Pye Smith, On the Relation between Scriptures & Geology

On the

RELATION

between

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

and some parts of

GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE.

by

JOHN PYE SMITH, D.D., F.G.S.
Divinity Tutor in the Protestant Dissenting College at Homerton.

New York
D. Appleton & Co.
1840

350 + 9 pages,

This electronic edition prepared by Dr. David C. Bossard
from original documents in the library holdings of Dartmouth College.

October, 2005.

A vagure idea has obtained circulation, that certain geological doctrines are at variance with the Holy Scriptures. This notion works with pernicious effect. The semblance of discrepancy is indeed undeniable; but I profess my conviction that it is nothing but a semblance, and, like many other difficulties on all important subjects which have tried the intellect of man, it vanishes before careful and sincere examination. [p. 20]

The study of revealed religion, cannot but be in perfect harmony with all true science. The works and the word of God are streams from the same source. [p. 33]

CONTENTS.

titlepage i i

prescript iv iv

Preface v v vi

Advertisement vii vii viii

Contents ix-xii ix x xi

LECTURE I. Page 13. 013 014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 026 027 028 029 030 031 032 033 034 035 036 037 038 039 040

PSALM cxi. 2. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

Object, design, and importance of geological science. Requisites and method of the study. Harmony of all science with the announcements of Revelation. Truth. Evidence. The world. The SUPREME BEING. Authority of Scripture.

p20 Many excellent persons, devout and practical Christians, knowing that "the word of our God shall stand for ever," feel no desire to become acquainted with the question; and sit down with a persuasion, that geological theories are visionary plausibilities, each having its day of fashion, then being exploded in favor of some other vagary, which in its turn gives way, and all falling under the description of false "philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, the rudiments of the world; -- perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, -- reprobate concerning the faith." (Col. ii. 8, 1 Tim. vi. 5, 2 Tim. iii. 8.)

That such a state of opinion is injurious to the cause of Christianity, can admit of no doubt. It is a fearful thing to array science and religion against each other...Men who have well studied the questions at issue, and who know the evidence of those geological facts to which such strong exception is taken, cannot by any possibility be brought to renounce their convictions.

p38 [quoting Cambridge professor Adam Sedgwick] "A philosopher may smile at the fulminations of the Vatican against those who, with Copernicus, maintained the motion of the earth: but he ought to sigh, when he finds that the heart of man is no better than it was of old, and that his arrogance and folly are still the same.-- There are still found some who dare to affirm that the pursuits of natural science are hostile to religion. An assertion more false in itself, or more dishonourable to the cause of true religion, has not been conceived in the mind of man....there is a class of men, who ... have tortured the book of life out of its proper meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a collision between natural phenomena and the word of God.--They have committed the folly and the SIN, of dogmatizing on matters which they have not personally examined, and, at the utmost, know only at second hand; and of pretending to teach mankind on points where they themselves are uninstructed. Authors such as these ought to have first considered, that ... to a divine or a man of letters, ignorance of the laws of nature and of material phenomena is then only disgraceful, when he quits his own ground and pretends to teach philosophy... It would indeed be a vain and idle task, to engage in controversy with this school of false philosophy...Their position is impregnable, while they remain within the fences of their ignorance."

LECTURE II. Page 41. 041 042 043 044 045 046 047 048 049 050 051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 068 069

DEUTERONOMV 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.

Change in the material universe, constant, but according to law. Description of facts in relation to the crust of the earth. Internal condition. Pyrogenous rocks. Stratified formations. Remains of creatures which once had life.

p60 Dr. William Smith, the Father of English Geology.

LECTURE III. Page. 70. 070 071 072 073 074 075 076 077 078 079 080 081 082 083 084 085 086 087 088

ROMANS xi. 36. Of HIM, and through HIM, and to HIM, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.

