the discoveries of a science, in which a Kepler,
and a Newton found demonstration of the most
sublime and glorious attributes of the Creator.
A Herschel has pronounced that “ Geology, in
the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of
which it treats, undoubtedly ranks in the scale of
sciences next to astronomyand the history of
the structure of our planet, when it shall be fully
understood, must lead to the same great moral
results that have followed the study of the mechanism
of the heavens; Geology has already
* Kepler concludes one of his astronomical works with the
following prayer, which is thus translated in the Christian
Observer, Aug. 1834, p. 495.
<i It remains only that I should now lift up to heaven my eyes
and hands from the table of my pursuits, and humbly and devoutly
supplicate the Father of lights. O thou, who by the
light of nature dost enkindle in us a desire after the light of
grace, that by this thou mayst translate us into the light of glory;
I give thee thanks, O Lord and Creator, that thou hast gladdened
me by thy creation, when I was enraptured by the work
of thy hands. Behold, I have here completed a work of my
calling, with as much of intellectual strength as thou hast granted
me. I have declared the praise of thy works to the men who
will read the evidences of it, so far as my finite spirit could comprehend
them in their infinity. My mind endeavoured to its
utmost to reach the truth by philosophy; but if any thing
unworthy of thee has been taught by me—a worm born and
nourished in sin—do thou teach me that I may correct it. Have
I been seduced into presumption by the admirable beauty of thy
works, or have I sought my own glory among men, in the construction
of a work designed for thine honour ? 0 then graciously
and mercifully forgive m e ; and finally grant me this
favour, that this work may never be injurious, but may conduce
to thy glory and the good of souls.”
proved by physical evidence, that the surface of
the globe has not existed in its actual state from
eternity, but has advanced through a series of
creative operations, succeeding one another at
long and definite intervals of time ; that all the
actual combinations of matter have had a prior
existence in some other state ; and that the ultimate
atoms of the material elements, through
whatever changes they may have passed, are,
and ever have been, governed by laws, as regular
and uniform, as those which hold the planets in
their course. All these results entirely accord
with the best feelings of our nature, and with
our rational conviction of the greatness and
goodness of the Creator of the universe ; and
the reluctance with which evidences, of such
high importance to natural theology, have been
admitted by many persons, who are sincerely
zealous for the interests of religion, can only be
explained by their want of accurate information
in physical science ; and by their ungrounded
fears lest natural phenomena should prove inconsistent
with the account of creation in the
book of Genesis.
It is argued unfairly against Geology, that because
its followers are as yet agreed on no complete
and incontrovertible theory of the earth ;
and because early opinions advanced on imperfect
evidence have yielded, in succession, to more
extensive discoveries; therefore nothing certain