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Essays on Creation and Geology.

terrestrial animals is declared; and though in regard to the individual it be true, that "one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh;" yet in regard to the species it is equally true, that they with the earth abide for ever,* or endure as long as it shall remain.

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opposite principles, clearly established by Moses, cannot be correct. The consideration of this subject, however, we must reserve to the sequel.

To demonstrate at every step that the aiōns of Mr. Macnab are erroneous and absurd; and that no part of the Creation was ever designed to be independent of another for the immense period which he has assigned to his aiōns; are we not in effect expressly told Gen. i. 29, 30, that, in regard to ve

The original formation of the different tribes of animals; the placing them on the earth after it was furnished with inexhaustible means of subsistence; and the subsequent preser-getables and animals, the one was vation of a due proportion between the sexes; seem clear indications, that the preservation of the different genera and species of animals as long as the earth was to endure, entered as a principal design with the original constitution of the globe. But the researches of learned men, it would appear, have demonstrated this not to be the case. They contend that they have discovered remains of animals of altogether different species, and even genera, from any which now exist. On which account they conceive themselves justified in concluding that the earth must have had some other origin than that assigned to it by Moses; or if his account is to be admitted, it must be explained in a way to tally with their conjectures respecting the said discoveries.

But how plausible soever their theories may appear, may not geologists after all be mistaken in the conclusion, that the bones and other relics of the animals in question, are really different from any thing which now exists? There are at any rate the strongest grounds to suspect the accuracy of their conclusion: for it appears from Buffon and other writers, that at times they admit them to be distinctly of the same species-demonstrating them to be like the bones of this and the other animal, only of gigantic size. And even Cuvier acknowledges, by three distinct and powerful reasons,* afterwards to be considered, the difficulties under which he laboured in determining this point. Which difficulty, is a circumstance quite sufficient to create the strongest suspicions, that a theory founded upon such doubtful principles, especially when it has to contend with a set of

formed purposely for the other?-that
vegetables never existed for any length
of time without animals to subsist up-
on them? and that animals were not
created till there was provision made
for their sustenance by the formation
of vegetables? When, therefore, first
the one was formed and then the other,
we behold God himself uniting them
together, by saying to the latter, “Be-
hold, I have given you every herb bear-
ing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree, in the which
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to
you it shall be for meat.' Which
words were addressed to Adam. But
the passage proceeds,
"And to every
beast of the earth, and to every fowl of
the air, and to every thing that creepeth
upon the earth, wherein there is life, I
have given every green herb for meat;
and it was so.'

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In all this, there is something rational and God-like, something to be admired by intelligent creatures; there is an object worthy of Infinite Intelligence to pursue. But upon the principle of these pretended wise men, rationality and wisdom seem to be out of the question; all their reasoning seems to be entirely in behalf of something they know not what.

But here comes a knotty question to them. To assert, as Moses does, that all animals were once herbaceous, or subsisted on vegetable productions, as God is said expressly to have given them "every green herb for meat;" is a position which will by no means suit the naturalists; whose very systems and arrangements in Zoology are founded very much on the different kinds of food on which animals are now observed to subsist. The Christian system, however, so far from opposing this idea of Moses' primitive state of the earth, opens a prospect of a more perfect state of things yet to take * Cavier's Theory of the Earth. pp. 111-113. place, when even the lion shall cat

* Eccl. i. 4.

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Essays on Creation and Geology.

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straw like the ox,' ,"* Then will be mani- | as that which is done in the present fested the imperfection of all our pre- times respecting brutes. sent systems, which are founded upon such arbitrary distinctions; though now they are not without their use, but serve as stepping-stones by which we are enabled to cross and recross rivers, swamps, and marshes, which would be impassable without them. Then, doubtless, will men be again restored to such a perfection of knowledge as Adam possessed, when, like him, they shall no longer require systems founded upon the results of reasoning and induction, | and which, through the perversion of our nature, as often lead to error as to truth; but shall perceive objects by intuition, and call things by names expressive of their nature.