Recital of opinions which are by many assumed to be asserted or implied in the Scriptures, but which are contrary to geological doctrines. I. The recent creation of the world. II. A previous universal chaos over the earth. III. The creation of the heavenly bodies after that of the earth. IV. The derivation of all vegetables and animals from one centre of creation. V. That the inferior animals were not subject to death till the fall of man.

p70 It is a prevailing opinion that the dependent universe, in all its extent, was brought into existence by the almighty power of its Creator, within the period of the six days laid down in the first portion of the Book of Genesis: chap. i. throughout, and ii. 1-3... The same conclusion is also drawn from the language of the fourth commandment: "In six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." Exod. xx.11. To this position the discoveries of geological science are directly opposed.

p72 The general evidence for an antiquity of the earth, so great as to set at nought our attempts at estimation, may be compendiously understood by any one who will take moderate pains in studying the appearances of stratification and the characters of organic remains.

LECTURE IV. Page 89. 089 090 091 092 093 094 095 096 097 098 099 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

GENESIS vi. 17. And behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven: and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Continuation of apparent discrepancies between Geological doctrines and the testimony of Scripture, as generally understood. VI. Concerning the Deluge. The reason for that judicial infliction, in the righteous government of God. The testimony of history and tradition. Common ascription of geological phenomena to the Deluge — erroneous.

LECTURE V. Page 107. 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139

2 PETER II. 5. God spared not the old world,-bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

Continuation. More accurate and discriminating inquiry. Investigation of the masses of rolled stony fragments which have been attributed to the diluvial action. Those masses found to be of different character and age. Effect of the investigation upon the convictions of the most eminent geologists. Evidence from phenomena in Auvergne and Languedoc. The quantity of water requisite for a deluge geographically universal. The effect of such an addition to the bulk of the earth. The reception of animals in the ark. Other difficulties.

LECTURE VI.

    PART I. Page 140. 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164

1 THESSALONIANS v. 21. Prove all things: hold fast that which is good.

Examination of various methods which have been proposed for the removal of the difficulties and alleged contradictions, between Geology and the Scriptures. I. Denial of any difficulty, by shutting the eyes to the evidence of geological facts, and representing the inquiry as impious.

    PART II. Page 165. 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183

1I. Sacrificing the Mosaic records, as unintelligible, or as being the language of mythic poetry. III. Regarding the Mosaic six days as designed to represent indefinite periods. IV. Attributing stratification and other geological phenomena to the interval between the Adamic creation and the Deluge, and the action of the diluvial waters.

    PART III. Page 184. 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198

Examination continued of the diluvial theory.

p197 "Geologists have carefully examined some ten miles' thickness of solid fossiliferous strata to the number of hundreds, which they are able to do by means of their slanting position, where the edges crop up. These strata are not homogeneous; but consist of successive layers differing widely in their character and contents. They are divided into groups; they are not jumbled confusedly-fresh water productions with salt, land animals with fishes, present with extinct genera or species; but they lie as methodically as the shelves of specimens in a cabinet, being to all appearance successive sedimentary depositions gradually accumulated through a period of very long duration; the footsteps of animals on the once soft moist sand (now hard rock), and the ripple marks of water, being in many cases still visible, and the most delicate and brittle species of shells being unfractured. At the bottom are numerous strata of slate, shell, limestone, and sandstone, containing vegetable and animal sea-water remains now wholly unknown. Over these come sand and clay, interlaid with vast forests of coal, and other land and fresh water productions. Then come limestone, and sandstone, and clay; all containing organic remains quite distinct from those of the former groups. Then come the upper fossiliferous rocks; in which, for the first time, appear land animals; but even these quite distinct from those that now inhabit the 'world. These ten miles of strata upon strata bear marks of successive changes in the crust of the earth, both by dislocation and gradual accretion, every particle of clay or sand, for example, being so much pulverized rock; and the vast masses of fossiliferous stone, often composed almost entirely of shells, having every appearance of being the sediment at the bottom of oceans for very lengthened periods; how long no man can calculate; but this we know, not through eternal ages, for the very first announcement of Holy Writ is, that God created all things; they were therefore not self-derived or eternal.

