saic narrative, but that the results of geological
enquiry throw important light on parts of this
history, which are otherwise involved in much
obscurity.
I f the suggestions I shall venture to propose
require some modification of the most commonly
received and popular interpretation of the Mosaic
narrative, this admission neither involves
any impeachment of the authenticity of the text,
nor of the judgment of those who have formerly
interpreted it otherwise, in the absence of information
as to facts which have but recently been
brought to light; and if, in this respect, geology
should seem to require some little concession
from the literal interpreter of scripture, it may
fairly be held to afford ample compensation
for this demand, by the large additions it has
made to the evidences of natural religion, in
a department where revelation was not designed
to give information.
The disappointment of those who look for a
detailed account of geological phenomena in
the Bible, rests on a gratuitous expectation of
finding therein historical information, respecting
all the operations of the Creator in times and
places with which the human race has no concern
; as reasonably might we object that the
Mosaic history is imperfect, because it makes no
specific mention of the satellites of Jupiter, or
the rings of Saturn, as feel disappointment at
not finding in it the history of geological phenomena,
the details of which may be fit matter
for an encyclopedia of science, but are foreign
to the objects of a volume intended only to be
a guide of religious belief and moral conduct.
We may fairly ask of those persons who consider
physical science a fit subject for revelation,
what point they can imagine short of a communication
of Omniscience, at which such a revelation
might have stopped, without imperfections
of omission, less in degree, but similar in kind, to
that which they impute to the existing narrative
of Moses? A revelation of so much only of
astronomy, as was known to Copernicus, would
have seemed imperfect after the discoveries of
Newton; and a revelation of the science of Newton
would have appeared defective to La Place:
a revelation of all the chemical knowledge of
the eighteenth century would have been as
deficient in comparison with the information of
the present day, as what is now known in this
science will probably appear before the termination
of another age; in the whole circle of
sciences, there is not one to which this argument
may not be extended, until we should require
from revelation a full developement of all the
mysterious agencies that uphold the mechanism
of the material world. Such a revelation
might indeed be suited to beings of a
more exalted order than mankind, and the at