.

[13] “There is no doubt that coral, under favorable conditions of growth,

increases to an enormous extent, and very rapidly: and although there

are many instances on record of reefs which have not increased for

many years, there are others telling a very different tale. The case

of Matilda Atoll, described by Captain Beechy, is quoted as an example

of this latter kind, this atoll having been converted in thirty-four

years from being a reef of rocks into a lagoon island, fourteen miles in

length, with one of its sides covered nearly all the way with high trees.

Some experiments were also mentioned, in which it has been attempted to

measure the rate of increase of different kinds of corals, and as one

result of these, is an instance of a growth of two feet thick of coral,

accumulated on the copper bottom of a vessel in the course of twenty

months.”—_Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin._

[14] Mrs. Somerville’s Physical Geography.

[15] Mr. Davis.

[16] The Pre-Adamite Earth.

[17] 1. De Augm. Scien. L. I.

[18] La Place.

GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS.

ACCRETION. Increase of size or growth by the mechanical addition of new

particles.

ACLINIC LINE. The magnetic equator.

ACOTYLEDONOUS. Plants having no seed-lobes. Mosses and ferns belong to

this division, and most of the coal plants are acotyledonous.

ACTYNOLITE. A green mineral found chiefly in primitive formations often

crystallized in six sided prisms.

AEROLITES. Stones which appear to have fallen from the higher parts of

the atmosphere. They are sometimes called Meteorites.

ALGÆ. A division of plants including the common sea-weeds.

ALUMINOUS. Containing alumina, or rather silicate of alumina, which is

the base of pure clay. Thus, aluminous means _clayey_. The word is,

however, sometimes used in the sense of containing _alum_, a sulphate of

alumina and potash.

AMMONITE. A fossil genus of many-chambered shells allied to the Nautilus,

named from their resemblance to the horns on the statues of Jupiter Ammon.

AMORPHOUS. Without regular form.

AMORPHOZOA. Animals without definite form—sponges.

AMYGDALOID. Almond-shaped. Any rock is called by this name which contains

rounded or elongated minerals imbedded in some simple mineral or base.

AMYGDALOIDAL (in mineralogy). A conglomerate.

ANALCIME is found in granite and gneiss rock—generally in cubes of

various colors.

ANANCHYTES. A genus of fossil echini or sea-urchins—in the chalk, &c.

ANCHYLOSIS. (Gr., crooked), a joint is said to be anchylosed, when so

diseased as to become, or when it becomes, stiff or immovable.

ANNELIDÆ. (Annulus, a ring)—Lamarck’s worm-shaped animals, as Serpula,

vermilia, &c.

ANOPLOTHERIUM. The name given to a characteristic genus of a group of

extinct quadrupeds found fossil in the older Tertiary deposits, and

nearly allied to the tapir and pig.

ANTICLINAL. Or _Anticlinal axis_. A saddle-shaped position of rocks, the

result of disturbance.

APIOCRINITE. Pear-shaped crinoidea—lily-shaped animals.

AQUEOUS. That which is dependent on water. Aqueous rocks are those

produced by deposit from water.

ARBORESCENT. Branching like a tree.

ARENACEOUS. Sandy.

ARGENTIFEROUS. Containing silver.

ARGILLACEOUS. Clayey.

ARTICULATA. A natural division of animals having their limbs articulated

or jointed together, like the lobster.

ASAPHUS. An obscure genus of trilobites.

ASBESTUS. A fibrous mineral of which an incombustible cloth is sometimes

made.

ASTEROLEPIS. (Gr., star scale). It is the largest fish yet found in the

_Old Red Sandstone_.

AUGITE. (Gr., luster)—a mineral.

BASALT. An igneous rock, often columnar and supposed to be ancient

volcanic lava. It is the most common of the group called _Trap-rocks_.

BED or STRATUM. A layer of material the whole of which exhibits some

common character.

BELEMNITE. A dart-shaped shell, probably the ancient representative of

some of our cuttle-fish. The shell is conical and chambered.