Much of this seems to have been the case in primitive times. On which account I conceive it to be owing, that those times do not furnish us with such satisfactory details of things as the present age requires. For in fact, the ancients acquired their knowledge of nature, not by studying the systems of man upon it; but nature herself was a book open to them all, and read by each according to his capacity; and they appear in general to have been too much masters of the systems with which they were conversant, to require the committing of them to writing :a slow, laborious, and circuitous method of instruction, which always implies imperfection! A more figurative and hieroglyphical representation of things, conveyed to them by the glance of the eye more instruction in a single moment, than men in the present day are able to carry away from a course of the most luminous lectures of the most celebrated professor. Hence, we are not to look to them for an historical account of things; perhaps they had no idea that future generations would ever need to be instructed in a different manner from themselves. And hence, they seem to have considered a mere genealogical and chronological table of some few events, and the line of succession of their ancestors, all that was necessary in this way.*

Now, from all this, as false an inference may be drawn respecting man,

* Isa. xi. 7. It is admitted this passage is figurative; but it seems to be a figure founded upon a fact, and pointing to the literal as well as figurative restoration of the fact again. * Gen. chap. v.

Man may be defined, according to the present mode of his instruction, as a being that acquires his knowledge by the circuitous method of written alphabetical language, and the tedious process of experiment and induction. And as matters now go, we could as easily conceive" the lion to graze with the ox," as that man should ever have been capable of being instructed into the minutiae of things by any other method. Yet the fact of the contrary is certain in regard to the first man; and it prevailed in the antediluvian world, and even later; till men began to abuse it by multiplying images and representations for the purposes of superstition and idolatry, when they seem to have been deprived of such powers.

But

In like manner, the fact is equally certain in regard to animals, that they were once all herbaceous; though from present appearances we are unable to perceive how this could be. our inability to comprehend the subject does not destroy a fact which seems to have existed during the whole of the antedulivian period; nor ought it to render the prediction incredible, that such shall be again the state of things with regard both to man and brutes, in the glory of the latter days. Violence or oppression of every kind, whether exercised by man or brutes, seems to be a perversion of nature's laws; which God now "winks at," or tolerates, as he did the ignorance of the ancient heathen ;* but there is a period which he has given us to expect, when matters shall be again reduced to their primitive simplicity, innocence, and order; when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all his holy mountain; when the ferocious nature of beasts shall be changed, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and lastly, when men shall again be endowed with instinctive powers of acquiring knowledge; and shall not require, as they now do," the teaching of every one his neighbour and his brother; but when all shall know the Lord, and his wonderful works, from the least even to the greatest."

"Thus, by connecting the middle, or present state both of animals and men, with the two ends of the exist

*Acts xvii. 30.

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Essays on Creation and Geology.

ence of their whole species, have we removed in a clear and satisfactory manner, it is presumed, the objection which might be brought against the Mosaic account of all animals being once herbaceous. And as things in nature seem in general to be arranged in concentric circles, constantly bringing us back to the point whence they began; so this method here, as well as in almost every other thing, seems to bid the fairest for the most glorious results and not that, which has been almost constantly pursued hitherto, which proceeds upon the straight line, and which, so far from leading to right conclusions, seems rather to be the grand source of all our darkness, stumblings, and errors, in all our systems of the present day.

Taking present appearances as the criterion by which to illustrate things that are past or future, is a fallacious principle. Every age is distinguished for something peculiar to itself; and this remark extends not merely to man, but to the earth itself, and every thing on it; yea, in some respects to the whole visible universe. Hence, though there be a general uniformity in the whole, yet no part will serve exactly by which to represent another part. To perceive the whole, we must take in the whole; and not from the consideration of any one part, whether it regards time, or space, or any other individual object, class, or classes of objects, make a criterion by which to explain the whole; for this will inevitably lead to error.*

For example, though the present, is the didactic age in reference to man, and the carnivorous in reference to some animals, and the age of rest or absence of all great or material revolutions in reference to the earth itself; yet it would be very incorrect to main

This seems to be the superlatively wise method of M. Cuvier!!! "When we endeavour," says he, "to estimate the quantity of effects produced in a given time by any causes still acting, by comparing them with the effects which these causes have produced since they began to operate, we may determine nearly the period at which their action commenced." Cuvier's Theory, 133. Thus, in the first place, he evidently takes for granted the existence of matter in a certain undefined condition when the "action commenced." And secondly, the equal uniformity of the action from that period to the present times. Both which positions, as they have no foundation in fact, so they can never be assumed as first principles on which to build a system of truth. No 23. VOL. III.

