Half a century later these profound discoveries of the great mathematician were eloquently expounded by the great naturalist, Buffon, who spread out all the strata horizontally, or rather concentrically, and made a nice regular onion-coated globe; which, however, the meddlesome poking of miners and other non-scientific men has so greatly deranged that modern geologists allege that it only existed in his own brain; especially as, acting on Sydney Smith's principle of never reading a book he intended to review, for fear of contracting a prejudice against it, he knew nothing about geology himself, though accepted by multitudes with great earnestness as their scientific guide, and opposed by others with equal seriousness. But the Fathers of the Sorbonne, who, from a habit of poking among musty manuscripts, had acquired a keen scent for old heathenisms, even though dressed and perfumed in French costume, raised the hue and cry of heresy. Fourteen propositions of Buffon's were declared reprehensible, and contrary to the creed of the church; and he was invited to recant his unorthodox opinions—“that the waters of the sea have produced the mountains and valleys of the land; that the waters of the heavens, reducing all to a level, will at last deliver the whole land over to the sea; and the sea, successively prevailing over the land, will leave new continents dry," etc. The eloquent savan retracted, and in his next edition declares, "I abandon everything in my book respecting the foundation of the earth, and generally all that may be contrary to the narration of Moses."* Whether, like Galileo, he lied against his conscience to avoid unpopularity and suffering, or whether the mere request of the Sorbonne sufficed to convince his judgment of his error, concerns us not. In either case, science seems to have but a slight hold on the faith of its high priests. * Buffon. Natural History. vol. v.

The most drivelling religious superstitions have taken such hold of their votaries that they marched boldly to the gallows or the stake rather than deny their convictions. What modern philosopher has ever so attested his theory? Alas! alas! The heroic ages of science are gone. The Megatherium was the last martyr of geology.

THE NEPTUNISTS AND VULCANISTS.

About the beginning of the present century Werner began to poke about among the mud of the ruins, and finding evidences of stratification in the mines of Germany, he taught that all rocks were originally formed under water. Hutton, a Scotch doctor, directing his attention to the cinders, and finding granite overlapping stratified rocks, declared they were formed by the action of fire. Moreover, he horrified the geologists-who were fast becoming wise as gods from the fruit of their tree of knowledge-by alleging that he found no traces of a beginning of things in the rocks, and no indications. of an end. He would fain have philosophers content themselves with the accumulation of facts, and abjure theories; as if money were of any use unless we could spend it, or science were possible without a theory of causation. Geology without cosmogony is as impossible as a house without a builder. The Wernerians and Huttonians, or Neptunists and Vulcanists, as they are now called, have waged conflict with various success to the present hour, when some recent discoveries of the aqueous origin of granite seem likely to drown out the Vulcanists, who, however, are not easily extinguished.

Thus these opposing theorists quarrelled about their superficial notions of the outside of the world, leaving its vast interior all unknown. The portion of the earth's crust which furnished the basis of all these speculations bears about the same proportion to the neglected mass

that the shingles do to a house. But Lesley set himself to compute at what depths liquids and gaseous substances could be compressed into a density greater than that of gold by the weight of the superincumbent strata; and weighing the globe with the pendulum, proved that it consists of a hollow sphere filled with imponderable matter, having an enormous force of expansion. But the celebrated Halley declared that the hollow was occupied by a subterranean, freely-rotating, nucleus, which occasions by its position the diurnal changes of magnetic declination. Now as there is no way of settling the controversy but by going there to see, Captain Symmes publicly and frequently invited Baron Humboldt and Sir Humphrey Davy to accompany him on his voyage of discovery to these infernal regions; where a uniform temperature secures eternal spring, and two subterranean planets, Pluto and Proserpine, shed a mild light on the plants and animals during that portion of the year when the sun does not shine on the great opening near the North Pole, whence the polar light emanates, and through which the navigators would enter. It is deeply to be regretted that this interesting discovery failed through the timidity of the philosophers. Since that period a set of unenterprising and malicious geologists have set themselves about the stupid task of filling up this beautiful inner chamber with rocks and iron; and some diabolical spirits, without any care for the risk of having a bonfire in the cellar, would have it full of red-hot melted granite.*

These brilliant theories, however, are treated by our modern geologists with contempt. Destitute of that filial piety which builds the monuments of departed ancestors, and cherishes their fame, they take pains to assure us that geology has nothing to do with cosmogony; and that cosmogony is beyond the sphere of inductive.

Cosmos, i. p. 163.

science; after which they almost invariably treat us to a cosmogony of their own. They should remember the commandment, "Honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long in the land," lest their children treat their theories with as much contempt as they treat those of their fathers. They are, in truth, though less brilliant, not less ridiculous.

In obedience to Mr. Herbert Spencer's directions we have thus examined the pedigree of geological evolution. Our readers may well ask, Can the history of human thought furnish another such combination of ignorance, arrogance, and superstition? Verily, verily, it must be born again before it can enter the kingdom of science and truth.

II. THE CLAIMS AND PRETENSIONS OF GEOLOGY.

We have seen the pedigree of our Modern Geological Evolution. We need not look for a noble progeny from such a parentage. Under the law of heredity, which our evolutionists affirm governs all descent, the union of falsehood and absurdity in the Nebular Hypothesis can produce only error and nonsense in its geological descendant. And we would be fully warranted by their own doctrine in rejecting, without further examination, a theory conceived in error and shapen in absurdity; for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

But here our evolutionists become unhappy under their own law, and loudly vociferate their total independence of all the former geologies; which they treat with a scorn most unbecoming in children toward their parents. They demand that modern geology shall be tried solely on its own merits, and that it shall not be condemned for the blundering stupidity of its ancestors.

Very well, that is Bible doctrine-"The son shall not die for the iniquity of his father." Our evolutionists will

then please bear in mind that at the very threshold of the argument they stumble, and are compelled to fall back on Bible principles, that their theory may draw its very first breath.

Modern geology, as its expounders tell us, dates from 1815. There were heroes before Agamemnon, but no conquest of Troy. There were reformers before Luther, but no Reformation. So there were geologists before William Smith, but no geology till he published his Geological Map of England in 1815. Sabine alleges that this was the first production of order out of chaos. Our young science has not completed its first century. All the other physical sciences have been the slow growth of the observations and labors of many successive generations of students; but geology, like Minerva, springs, full-grown and armed, from the brain of William Smith, and turns the Gorgons of its shield toward the other sciences, and shakes its spear, threatening death to all who dare to interfere with its domain.

The task which our young Titan undertakes is indeed vast. Unwarned by the misadventures of the past, and confident in their own universal ability, modern geologists boldly launch out on the ocean of speculation, with the confident design of discovering the origin of the world. Nothing less than a cosmogony will satisfy them as a basis for their science. It seems useless to remind them that this is quite unscientific; that science, by its very nature disclaims knowledge of origins, that it can only deal with facts, and that in arranging them it must assume design, and so rest on faith, and that a cosmogony must be a creed, not a science. Nevertheless modern geologists feel bound to construct a cosmogony or spoil a science: to make a world or explode their theories in the attempt.

In representing the pretensions of geological evolution