But, granting the days of Moses to be lengthened into periods as long as the geologist pleases, apply these to the phenomena of the earth's strata, and we shall find the reconcilement of appearances as impracticable as ever. Instead of the regular gradation thus implied in the long periods between the creation of vegetables and animals, and between the lower animals and the higher, we find, in the very lowermost fossiliferous strata, fishes and moluscous animals and plants, all mingled in one bed; and, in other strata, birds, and creeping things, and reptiles, and even quadrupeds, that had been living contemporaries, entombed side by side. In the oldest marine basins, we find indications of rivers that had flowed into the ocean, carrying plants and animals from a then existing dry land. Indeed, in the secondary strata, strictly so called, it is not to be expected that we should find a key to the

*This theory of the regular succession of organic life, from the simplest plants to the most perfect, and from the least organized animals up to the most complicated, was of late a favourite funcy, is even yet, in spite of daily proofs to the contrary, still fondly adhered to-and still tinges the observations and assumptions of many geologists. Brongniart fancied, that he had at last found in the earth's strata a complete hortus siccus, arranged by nature to his hands, and that he had nothing to do but read off the vegetations of successive epochs, beginning with the simplest lichens and mosses, and advancing to the tall cedar. Nor were zoologists wanting who followed in his wake, with a creation of animals, arranged according to the newest systems, from the zoophyte to the elephant.

records of creation; for these, as already stated, are evidently formations derived from previously existing continents.

The other theory is founded upon a supposition, that between the first general announcement of the creation of the heaven and the earth, and the subsequent detail of the six days' creation, a long period elapsed, and that the present system of things was re-constructed out of the ruins of a previous world. Opinions of this nature were early entertained by theologians, when their imaginations wandered into incomprehensible speculations about the creation of matter out of nothing. They fancied they enlightened the utter gloom hanging over this subject, by throwing back the process to an indefinite period; and for their purpose, readily found in the word create two different meanings, -one signifying an origination of matter out of nothing, and the other a modelling or forming of something out of previously existing materials. In later times, opinions of this kind have been adopted by Rosenmuller, Bishop Sumner, Dr Chalmers, and some of the most eminent geologists both of England and Germany. They suppose

that the first verse of Genesis-"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,"- alludes to the creation of a pre-adamite world, where plants

* Note X.

and animals existed for a long and indefinite period; that this world was destroyed, and that the subsequent narrative relates to the creation or fitting up of our present earth, raised upon the ruins of the former one; that all the strata below our present diluvium, with the whole of its organic plants and animals, belonged to this previous world; and that the present system of things, with the introduction of man upon the earth, had its commencement, as Moses states, about five or six thousand years ago.

The question, then, is, will the first verses of Genesis bear this construction put upon them? Does the first sentence, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," appear an isolated announcement of a previous creation, unconnected with the detail of a second creation, or "fitting up," which is to follow? or does it not at once suggest the plain, and obvious, and unequivocal meaning of a general announcement of the subject which is to follow-that all things were created by God? This, we think, is distinctly evident from the second verse: there is no interval of time, in the remotest manner, suggested; on the contrary, the narrator, without pause or interruption, proceeds to describe the state of things immediately after the first creation," And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved

upon the face of the waters." Now, is this a condition of the earth where plants and animals, having an organization and habits exactly similar to those of the present day, and, as we shall afterwards see, some of them identical with existing species, could have lived and flourished, in utter darkness, in a void without form, where only moved the spiritual essence of divinity? Or, we shall ask, is this a description which any consistent or faithful narrator could have made to follow a completely organized world, supposed to be indicated in the previous or introductory verse? Had the state of the earth, immediately after the announcement of creation, been passed over in silence by Moses, there might have been some slight room for interposing a previous world. But the filling up of this period, however long or short it was,-for this circumstance does not seem expressly indicated by the narrative—with a sufficiently vivid account of the chaotic, or dark and unfurnished condition of the earth, is, we think, decisive against any such construction of the narrative. As the history of Moses, then, evidently commences with the first formation of the world, and proceeds with a creation from the chaotic state to the last production, man, in a consecutive and uninterrupted narrative, we are bound to believe that this narrative includes every organized substance, found in whatever part of the earth, which must have been produced subsequent

to the announcements in the first and second verses of Genesis.

We hold, then, that the idea of pre-adamite strata containing organic remains, in whatever condition these strata are seen or may be discovered, whether arranged in the order of a first creation, or seen in the position of secondary deposits from this, is at total variance with the narrative of Moses, and was never meant to be implied in his words, or dreamt of by his predecessors or contemporaries. There are also geological objections to this theory of a previous world. If it was entirely distinct from the present earth in point of the period of its existence, and if it was completely overthrown at the time of the second creation, how does it happen that existing species are found in contemporary strata with extinct ones? A considerable number of well authenticated examples of this nature are familiar to geologists, and every day is adding to the list of those important discoveries*

How does it happen that the mastodon of America has been found in the superficial mud of the Ohio, with the contents of its stomach of half digested shrubs and leaves-or that extinct deer are found in the bottom of our mosses,-if the chaotic state of

* See Lyell on the tertiary formations; and an account of the discovery of the remains of a paleotherium in the same strata with the camel, cat, and monkey, in the north of India.-Dr Falconer and Captain Cautly; Asiatic Journal, 1837.