BELLEROPHON. A small chambered-shell like the Nautilus.

BOTRYOIDAL (in Mineralogy). Clustered like a bunch of grapes.

BRACHIOPODA. A group of shell-bearing animals having two long spiral arms

serving to assist in locomotion and for other purposes.

BREVIPENNATE. Short-winged.

CÆLACANTHUS. A fish of the Devonian formation.

CALAMITE. A fossil from the coal-measures resembling a gigantic reed.

CALAMUS. A fossil reed-like plant.

CALCAIRE GROSSIER. A coarse limestone of the Older Tertiary period, found

in the Paris basin.

CALCAIRE SILICEUX. A compact silicious limestone sometimes replacing the

calcaire grossier.

CALCAREOUS. Containing lime.

CAMBRIAN. Belonging to Wales. The “Cambrian system” in Geology, is a name

suggested by Professor Sedgwick, to designate part of the Silurian series

of North Wales.

CARAPACE. The upper shell of reptiles.

CARBONIFEROUS. Containing carbon.

CARNIVOROUS. Flesh-eating. The “Carnivora” in Zoology consist of a group

of animals eminently carnivorous.

CAUDAL. Connected with the tail.

CEPHALOPODA. A group of animals of which the Nautilus and Cuttlefish are

examples, having the locomotive apparatus immediately over the head and

stomach.

CEPHALASPIS (Buckler-head). A fish.

CESTRACION. A fish, a genus of an extinct family of sharks.

CETACEANS. The whale tribe.

CHALCEDONY. A silicious mineral, like Cornelian.

CHALYBEATE. Water holding iron in solution.

CHARA, CHARACIDÆ. An aquatic plant fossilized.

CHEIROLEPIS (Thorny scale). A fossil fish.

CHELONIA. Sea tortoise.

CHERT. A silicious mineral, resembling common flint, but of coarser

texture.

CHŒROPOTAMUS. An extinct quadruped found in the Eocene of England.

CHEIRACANTHUS (thorny hand). A fish of the Old Red Sandstone.

CIRRHIPEDA (hair feet). Balanus-Coronula; Anatifa are of this family.

CLINOMETER. An instrument for measuring the dip and determining the

strike of beds or strata.

COAL-MEASURES. The whole group of deposits, consisting chiefly of sands

and shales, with which coal is usually found.

COCCOSTEUS. (Gr., berry on bone)—a Ganoid fish.

COLEOPTERA. Beetles whose wings are covered with a hard sheath.

COLUMNAR. Arranged in columns.

CONCHIFERA. One of the great divisions of Conchology.

CONCHOIDAL. Resembling a shell. Used in Mineralogy to designate a

particular kind of fracture.

CONDYLE. A knob at the end of a bone, a joint.

CONFORMABLE. When the planes of bedding of two successive beds or strata

are parallel to each other they are said to be _conformable_; when not

parallel they are _unconformable_.

CONGENERS. Species belonging to the same genus.

CONGLOMERATE or PUDDINGSTONE. A rock made up of rounded water-worn

fragments of rock or pebbles cemented together by another mineral

substance.

CONIFERÆ. Trees that bear cones, as the pine.

COPROLITE. The fossil remains of excrement.

COSMICAL. Relating to the universe.

COSMOGONY. The word formerly applied to speculations concerning the

earth’s age and history.

COTYLEDONOUS. Plants whose seeds have but one lobe.

CRAG. The name given to certain Tertiary deposits in Norfolk and Suffolk.

CRETACEOUS. Belonging to the chalk.

CRINOID. Belonging to the encrinite family.

CROPPING OUT. The _out-crop_ of a bed is its first appearance at the

surface.

CRUSTACEANS. Belonging to the crab or lobster family, &c.

CRYPTOGAMOUS. Plants without apparent flowers.

CRYSTAL. The regular form in which a mineral is presented when that form

can be described mathematically. A mineral is said to be _crystalline_

when its atoms are arranged with reference to some definite form.

CTENACANTHUS. Belonging to the Placoids.