But to pretend that there is any proof in Holy Writ, that God created them about six thousand years ago, and that to doubt this is infidelity, is to foist the received interpretation in the place of the inspired word, as well as to deal very harshly by our Christian neighbour who thinks otherwise. The geologist only asks a hearing; but he is not heard; he is taunted, declaimed against, and silenced; whilst the infidel stands by and admires the proceedings of the Protestant inquisition, as often as a new Galileo demonstrates a truth which accords not with some received interpretation. 'Let God be true, and every man a liar;' but we are not to lie for God, or, what comes nearly to the same, to refuse to open our eyes to truth, because we are apprehensive, as the Roman Catholics are in regard to transubstantiation, that our senses and our faith will contradict each other. We may feel quite easy on that score; for the more we know of God's works, the more clearly shall we see their accordance with his word; though not, it may be, with some popular comments on it." [Christian Observer, March 1839; p. 147]

LECTURE VII.

    PART I. Page 199. 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226

PSALM XII. 6. The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

The certain and infallible truth of all that is taught in the Holy Scriptures, when taken in its own genuine sense. Our duty to elicit that sense. Induction and examination of the forms of language used in Scripture to convey to man a knowledge of the Nature and Perfections of GOD. The gracious condescension and benefit of this method, for the religious instruction of mankind. This character of the scriptural style displayed in the descriptions of natural objects. General rule of interpretation hence derived. Superiority of the Christian dispensation.

    PART II. Page 227. 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259

Application of the principle established, to the interpretation of the narrative concerning the Creation. The independent position of the first sentence. The subsequent description refers to a limited region of the earth. The series of operations. The human creation. Death, before the fall of man.-The same principle applied to the fact of the Deluge, which is shown to have been universal as to the extent of the human population, but not geographically universal.-Concluding vindication of the principle, and its applications, as irrefutable, and absolutely necessary for maintaining the honour of the word of God.

p247 To those who have studied the phraseology of Scripture, there is no rule of interpretation more certain than this, that universal terms are often used to signify only a very large amount in number or quantity.

p258 I have now reached the point at which, from the beginning of these lectures, I have been aiming. I speak my own conviction, and I trust I have brought forwards sufficient evidence to support that conviction, that the alleged discrepance between the Holy Scriptures and the discoveries of scientific investigation, is not in reality, but in semblance only: in particular, that the Scriptures, fairly interpreted, are not adverse to a belief in an immeasurably high antiquity of the earth; in the reference of the six days' work to a part only of the earth's surface; in the position of several centres of creation, distinct from each other, on the surface of the globe; in the reign of death over the inferior animals, from the earliest existence of organized earthly beings; and in a limited extent of the deluge which swept away the remnant of a self-destroying race, saving one family, which "found grace in the eyes of the Lord."

I have not attempted to do this by affirming that the Scriptures teach the sciences; or that their language can be forced, by any grammatical or critical ingenuity, into a literal accordance with scientific truths: but by adducing abundant evidence to show that the AUTHOR of revelation spoke to mankind in such language as they were accustomed to use, such as they could most readily understand, and such as must ever remain the most affecting and impressive to the human heart.

Let it also be observed, that the principle of interpretation here brought forwards is entirely independent of facts in Natural History, or doctrines of Geology, or any other branch of Natural Science. If those facts be denied and those doctrines disapproved, still this mode of understanding the figurative language of Scripture will not be affected; it stands upon its own evidence, and cannot, I conceive, be overthrown.

It follows then, as a universal truth, that the Bible, faithfully interpreted, erects no bar against the most free and extensive investigation, the most comprehensive and searching induction. Let but the investigation be sufficient, and the induction honest. Let observation take its farthest flight; let experiment penetrate into all the recesses of nature ; let the veil of ages be lifted up from all that has been hitherto unknown, if such a course were possible;-religion need not fear, Christianity is secure, and true science will always pay homage to the Divine Creator and Sovereign, "of whom and through whom and to whom are all things; and unto whom be glory for ever."

LECTURE VIII. Page. 260. 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288

ECCLESIASTES xii. 13. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole of man.

Religion the perfection of our nature. The duty of scientific studies, especially in a course of education. Exhortations to personal efforts for improvement. Peculiar claims of Geology. The proper accompaniments of scientific pursuits. Advantage to the comforts of life. Moral uses. Responsibility to the just and holy GOD. Interest and urgency of these considerations. The rational claims and attractions of religion.

p269 But, why do you not let these matters alone Why do you bring them before the Christian public, distressing the minds of pious persons, and incurring the danger of shaking the faith of your weaker brethren?