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tain, that it either was, or always will be, the same in these respects. Hence, we can draw no correct conclusion respecting either the past or the future, from the present state of things. The present is only one part of a whole, as are also the past and future separate parts; but each part, strictly speaking, answers for itself alone, and not each for the other.

A mistake of this nature, of confounding the past and future with the present state of things, was foreseen by the Spirit of prophecy. The apostle Peter speaks of some scoffers who were to arise in the last days, speaking great swelling words of vanity. And the principal objection respecting any future change (particularly of the nature of the change there described) in the mundane system, was to be grounded upon its present apparent unchangeable and unalterable condition. That is to say, Though it may be demonstrated by these scoffers, that the earth has undergone revolutions, yet they are not such revolutions as the apostle describes; but mere visionary affairs, according to a system of their own framing, which have occupied millions of ages to effect; and may continue performing similar revolutions for so long a period to come; yea, for ever, as their systems seem to admit neither of bounds nor limits. thus, in effect, they ward off the judgment of the great day, as long as they please; and sap the foundation of the Scripture account equally of the origin and end of the world. And "if the foundations be thus destroyed, what can the righteous do ?""*

And

But the apostle answers these scoffers expressly in the same way which we have done; by referring them to the facts of changes and revolutions which the globe had undergone in past ages. Not such revolutions, however, as they would, by their deep researches, and pretended learning, palm upon an ignorant sottish world. But revolutions which are recorded in history, even in the volume of inspiration itself; of which he declares they were

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willingly ignorant." The revolutions too, of which he speaks, were not vague and indeterminate as to the period when they happened, like those of our visionary theorists; but they were those which happened at the de

F

* Psa. xi. 3.

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Essays on Creation and Gealogy.

luge; at a determinate epoch fixed in the true, recorded, and carefully preserved history of the globe. He refers to an event not involved in chimerical conjecture, like that of the whole tribe of enthusiastic system-builders; but to an event which was certain, and of which there were ten thousand witnesses. And, if I mistake not, he does as much as say, that that event alone was the primary and grand cause of all, or almost all, the revolutionary appearances of our globe. At all events be assures us, whatever men may urge to the contrary, that it has never undergone another catastrophe similar to the flood; but that since the deluge, "the present heavens and earth are treasured up and preserved" from that, or any other revolution that would destroy them, "by the same word or power which destroyed the old world," for the purpose of being "burnt with fire, at the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.'

This, therefore, being a subject of prophecy, of some peculiar characters which were to arise in the latter days, little did those philosophers who have been so exceedingly industrious in examining the geognostic structure of the earth, and in comparing the anatomy of the animals which at present exist upon it, with the petrified and metamorphosed fossil remains of animals which have been dug from it, sometimes at considerable depths; and from thence drawing conclusions, which in their nature tend to sap the foundation of the Christian system;little did they imagine, I say, that, by these very arguments, instead of giving Christianity its death-blow, as perhaps some of them intended, they have inadvertently given it the triumph of an additional argument, arising from this very conduct of theirs; namely, that such impious attempts to oppose the Almighty were predicted of them.

Thanks to you then, Messrs. H——, C——, W——, and the whole class of theoretical philosophers, for what you have inadvertently done for the interests of Christianity. And as for you M. Cuvier, we must single out you, as an adventurer, that has even surpassed your brethren, and say to you, that we could as soon believe the fantastic story of the moon's being a detachment from the tail of a comet,

2 Pet. iii. 7.

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which, happening to come too near the earth, was attracted by it, and so has whirled round it as its humble vassal, ever since; as that your powers are infallibly such as, that from a single bone, or portion, or small fragment of bone, you are able to construct an animal, and demonstrate to what species, &c. it belongs; and that, not only such as you have had the opportunity of dissecting in the recent state, but such as you confess you never saw nor heard of, till this insolated fragment fell into your hands! How do such vaunting pretensions accord with your own acknowledgment, when you say, that as for these fossil animals," their races have even become extinct, and have left no memorial of them, except some small fragments which the naturalist can scarcely recognize?"* And when you frankly acknowledge respecting others, that they have treated this subject in such a manner as to have caused what you call the Science of Geology, to have become ridiculous?""* Now, if such was your opinion of others, you must pardon us, if, in some of your positions, we should have the same opinion of you; for what can be more culous" than your theory respecting the fossil remains of animals, and the visionary conclusions you draw from them?†

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Thus, when matters are fairly examined, without doubt it will indeed be found, notwithstanding the assertions of some learned men to the contrary, that there is still every reason to conclude, that in regard to the different tribes of terrestrial animals, though one generation passeth away, yet another generation cometh; so that the species with the earth still abideth.