CTENOIDS. Fishes with comb-shaped scales.

CTENOPTYCHIUS. A fish of the chalk formation.

CULM. An impure kind of coal.

CUMBRIAN. Occurring in Cumberland. The “Cumbrian System” of Prof.

Sedgwick is a part of the Silurian series of the Lake district of

Cumberland and Westmoreland.

CYCADEÆ. Fossil plants of the coal-measures.

CYCLAS. A small bivalve shell recent and fossil.

CYCLOID. Marginated scales.

DEBRIS. The fragments of rocks removed by the action of weathering or by

water.

DECORTICATED. Stripped of bark.

DEFLECTION. Deviation from a straight course.

DEGRADATION. The wearing away of rocks, generally effected by aqueous

action.

DELIQUESCENT. Becoming fluid by the attraction of water from the

atmosphere.

DELTA. The alluvial land formed by a river at its mouth, usually expanded

in a fan shape like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ), and

thence called _Delta_.

DENUDATION. The act of laying bare rocks formerly covered up, the removal

of the overlying masses being effected by water.

DERMAL. Belonging to the skin.

DETRITUS. Matter rubbed off by mechanical action from other rocks.

DIALLAGE. A mineral.

DIDELPHYS. A pouched animal, as the Opossum.

DINOSAURIA. Land lizards—only found fossil.

DIP (in Geology). The angle of inclination which the plane of a bed makes

with the plane of the horizon.

DIPLOPTERUS, DIPLODUS, and DIPLOCANTHUS. Fishes of the Devonian or Old

red sandstone.

DIPTERUS (having two wings). A fish of the Old red sandstone.

DODO. A large bird once found in the Isle of France, but now extinct.

DOLOMITE. Crystalline carbonate of lime and magnesia.

DYKE. A rock, generally crystalline, occupying a rent or fissure in some

other and older rock. A dyke differs from a mineral vein chiefly in its

greater magnitude and in the absence of ramifications.

DYNAMICS (Gr., power). Used in mechanics.

ECHINODERMATA. Having a skin like a hedgehog.

EFFLORESCENCE. The term used to describe the falling to powder of certain

minerals on exposure.

EMBOUCHURE. The mouth of a great river.

ENALIOSAURIA, PLESIOSAURUS and PLIOSAURUS. Marine Saurians, as the

Ichthyosaurus.

ENCRINITE. Stone lily.

ENDOGENOUS. Plants that increase from within, as lilies, grasses, and

among trees, palms.

ENTOMOSTRACEA. One of Cuvier’s sections of Crustaceans.

EOCENE. The name given by Sir C. Lyell to the lowest and oldest division

of the Tertiary series of rocks.

EQUISETUM. A plant, fossil and recent.

ESCARPMENT. The steep face of a mountain chain or a ridge of high land.

EXOGENOUS. Plants which increase their wood by external additions or

rings of growth.

EXUVIÆ. A name sometimes given to all fossil remains found in the earth’s

crust.

FAUNA. The whole group of animals peculiar to a country or natural region

at some one period.

FELDSPAR. A hard silicious rock.

FERRUGINOUS. Irony, or containing iron.

FERN. (Lat., Felices), a class of cryptogamous plants.

FISSILE. Capable of being split asunder.

FLUSTRA. A parasitic zoophyte or polyparia, which covers sea-weeds and

shells.

FÆCAL SEDIMENT. Dregs, excrement.

FORAMINIFERA. The name given to a group of many-chambered shells,

generally microscopic, the chambers communicating by a small open orifice

(_foramen_).

FOSSIL. A word originally applied to all substances dug out of the earth,

including therefore all minerals, but now limited in its application

to the remains of organic beings, whether vegetable or animal, buried

beneath the surface.

FOSSILIFEROUS. Containing fossils or organic remains.

FRITH. A deep and comparatively narrow arm of the sea.

FRONDS. The leaf of a fern is called a frond.

FUCOID. That which resembles a _fucus_, or seaweed:—fossil remains of

fuci are called fucoids.

FUSIFORM. Spindle-shaped.