I am bound to acknowledge that my own breast is no stranger to the feelings involved in these queries. Scarcely can I turn out of my heart emotions approaching to envy, at the tranquil state of many of my fellow-Christians. Happily ignorant, exempt from perplexities and conflicts, at least on such subjects as this, they spend their blameless lives in the exercises of piety, usefulness to mankind, and all the sweet enjoyments of religion ; they go down to the grave in peace, and the angel of death leads their purified spirits to the perfection of heaven.-Would we harass them on their pilgrimage? -Far, far from it !

Alas, the choice is riot left with us! These subjects are not allowed to lie in concealment. They are bruited abroad, If Christians can be quiet, infidels will not be so. " The arrow flieth by day, and the pestilence walketh in darkness." Not only in books of philosophy, but in the periodical journals arid common literature of the day, in this country and in others, in Europe arid in America, by various phrase, covertly and openly, coarsely and politely, it is proclaimed that Cuvier has supplanted Moses, that Geology has exploded Genesis. There is a class of persons, who understand the scientific side of the difficulty enough to make out of it an excuse for open infidelity, or secretly cherished skepticism; and thus they are able to pacify their consciences in a contemptuous neglect of the evidence and authority of religion.

Do we owe no regard to those persons? Have we no sympathy for them ; no consideration for the educational and other unhappy causes of their doubts? Are riot their souls as precious as our own? Is not their state, before God and for eternity, as important as ours? Can we prevail upon them to unlearn their knowledge, to stifle the convictions of their judgment, or to suppress the avowal of those convictions? -And if we could; if they were to promise silence and to keep the promise; would religion be served thereby? Examples have not been wanting of complimentary verbiage, with affected solemnity, offered to the Christian religion ; while the fraternity of concealed unbelievers can look significantly at each other, and mutually build up their self-flattery and pride; as if they were men immeasurably superior to the vulgar, but who, to sooth prejudice and flatter public opinion, are willing to uphold a style of conventional hypocrisy.

But, can we not throw ourselves into the arms of our brethren in the faith, who, as we have seen, summarily dispose of the whole matter? -We cannot. First; our own convictions stand in the way. The facts cannot be set aside : they are too numerous, too various and independent, and too weighty in their character as grounds of reasoning. Secondly; if we could so put off our reasonable faculties, the great cause would not be relieved. It would be far more deeply injured. The body of scientific men, in every country, would only be confirmed in their hostility, and the more completely discharged from keeping terms with us: while we should be the men that laid Christianity under the feet of its adversaries..*

Hence arises a motive of the greatest force to quicken our endeavours to diffuse everywhere just principles for understanding the figurative language of Scripture. We cannot but be affected by the prevalence of ignorance and misconception on this point ; and the consequent influence of those misconceptions upon the formation of religious sentiments and their practical results. The eloquent profusion of striking Scripture-language, in sermons and treatises and poems, yet without the accompaniment of just caution and correct interpretation, has made many enthusiasts and many infidels ; and not a few have rushed from the one extreme to the other. ... Christianity is represented as an irrational dream; and the best hopes of man are thrown to the winds. But, how often does a melancholy reaction take place, and the empire of superstition succeed to that of scorn! Sorrow and desolation, age and death, present themselves; and the miserable victim, "ignorant of God's righteousness," and never having cast the anchor of his soul "within the vail," is overwhelmed with terrors, and flees into the arms of some foolish and delusive scheme, for relief from the scourge of a terrified conscience :-a false relief, to be followed by the bitterest aggravations of disappointment, and the death of hope!

To prevent such ruin, let us do all in our power to inculcate just views of the true meaning of Scripture-imagery, the unalterable perfections of God, the majesty of his holiness, the riches of his grace, and the exceeding greatness of his power, through faith in Christ, to liberate our souls from sin and wretchedness, and raise them to immortal purity, activity and joy. Tnis is "the glorious gospel of the Blessed God;-the truth according to godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot deceive has promised before the world began."

Our religion, -- blessed be God! -- is not a religion of contrivance and expediency. We want only TRUTH: and we cannot barter it for ease, custom, or fashion.

