Chapter III.
Proper Subjects o f Geological Enquiry.
The history of the earth forms a large and
complex subject of enquiry, divisible at its outset,
into two distinct branches; the first, comprehending
the history of unorganized mineral
Higgins on the Mosaical and Mineral Geologies, 1832; and
more especially to Professor Sedgwick’s eloquent and admirable
discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge, 1833, in
which he has most ably pointed out the relations which Geology
bears to natural religion, and thus sums up his valuable opinion
as to the kind of information we ought to look for in the Bible:
“ The Bible instructs us that man, and other living things, have
been placed hut a few years upon the earth; and the physical
monuments of the world bear witness to the same truth: if the
astronomer tells us of myriads of worlds not spoken of in the
sacred records; the geologist, in like manner, proves (not by
arguments from analogy, but by the incontrovertible evidence of
physical phenomena) that there were former conditions of our
planet, separated from each other by vast intervals of time,
during which man, and the other creatures of his own date, had
not been called into being. Periods such as these belong not,
therefore, to the moral history of our race, and come neither
within the letter nor the spirit of revelation. Between the first
creation of the earth and that day in which it pleased God
to place man upon it, who shall dare to define the interval?
On this question scripture is silent, but that silence destroys not
the meaning of those physical monuments of his power that God
has put before our eyes, giving us at the same time faculties
whereby we may interpret them and comprehend their meaning.
matter, and of the various changes through
which it has advanced, from the creation of its
component elements to its actual condition ; the
second, embracing the past history of the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, and the successive
modifications which these two great departments
of nature have undergone, during the chemical
and mechanical operations that have affected
the surface of our planet. As the study of both
these branches forms the subject of the science
of Geology, it is no less important to examine
the nature and action of the physical forces,
that have affected unorganized mineral bodies,
than to investigate the laws of life, and varied
conditions of organization, that prevailed while
the crust of our globe was in process of formation.
Before we enter on the history of fossil
animals and vegetables, we must therefore first
briefly review the progressive stages of mineral
formations ; and see how far we can discover
in the chemical constitution, and mechanical
arrangement of the materials of the earth,
proofs of general prospective adaptation to the
economy of animal and vegetable life.
As far as our planet is concerned, the first act
of creation seems to have consisted in giving
origin to the elements of the material world,
These inorganic elements appear to have received
no subsequent addition to their number,