GALENA. Sulphuret of lead.

GANOID. A group of fishes having enameled scales.

GASTEROPODA. A group of shell-bearing animals covered by one valve, and

having a fleshy foot attached to the belly.

GAULT. A bluish clay underlying the Chalk and Upper green sand in England.

GAVIAL. A species of shark found in the Ganges.

GEODES (in mineralogy) a round hollow stone whose cavity is usually

filled with crystals.

GLACIS. A gently sloping bank.

GLYPTOLEPIS. (Gr., carved scale.)

GLYPTOPOMUS. A Devonian fossil fish.

GNEISS. The name given to mixtures of quartz, feldspar, and mica, in

which there is a laminated arrangement of the different ingredients.

GONIATITES. Chambered fossil shells.

GRANITE. A rock consisting generally of crystals of feldspar and mica

imbedded in a quartzy base.

GRAMINÆ. Grasses.

GRAPTOLITES or SEA-PENS. Fossils of the lower Silurian system.

GRAUWACKE or GRAYWACKE. The name given by German geologists to some of

the older fossiliferous rocks, and generally of a gray color, sandy

composition, and fissile nature.

GRYPHIÆ. Fossil bivalve shells found in the Lias, &c.

HABITAT. The natural district to which a species of animals or vegetables

is confined in its distribution.

HEXAHEDRAL. Having six equal sides.

HETEROCERCAL. Applied to the tail of a fish, means that the upper lobe

extends farther than the under.

HETEROPODA. An order of univalve molluscs, whose feet form a kind of fin.

HOLOPTYCHIUS. A Ganoid fish of the coal-measures.

HORNBLENDE. An important mineral in the composition of some rocks.

HOMOCERCAL. Applied to fishes having equal lobed tails.

HORNSTONE. A variety of quartz found in volcanic districts.

HYALINE. Transparent like glass.

HYBODENTES. Fossil fish.

HYLÆOSAURUS. Fossil lizard of the Wealden.

HYPERSTHENE. A mineral.

HYPOGENE ROCKS. Rocks formed beneath others or which are assumed to have

obtained their present aspect underneath the earth’s surface.

ICHTHYODORULITE. The fossil spine of certain fishes resembling sharks.

ICHTHYOLITES. Fragments of the bones of fossil fishes.

ICHTHYOLOGY. The study and description of fishes.

ICHTHYOSAURUS. A marine reptile (fish-lizard), whose remains are very

abundant in rocks of the Secondary period.

IGNEOUS ROCKS. Rocks, such as lava, trap, and some others which have

been fused by volcanic heat.—Granite and other porphyritic rocks are

sometimes called crystalline.

IGNIGENOUS. Produced by fire.

IGUANODON. Extinct gigantic lizard.

IMBRICATED. Covered with scales overlapping each other like tiles on the

roof of a house.

INOCERAMUS. A bivalve of the chalk formation.

INORGANIC. Not produced by vital action.

INVERTEBRATA. Animals not furnished with a back bone.

JUNCUS (in botany). A rush.

LACERTIANS. Lizards.

LACUSTRINE. Belonging to a lake.

LAGOON. A salt-water lake, or part of a sea nearly inclosed by a strip of

land.

LAMINATED. Arranged in thin plates or _laminæ_.

LENTICULAR. Lens-shaped.

LEPIDOIDES. Extinct fish of the Oolite formation.

LLANDEILO FLAGS. A division of the lower silurian formation of Murchison.

LIAS. A provincial name now generally adopted to designate the calcareous

clay or clayey limestone occurring between the Upper new red sandstone

and the Oolite.

LIGNEOUS. Woody.

LIGNITE. Wood converted into an imperfect kind of coal.

LITHOLOGY (lithos, a stone; logos, a discourse). Description of stones.

LITTORAL. Belonging to the shore.

LOPHIODON. A fossil animal allied to the tapir.

LYCOPODIUM. A cryptogamous plant.

MACAUCO. A four-handed animal allied to the Ape family.

MAMMALIA. Animals that suckle their young.