Is it not then our duty, as honest men and Christians, to make ourselves somewhat more than superficially acquainted with the evidence in this case ; amid to take some pains in diffusing correct knowledge upon it?

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.

A, referred to at pages 9 and 242.
On the question respecting Death; and on Geological Study in general 289 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302

[p295] Might not the deposition of all the strata, their superposition, the imbedding in them of vegetable and animal remains, and their elevation so as to form our present continents and islands, all have taken place in the 1656 years from the fall to the deluge, completed by the powerful action of the diluvial waters?

This is the question of questions in relation to Geology. To discuss it fully would require a volume: yet, long as this paper has become, I must offer a few words.

There are two classes of men, each of which gives its reply.

The first class consists of those who have heard the word Geology, but have been told (often by truly excellent men) that it is a dangerous study, that it impugns the truth of the Scripture records, and that it seeks to betray the unwary into infidelity. Of this class, some have read a little about geological subjects, have heard say a little more, and have eked out the rest by their own conjecture and imagination: and they answer this question in the affirmative.

The second class of persons comprises those who have spent thirty, forty, even fifty years in laborious investigation; many of them, having set out with the opinion of the former class; who have personally explored all the most important districts in the British isles, in France, in the Alpine countries, in Germany, and in Eastern and Northern Europe; also, in Asia, North and South America, and many parts of Africa and Australasia; who have endured herculean toils in the field of personal labour; expending large sums of money in their travels for this very object; who have come to geological investigations well prepared by mathematical and chemical science; who have pursued those investigations with untiring perseverance, and with the severest jealousy against precipitate conclusions: and what answer do THEY give With one mouth they say, NO; IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

There are thirty, or rather more, well defined beds, layers, or strata, of different mineral masses, lying upon each other so as to form the surface of the globe on which we dwell. These combine themselves, by natural characters, into three or four grand groups. Compare them to a set of books, in 30 or 40 volumes, piled up on their flat sides. No where, indeed, can the whole set of the earth's strata be displayed, lying each upon the other, for reasons which will presently appear; and, if it were so at any spot, all the power and art of men could never penetrate through more than one, two, or three of the layers. They are placed one over the other, in a sure and known order of succession; that is, though in no locality are all to be found, or (which is saying the same thing conversely) in every locality some are wanting, the order of position is never violated. Let the letters of the alphabet represent the strata, thus; the TERTIARY, a, b, c, d, e; the SECONDARY, i. e. all from the chalk to the old red sandstone, inclusive, f to z; the PRIMARY, aa, bb, &c. to jj: then observe that any member or several members of the series may be absent, for example, d or f, or 1 or p; but b is never above a, nor m above k, nor s above q. When this fact is rightly conceived of, let it be further observed, that the strata do not lie over each other in continuous concentric spheroids like the coats of an onion; but may rather be compared to a vast number of wafers, of irregular forms, laid on a globe, and patched upon each other in different sets as to thickness, and variously underpassing, out-cropping, and overlapping. Now, let the mind imagine mighty forces from below, acting upon certain points and along certain lines: then the wafer-patches will be raised to all angles, bent, broken, their edges often turned up, so that the edges of lower strata stand in some places over the higher ones which had been thus shat tered. Further, let the mind conceive, of a mass of melted matter, suppose pitch, having lain for some time quietly underneath the lowest of the wafer-patches; then boiling up, bursting forth, and in many places raising the wafers, piercing them, passing through them, and finally hardening in fantastic shapes, and towering over the upheaved and fractured outside. This little play of imagination will present a pretty fair idea of the real stratification of the earth's surface, the eruption of the non-stratified (granitic and similar) rocks which have boiled up, elevating linear ridges (mountain-ranges,) when they could not pierce through, but actually piercing through where their force could overcome the resistance, and, when cooled, remaining the magnificent crags and summits of the loftiest mountains. It must also be understood, as a matter of the clearest sensible demonstration, that these processes have occurred several times, at various and distant intervals; producing among the strata many varieties of direction, inclination, contortion, cleavage, conformity, and nonconformity in reference to each other. If all the strata could be placed, or, for illustration sake we may say replaced, upon each other, to what thickness or depth would they amount? It is commonly said five miles: Dr. Buckland, who is so eminently qualified to make an estimate, gives his authority to the supposition of ten miles. With respect to the actual surface of the earth, the greatest height from the lowest valley-bottom to the top of the highest mountain, may be taken at five miles. This height, compared to the diameter of the earth, may be fairly represented by the thickness of a fine thread laid upon the surface of a twelve-inch globe.

