the last group, are also found in the lowest beds of this, in Ireland, and on the borders of Devonshire and Cornwall.

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B, The beds containing coal, consisting of alternate layers of sand, clay, and coal; the latter obviously of vegetable origin. The thickness of this group must exceed five thousand feet; and the alternations of the submerged vegetable layers of coal, and the beds of sand and clay (originally mud) which appear to have been brought down by successive wintry currents, are very numerous, and must have required an enormous time for their accumulation in any conceivable mode. The remains are chiefly those of vegetables approximating to the present tropical species; but, occasionally beds of fresh-water shells have been found, with fish, and some traces of saurian animals.

"C, After an interval of varying thickness, sometimes exceeding one thousand feet, of a red sandstone, generally with few or no organic remains, there succeed about three thousand feet of various limestones, alternating with beds of clay, and surmounted by more than one thousand feet of chalk, and an intervening sand. In all these beds, the shells differ very considerably from those of the older fossiliferous rocks; the species still differ, even in the several beds of this same group; but there is a generic resemblance throughout. Large saurian animals are peculiarly abundant in many beds of this series; and in the Weald of Kent a large deposit of fresh-water shells is found interposed between marine substrata and superstrata. Here, again, is a change of condition, any conceivable theoretical explanation of which, must

create a large demand of time. But waving this as theoretical, the obvious fact of the successive accumulations of the other marine deposits of this suite must have occupied a long period.

D, The uppermost fossiliferous rocks consist of more than five thousand feet (if we compare France, Italy, and Sicily) of various clays, sands, and limestones, exhibiting in the organic remains of the successive beds, a gradual approximation to the actual species of shells in the present seas. Remains of terrestrial animals are for the first time observed in this group; here also alternations of beds of marine and fresh-water shells are strikingly observed; the whole is covered by a bed of gravel, apparently the result of some violent diluvial convulsion, which is the great seat of large terrestrial quadrupeds: but it must also be observed, that there are similar beds (except the bones in question) in many other parts of the geological series.

"4. We find in each group water-worn pebbles of the older groups; so that the earlier rocks must have had time to consolidate from their original state of mud, and been subsequently exposed to the abrading action of water. This sufficiently proves, that the deposition of the groups could not possibly have been contemporaneous, as Granville Penn and others, have seemed to agree.

"5. We find indications of the most violent convulsions. We see deposits, which from the laws of gravity must have been originally horizontal, thrown up perpendicularly; and we find them shattered by other intrusive rocks, agreeing in their general cha

racters with volcanic rocks, and producing by their contact effects which would naturally result from igneous lava,"

Now these things are simply matters of observation; they involve no theory, but are presented to the mind as just so many facts, of which we have ocular demonstration. There is no question of their existence; and scarcely any, that they arose from causes now in operation. The deposits were gradual, and of immense magnitude. The real point for decision is, whether even these phenomena, a section only of those really existing, could have taken place, as related within the period of the Mosaic æra. And, in bringing the mind towards a conclusion, whichever way it may determine, it must not be forgotten, that they are successive deposits of a watery medium, and as such, of course subject to the ordinary laws of gravitation. It is quite impossible that these laws can have been altered from the day of the formation of our whole system; since the power which preserves order and regularity through the universe is precisely that which acts upon the tiniest atom of the earth. The disturbing forces of the world-the flood, the earthquake, the volcano,may, for special purposes, have been for a time preternaturally excited, and, by possibility, have put forth a form of fury in former times, to which we have no parallel in the present; but it seems out of the pale of reasoning to imagine, that the attractive influences of gravitation should be so miraculously and intensely urged,-in that such a fiat would completely disarrange and disorganize every part of

creation, inanimate as well as animate. So nicely is the balance adjusted, that the least additional pressure would require new powers to sustain it. In speaking, therefore, of the gradual deposition of these different strata, the geologist guides himself by a fixed principle which can scarcely deceive him. He has substantial data on which he grounds his opinion; and these, not wound to his system by vague probabilities, but by the agency of a law which is universally recognized.

With these facts in view, the perfect harmony of opinion which subsists amongst all practical geologists of note of the present day, intervenes as an auxiliary of considerable importance. Pursuing different branches of the science; setting forth from different points; tracing out a route, more or less independent of their predecessors-they meet on the point of Time in a thorough unanimity.

We have endeavoured to guard ourselves by the term-practical geologists. Hosts of men have risen up as opponents; and have striven with their utmost might to check the progress of the pursuit, and its reception amongst men. They have called into play our dearest sympathies, by making the Bible the ground of their attack; as if the establishment of the one, were the subversion of the other. An examination, however, of their theory will usually lead to the conclusion, that feeling and zeal have been at once the motive and the substance of their attacks. They have taken early impressions and the faith of their forefathers as the leading principle. of their opposition, and imagined, with a feverish anxiety-laudable to a certain extent, in that it is

conscientious-that aught that is contrary to the ancient opinions is injurious to the Truth. But what is this in its naked reality, than the spirit of the Scribe and the Pharisee in the age of our Saviour;-the spirit which would stifle inquiry, and bring Truth within the narrow circle of their own acknowledged creed? The Jew of that period adhered to a mode of faith, which had been received and recognized as divine during fifteen centuries. A time arrived when the wisdom of God demanded an enlargement of men's belief. A new law was laid open and imposed on them; but their mind reverting to the faith of their forefathers, joined to the conviction that it was the Truth, refused the doctrine which seemed to sap the foundation of the old Covenant, and, through the force of prejudice, rejected even the Son of God. The animosity to science, acting it is true on a lesser plane, is, we repeat, but a revival of this spirit.

The evidences adduced by the geologists are either set aside altogether, or framed, not according to the results of their actual researches, but to the model of their own prepossessions. It is perfectly astonishing, to a man even ordinarily versed in the study of geology, to perceive the utter confusion of all order, and of every recognized law of nature, to which the advocate of this confined system is reduced, to bring his data within the required period. The gist of the argument, brought down to a plain and tangible shape, is not, whether the earth develops such and such phenomena; but whether Moses has declared that it shall develop them. The silence of Moses is the real strength of the conclusion.