MARL. A mixture of clay and lime.

MARSUPIAL. An animal having a pouch, as the kangaroo.

MASTODON. A gigantic extinct quadruped resembling the elephant.

MATRIX. The earthy or stony matter in which a mineral or fossil is

imbedded.

MECHANICAL ROCKS. Rocks formed by deposition from water.

MEGALOSAURUS. A gigantic extinct lizard.

MEGALICHTHYS. Megas, great; ichthus, fish.

METAMORPHIC ROCKS. Rocks that have undergone change or metamorphosis

since their original formation.

METATARSAL. The part of the foot between the ankle and toes.

METEOROLOGY. The science of the phenomena of the atmosphere.

MICA SLATE. Is the lowest stratified rock except gneiss—it is

unfossiliferous.

MIOCENE. The middle of the three divisions of tertiary rocks, according

to Sir C. Lyell.

MOLASSE. A provincial name for a sandstone associated with marl and

conglomerates, found abundantly in the great valley of Switzerland. It

belongs to the middle tertiary period.

MOLECULES. The ultimate particles or atoms of bodies.

MOLLUSCA. A division in Conchology.

MONOMYARIA. Bivalve shells having but one adductor muscle.

MORAINE. A Swiss term for the débris of rocks brought down into valleys

by glaciers.

MYRICACIÆ. Plants of the Gale family.

MYTILUS. A marine shell, the mussel.

NEUROPTERIS. A fossil fern of the coal-measures.

NODULE. A rounded irregular-shaped mass.

NUCLEUS. The solid center, about which matter is often collected to form

solids.

NUMMULITES. A group of foraminiferous shells, some of them of large size

and very abundant, occurring in rocks chiefly of the oldest tertiary

period.

OOLITE. A limestone composed of rounded particles, like the roe of a

fish. The name _Oolitic_ is applied to a considerable group of deposits

in which this limestone occurs.

ORGANIC. Exhibiting organization, or the results of vital force. _Organic

remains_, or _fossils_, are the remains of the animals and vegetables of

a former state of existence found buried in rocks.

ORNITHIC. Relating to birds.

ORNITHORHYNCHUS. A singular animal, found in New Holland, called also the

water-mole.

ORTHOCERA. A straight-chambered shell of the Silurian formation.

OSSEOUS. Bony: _Osseous breccia_ is a conglomerate made up of bones

cemented together by lime, and mixed with earthy matter.

OSTEOLEPIS (bone-scale). A fish of the Old red sandstone.

OSTEOLOGICAL. Relating to bones.

OUTCROP. The line at which a stratum first shows itself at the surface in

inclined deposits.

OVIPAROUS. Egg-laying animals.

PACHYDERMATA. A group of animals so called from the thickness of their

skin. The elephant and pig are well known examples.

PALÆONISCUS. A fossil fish of the Magnesian limestone of England.

PALÆONTOLOGY. The science which treats of fossil organic remains; it is

the zoology and botany of the ancient conditions of the earth.

PALÆOTHERIUM. A genus of Pachydermata allied to the Tapir.

PECOPTERIS. A fern of the coal-measures.

PELAGIAN. Belonging to the sea.

PENTACRINITE. A stone lily with five-sided foot-stalk.

PETROLEUM. Mineral pitch.

PHÆNOGAMOUS, or PHANEROGAMIC PLANTS. Those in which the reproductive

organs are apparent.

PHRYGANEA. A family of insects which breed in water.

PHYLLOLEPIS. Leaf-scale.

PHYSICAL. Literally _natural_, but used in scientific language in

treating of the higher and wider views of various departments with

reference to the whole external world, and not to mere human objects.

PHYTOLOGY. The department of Natural History which relates to plants.

Botany.

PLACOID. A group of fishes, so called from the structure of their scales.

PLANORBIS. A fresh water univalve. Fossil and recent.

PLATYGNATHUS. (Greek; platus, wide, and gnathos, jaw or mouth.)

PLESIOSAURUS. An extinct genus of reptiles.