All these things being considered, the inquirer may be able to conceive the appearance of the accessible end, or denuded cross-cut, of a stratum or several strata. The observer sees that the whole has been deposited from water, either as a mere precipitate from a mixture, or as separated from chemical solution. Hence, the variety of rocks, siliceous, clayey, limestone, many, and all these in various compounds. The eye also perceives, in many cases, the lower portion of a stratum to contain pebbles, the water-worn fragments of the older rocks to which they can be traced; higher up, the coarser sandstone; and towards thetop, thefiner sediment. Moreover, the separations of the distinct strata are often presented to view; the bounding surfaces of the formations.

Now we want a measure for the rate of deposition. A perfect rule for this is beyond the present reach of science; but there is an ample sufficiency of ascertained facts, to prove that the whole series of deposits has occupied untold ages. This letter has grown to so alarming a length, that I can only hint at the phenomena which furnish the grounds for this approximative estimate. They are observations upon the rates of deposit, in all kinds and in all circumstances, as it is continually going on in ponds, lakes, river-beds, estuaries, deltas, flat shores, siliceous and limestone springs of water, and conclusions analogical but most powerfully supported, concerning the deposits in the depths of the ocean.

This may give some idea of the processes of observation and reasoning by which we are brought to the conclusion which I have mentioned; that the whole series of stratifications, which lie upon the non-stratified masses of rock, MUST have taken a period of time immeasureable by mortals, but which is but a point in comparison with the ETERNITY of the CREATOR may be proper also to observe that it is only in the newest and latest kinds of formation that any remains of man and his contemporary animals are to be found.

[p298] We may now ask, What is the just interpretation of Rom. v.12, "By one man sin entered into the world, and DEATH BY SIN?" We reply that it refers to the access and dominion of death over man, involving the presupposition that, had not our first parents sinned, they would, on the expiration of their probationary state, have undergone a physical change different from dying, which would have translated them into a higher condition of happy existence, This glorious prospect they forfeited, and, as the just penalty of their transgression, sunk down into the condition of the inferior animals, in becoming the prey of temporal or corporal death: but, in relation to their higher capacities, they plunged themselves into the gulf of death in senses infinitely more awful. Thus to Adam and all his natural descendants, "the sting [that which constitutes it a real evil] of death is SIN :" but to the irrational creation this does not apply. They are incapable of moral obedience or disobedience towards God, (though they have resemblances of both with respect to man, who is to them in the place of God, Gen. i. 26,) and therefore death is not a sting to them, in a spiritual sense, or in any sense inconsistent with the equity, goodness, and wisdom of the divine government.

B, referring to pages 60 and 61.
On the number of species in the earlier Fossiliferous Rocks.Death of Dr. William Smith 302 302 303 304

C, referred to at page 138.
On the Longevity of Trees 304 304 305 306

C C, referring to pages 126-131.
Christian Piety in the Puy de Dome 306 306 307 308 309

D, referred to at page 188.
On Dr. George Young's Scriptural Geology 309 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316

E, referred to at pages 74 and 197.
On the Evidence of a very High Antiquity of the Earth 316 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344

F, referred to at page 226.
Sentiments of John George Rosenmüller, Bishop Bird Sumner, and Mr. Conybeare, on the initial portion of the book of Genesis 344 344 345 346 347

F F, referred to at page 231.
Extracts from Wiseman and Hitchcock, on the reference of the Mosaic Records to Geological Truths 347 347 348 349

G, referred to at page 235.
On the Duty of these Investigations; and in Vindication of Dr. Buckand 349 349 350 351 352 353 354

G G, referring to page 253.
On Mount Ararat 354 354 355

H, referred to at page 285.
The Geological Society vindicated from misrepresentation 355 355 356 357 358

INDEX 359-364 359 360 361 362 363 364