This fact, from the very nature of things, we are led strongly to presume. It was evidently to preserve the animals alive that the earth was provided with the means of animal subsistence, ere yet animals were created to subsist upon it. The formation of animals in pairs, male and female, is an argument to the same effect. And it must ever be maintained, that as there is at the head of the Creation an infinitely wise Intelligence, who works nothing in vain; even so this very thing secures the preservation of his

* Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, p. 17. + Ibid. p. 39.

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Answer to Query.-Anecdotes.

78

He re

A demonstrating instance of haranguing the populace. his superintending and preserving peatedly summoned the deceased in care, we clearly have in the provisions the most urgent manner, to arise and which he made for the preservation of walk home; but as all he said still prothe animals, where, by the deluge of duced no effect, he at length turned to Noah, at one stroke he cut off all flesh, his auditory, and with the most imboth of man and beast, from the earth. posing impudence exclaimed-"Never As all the different tribes of land ani- did I see so obstinate a corpse!" mals, from the perfect quadruped to the crawling reptile, were created on this anterior part of the sixth day, we leave it to the naturalist to make the enumeration of them, and to arrange them into systematic order.

If any should be disposed to consider the objections above stated, To the idea of the extinction of certain tribes of animals, to be not sufficiently demonstrated; I only beg of such for a little to suspend their judgment, till we come to that part of the subject where we shall have occasion to examine the nature of the proof on which the assertion, That whole species of animals have become extinct, is founded; when I hope to make it appear, to the satisfaction of every reasonable mind, that the proofs are of such a doubtful, precarious, and uncertain nature, as to render the objections here advanced sufficiently conclusive.

ANSWERS TO QUERY ON ESSENTIAL
OILS,

Inserted in No. 20, col. 844, of the Imperial
Magazine.

Query. What is the reason of essential oils becoming milky on the addition of alcohol?

Answer.-Essential oils, on exposure to air, for some time absorb oxygen, and become resinous, by which they lose their volatility, fragrance, and pungency.

Query. What could be done to pre

vent it?

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Sir John Maynard.

WHEN Sir J. Maynard, an eminent English lawyer, waited upon the prince of Orange, the new monarch, after the abdication of James II. with an address; William observed to him, that, judging from his age, he must have outlived most of the judges and eminent lawyers of his standing. To this Sir J. replied, "And I should have outlived the law too, had it not been for the arrival of your Majesty."

Fareham, Oct. 6, 1820.

G*****

GENUINE ANECDOTE, COMMUNICATED
BY P. L.

THE Hon. Wm. Gray, of Boston, (New
England,) celebrated as "the rich," and
respected for his exemplary virtues,
some time since, on his accustomary
visit to the market, found a newly-ad-
mitted lawyer seeking for a boy to
carry home his meat. Mr. Gray, whose
ordinary dress is plain and simple,
and whom the lawyer did not know,
stepped up, and offered to take it home
for him, which offer the attorney im-
mediately accepted; and on arriving
at his house, and laying down the meat
where he was directed, the attorney
inquired how much he charged for
carrying it? Mr. Gray replied, he left
it to his "generosity;" upon which he
gave him a shilling, which he ac-
cepted with thanks, observing, that
if he had at any time any market
things to carry home, he would readily
do it for him; and "if I should not
happen to be there," said he, "just in-
quire for Billy Gray, and I will come
immediately." It is unnecessary to
add, the surprise and mortification of
the lawyer, on hearing that a man
worth a million of dollars, had per-
formed this menial service for him; but
it had its effect, for he never afterwards
required the assistance of any one to
aid him in performing his marketing,
or to carry home his meat.-Savannah
| Republican.

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