PLIOCENE, OLDER AND NEWER. The upper part of the Tertiary series, so

called by Sir C. Lyell from the preponderance of recent shells in them.

PLUMBAGO (Black lead). The name commonly given to _graphite_, a form of

carbon.

PLUTONIC ROCKS. Rocks supposed to be due to igneous action at great

depths below the earth’s surface, have been thus named by older

geologists. The igneous action is not manifest in such rocks, but

presumed, as in the case of granite.

POLYPARIA. A group of animals of which the _coral animal_ is a well known

example.

PORCELLIA. The papaw, a plant now called asimina.

PORPHYRY. Any rock having crystals imbedded in a base of other mineral

composition. Thus granite is a porphyritic rock, having crystals of

feldspar and mica imbedded in a quartz base.

PREDACEUS. Preying upon other animals.

PREHNITE. A mineral.

PRIMARY, or PRIMITIVE. This name is commonly applied to the rocks which

underlie those that are manifestly of mechanical origin and contain

fossils.

PRODECTUS. A bivalve shell.

PTERICHTHYS. (Winged fish.) A fossil of the Old red sandstone.

PTERODACTYL. A remarkable genus of reptiles adapted for flight; its

remains have been found in a fossil state throughout the Secondary rocks.

PTEROPODA. Marine animals having wing-like fins.

PUDDING STONE. The name often given to coarse conglomerates in which the

fragments or pebbles are rounded.

PYRITES. A name given to the combinations of certain metals with sulphur.

QUA-QUA-VERSAL. The dip of beds in every direction from an elevated

central point. The beds on the flanks of a volcanic cone dip in this way.

QUARTZ. The common form of silica; rock-crystal and flint are examples.

RACEME (in botany). When the florets are arranged along the sides of a

general peduncle.

RADIATA. A division of the animal kingdom so called because the body is

frequently presented in a radiated form like the common star-fish.

RETICULATED. A structure of crossed fibers, like a net, is said to be

reticulated.

ROCK (in Geology). Any mass of mineral matter of considerable or

indefinite extent and nearly uniform character, is called in geological

language a rock, without regard to its hardness or compactness: thus,

loose sand and clay, as well as sandstone and limestone, are spoken of

under this name.

ROCK SALT. Common salt occurring in a crystalline state in rocks.

ROE-STONE. The name sometimes given to _Oolite_.

RUMINANTIA. An important group of quadrupeds including those which chew

the cud, as the ox, deer, &c.

SACCHAROID. Having the texture of loaf sugar.

SALIFEROUS SYSTEM. The new red sandstone system, so called from the salt

with which it is associated in parts of England.

SAURIAN (reptilian). Any animal of the lizard tribe, and many extinct

reptiles only distantly allied to these.

SAUROIDS. Marine fishes resembling lizards.

SALMONOIDES. Resembling the salmon.

SCHIST. A name often used as synonymous with slate, but more commonly,

and very conveniently, limited to those rocks which do not admit of

indefinite splitting, like slate, but are only capable of a less perfect

separation into layers or laminæ. Of this kind are gneiss, mica-schist,

&c., often more or less crystalline.

SCIRPUS (in Botany). A rush.

SCORIÆ. The name given to volcanic ashes. The word means any kind of

cinders, but its scientific use is thus limited.

SHALE. An indurated clay, less fissile than schist, but splitting with

tolerable facility in plates parallel to each other, and to the original

planes of bedding.

SHELL MARL. A deposit of clay, peat, and silt, mixed with shells, which

collects at the bottom of fresh-water lakes.

SERPULA (in Conchology). A worm-like marine shell.

SERRATED. Having points like a saw.

SIGILLARIA. Fossil plants found in the coal-measures.

SILEX, SILICA. The name given by Mineralogists to a pure earth,

more commonly spoken of as _flint_, and, when crystallized, called

rock-crystal.

SILT. The name usually given to the muddy deposit found at the bottom of

running streams.

