millions of years to the existence of each generation."* This eloquent writer cannot have intended to signify "ancestors" and "generations" of the human kind, nor of the existing species of animals; for this would involve a groundless imputation. He probably used those words, without adverting to their proper meaning, and designing only to express animated creatures and the succession of different families and genera.†

* Edinburgh Christian Instructor, April, 1814.

+ Sec. ed. The friend of Dr. Chalmers, mentioned in a former note, has honoured me with a remark on this passage. "Dr. C. does not mean animated creatures at all, but former continents: which may be looked upon, by a poetical eye, as the ancestors of the present ones. You are not accustomed to his imaginative modes of expression: but long attendance in his class-room, and familiarity with his works, enable me to vouch for my correctness here."

LECTURE II.

Deut. xxxiii. 13, 15, 16. Blessed of the Lord be his land; for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof.

THIS beautiful passage, from the dying benedictions of Moses, the faithful servant of God, is not recited from any supposition that it has an immediate reference to the subjects of this lecture. Yet, such an application may be made, upon the ground of a fair and unforced analogy. The passage is a sublime thanksgiving to the Most High, acknowledging the eminent advantages which he had prepared for the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, in the approaching partition of Palestine. Their allotment had a moderate line of sea-coast, on which was Joppa, at that time and long after a good port; an ample portion of rich land for pasture and cultivation; and numerous high grounds and hills supplying streams of water, and containing excellent stone and lime for building, with iron and copper in the northern mountains. Thus the description may be properly adduced as comprehending, along with other objects, the class of providential blessings which belong to the mineral kingdom, and which are of so great importance to the wealth and prosperity of a nation. That class of blessings, God has conferred upon our country in a far superior degree: and it certainly becomes us to understand our mercies and be grateful for them. Geological knowledge, if pursued in a right state of mind, will much assist us in this duty.

All observation and every experiment prove, that the sensible world around us is in a state of incessant motion and change, upon all points of the scale, from the internal movements of the matter composing the simplest and minutest body that we can

observe, to the motions of the astral orbs and nebulæ, so overwhelming to our power of conception, or even in imagination to follow them.

These changes take place not in a fortuitous and confused. manner, but in a regular subjection to principles, mechanical and chemical; which, though few and simple, lead to results, very complicated indeed and recondite, yet ever harmonizing with each other and with the whole system of the universe: and thus these changes are supplying employment to the highest powers of mathematical investigation.

Throughout organized nature, the characters of species approach to each other, group themselves into genera, and those again into families and orders, associated by points of resemblance; and thus they constitute a continuous series of structural forms, functions, and operations, which exhibit, in all their variety, a principle of mutual adaptation reigning throughout; and indicate an entire dependence upon an all-comprehending, and all-arranging Intellect. The machine of the universe is thus maintained in being and action, by an intelligent Cause and Preserver. It would involve a contradiction to say that the universe is itself that cause. The marks which it bears of dependence on a supreme reason of existence, are incontrovertible. Whether that dependence be conceived of as strictly proximate, or whether the efficiency of the divine power pass through one or ten, ten thousand or ten thousand millions, of intervening agencies, can make no difference. Let the unceasing activity of operation move subordinate causes whose number could not be put down in figures, and whose complication no created intellect could follow; it is still the same. "The excellency of the power is of God." Indeed the latter supposition exalts the more highly our view of the divine perfections; the knowledge, wisdom, and power, to which complication and simplicity, remoteness and nearness, an atomic point and all space, are the "GOD IS A SPIRIT.-Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith JEHOVAH.-HE is ALL and in all.-In HIM we live, and move, and have our being."

same.

Of this dependent universe, our planet is a part so small that no arithmetician can assign a fraction low enough to express its proportion to the whole. God has appointed it for our habita

tion, till the great change of death: and, on every account, natural and moral, it is to us full of interest. Its constitution, the alterations of structure and arrangement which are incessantly taking place upon it and within it, its living inhabitants, and those races of creatures once possessing vegetable or animal life, but which have ceased to live,-set before us subjects inexhaustible for examination and delight.

The object of this lecture is not to lay down a digest of geological facts. Such a pretension would be absurd, unless we could work upon a larger scale. But I may well feel assured that my friends will not do themselves so much injustice, as would be the neglect of studying diligently some of the best works, and which may easily be obtained.* I have only to present, as concisely as I can make intelligible by merely verbal description, an enumeration of those truths which are necessary to be known for the purpose of our present investigation. I call them Truths, because they appear so to myself, after having taken, I shall be pardoned for saying, no inconsiderable pains, and during not a few years, in examining the evidence of these positions. To detail that evidence would be altogether impracticable, except we could devote many days to it; but my friends will give me credit, that I would not utter what I do not believe to rest upon good ground of certainty or high probability.

I. Concerning the Structure of the Earth, we are acquainted, by sensible evidence, with about the four hundredth part of the distance from the surface upon which we dwell, taken at the

*If, for the sake of my younger friends, I mention the works which I can with most satisfaction recommend, omissions must not be understood as intimating any disparagement. Lyell's Elements, and his earlier and larger work, the Principles of Geology; let the inquirer obtain the last edition of each; also Mr. L.'s two volumes, full of miscellaneous as well as geological interest, Travels in North America, 1845; Phillips's Guide to Geology, his Treatises in the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and the Cabinet Cyclopædia, both works published separately, and that in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana; his Yorkshire Geology, two quarto volumes; his Geological Map of the British Isles; his Palæozoic Fossils of the West of England; Conybeare and William Phillips's Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales; a work, to our great regret, not yet finished, and of which a revised edition and the completion are earnestly looked for; Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, with the Supplementary Notes published separately; Sir Henry de la Beche's Researches, his quarto volume of Geological Sections and Views; his Manual, and his Report of the Geology of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset ;

sea-level, to the centre. This portion may be called ten miles. But every one must be aware that no such distance can be reached by direct descent. To the bottom of the deepest seas, from the water-surface, may be seven miles: the average depth of the sea is pretty well ascertained to be about three miles: the highest of the European mountains, Montblanc, is not quite three miles: the highest peak of the Himalaya mountains falls

Mantell's works on Sussex, and the S. E. of England, his Wonders of Geology;1 Medals of Creation; Thoughts on a Pebble, a beautiful little book, adapted for young inquirers; First Lessons, an Introduction to the Phenomena of Geology; Thoughts on Animalcules, 1846; Fitton's Geology of Hastings; Murchison's small treatise on the Geology of Cheltenham, his splendid works on the Silurian Region, and the Geology of Russia. There are many other books written with sound knowledge and accurate judgment. An inestimable accession to the stores of Geological information, and the aids for labour in the field and study in the closet, is made by the new edition (1840) of Mr. Greenough's Geological Map of England and Wales, the fruit of twenty years' application in the improvement of the first, though that was the object of universal admiration. Mr. Charles Maclaren's Geology of Fifeshire: Prof. Hitchcock's Elementary Geology, second ed. 1841, a work peculiarly adapted to theological students; Mr. Richardson's (of the British Museum.) Geology for Beginners, a volume which, without the slightest disparagement of any other, is entitled to be universally read and studied by proficients as well as "beginners." Prof. Ansted's Geology, Introductory, Descriptive, and Practical; his Ancient World, or Picturesque Sketches of Creation; the Mosaic Creation, viewed in the Light of Geology, by the Rev. George Wight, of Doun in Perthshire; 1846. Index Geologicus, a large Tablet, proper to be mounted on cloth and rollers; by Mr. George Bartlett of Plymouth. It presents a Synoptic View of the Mineralogy of the Formations, their geological characters, and succession, ample lists, parallel with each formation, of the Organic Remains, Vegetable and Animal, properly arranged, with their geographical position, and agricultural notices. As a concomitant aid, and a subsequent review of geological treatises, it will be found of signal use. To those who have not, or who could not use, the Five noble Tablets with Figures (Geologische General Karte; oder Synoptische Uebersicht des Zustandes der Erde, in ihren verschiedenen Altern ;) published at Weimar in 1838, Mr. Bartlett's elaborated arrangement will be an excellent substitute.

As a valuable companion to these interesting studies, and possessing the closest relation to Geology, I feel no little pleasure in recommending the Præ-Adamite Earth, by the Rev. Dr. John Harris.

1 This Work of Dr. Mantell's is peculiarly adapted to serve not merely as an attractive introduction to geological science, but as a comprehensive manual of the principal facts already known, and lines of inquiry which invite pursuit. It has rapidly passed through six editions; besides one (and probably more) in New England, to which Dr. Silliman has prefixed a large and instructive Introduction. In it, that distinguished philosopher says, "The title is appropriate but it would be great injustice to consider this work as a mere collection of mirabilia. It embraces in truth a regular system of Geology, exhibiting its leading facts, and clearly elucidating its philosophy, which is the great object of the work."