SILURIAN. The name given by Sir R. Murchison to an important series

of fossiliferous rocks well developed in, and first described from, a

district in Wales and Shropshire formerly inhabited by the _Siluri_, a

tribe of Ancient Britons.

SIPHUNCLE. A small tube passing through an orifice in the septum of a

chambered shell.

SPHENOPTERIS. Fossilfern (leaf wedge-shaped).

SPHEROID. Having a shape nearly resembling that of a sphere or globe.

SPIRIFER. An extinct bivalve.

STALACTITE and STALAGMITE. Concretions of carbonate of lime and sometimes

of other minerals, as quartz or even malachite, deposited by water

dropping from the roof of a cavern or other vacant space.

STEATITE. Soapstone.

STIGMARIA. A coal fossil, an aquatic plant.

STRATIFICATION. The condition of rocks or accumulated minerals deposited

in layers, beds, or _strata_.

STRIKE. The line of bearing of strata, or the direction of any horizontal

line on a stratum.

SUPERPOSITION. An expression very commonly employed by Geologists to

describe the order of arrangement when one bed or stratum reposes upon

another.

SUPRA-CRETACEOUS. A term applied by Sir H. de la Bèche to rocks overlying

the chalk. The term Tertiary is now universally adopted for this group.

SYENITE. The granite of the quarries of Syene in Egypt. It is usual to

call by this name any combination of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende.

SYNCLINAL AXIS. The line of depression between two anticlinal axes.

SYNCONDROSIS. Connection of bones by cartilage.

TEREBRATULA. A fossil shell.

TERTIARY STRATA. The series of sedimentary rocks overlying the chalk, or

other representative of the Secondary period, and extending thence to the

rocks of the Recent period.

TESTACEA. Molluscous or soft animals having a shelly covering.

THECODONT. A fossil saurian or marine lizard.

THERMAL. Hot. _Thermal Springs_ are springs whose temperature is above

the mean annual temperature of the place where they break out.

TETRAPTEROUS. Four-winged.

TIBIA. The principal bone of the leg.

TOAD-STONE. The name given by miners to beds of basalt, occurring in

Derbyshire.

TRACHYTE. A feldspathic variety of lava.

TRAP. Crystalline rocks, composed chiefly of feldspar, augite and

hornblende, combined in many ways, and exhibiting great varieties of

aspect, are frequently called by this name.

TRIAS. The name given on the continent to the beds of the New red

sandstone series.

TRILOBITE. A common fossil in the Dudley limestone, so named from

the characteristic species having the body divided into three lobes.

Trilobites are the remains of a remarkable extinct family of Crustaceans,

of which the crab, lobster, &c., are modern representatives.

TRIONYX. A genus of tortoise, having three claws.

TUFACEOUS, TUFF. An Italian name for a variety of volcanic rock of earthy

texture, and made up chiefly or entirely of fragments of volcanic ashes.

TURBINATED. Shells which have a spiral or screw-like structure are thus

named.

UNCONFORMABLE SUPERPOSITION (instratification). The condition of strata

when one has been deposited horizontally upon the upturned edges of those

immediately below.

UNIO. Fresh water bivalve.

VERTEBRATA, or Vertebrated Animals. A large and most important division

of the animal kingdom, including all those animals provided with a back

bone. Each separate bone of the back is called a _vertebra_.

VERTEX. The summit or upper part of a solid.

VITREOUS. Glassy. Used in Mineralogy to designate a peculiar luster.

VIVIPAROUS. Bearing young alive.

WARP. The deposit of muddy waters.

WEALDEN. The name given to an important fresh-water formation, occurring

between the Cretaceous and Oolitic rocks, chiefly in the Wealds of Kent

and Sussex.

WHIN-STONE. A provincial term applied to some trap rocks.

ZAMIA. A plant allied to the palm, plentiful east of the Cape of Good

Hope.

ZEOLITE. A group of minerals which swell and boil up when exposed to the

blow-pipe flame.

ZOOPHYTE. The term applied to some animals of low organization, which,

during the greater part of their lives, are attached to some foreign

substance, and are incapable of locomotion.