ginning or prospect o f an End, has no where
been met by so full an answer, as that afforded
by the phenomena, o f fossil Organic Remains.
In the course o f our enquiry, we have found
abundant proofs, both o f the Beginning and the
E nd o f several successive system« o f animal and
vegetable lif e ; each compelling us to refer its origin
to the direct agency o f Creative Interference ;
“ We conceive it undeniable, that we see, in the
transition from an Earth peopled by one set of
animals to the same Earth swarming with entirely
new forms o f organic life, a distinct manifestation
o f creative power transcending the
operation o f known laws o f n a tu re: and, it appears
to us, that Geology has thus lighted a new
lamp along the path o f Natural Theology.”*
Whatever alarm therefore may have been e x cited
in the earlier stages o f their development, the
time is now arrived when Geological discoveries
appear to be so far from disclosing any phenomena,
that are not in harmony with the arguments
supplied by other branches o f physical
S c ien ce, in proof o f the existence and agency of
One and the same all-wise and all-powerful
Creator, that they add to the evidences o f N a tural
Religion links o f high importance that
have confessedly been wanting, and are now
filled up b y facts which the investigation o f the
structure o f the Earth has brought to light.
* British Critic, No. XVII. Jan. 1831, p. 194.
“ I f I understand Geology aright, (says Professor
Hitchcock,) so far from teaching the eternity
o f the world, it proves more directly than
any other science can, that its revolutions and
races o f inhabitants had a commencement, and
that it contains within itself the chemical energies,
which need only to be set at liberty, by
the will o f their Creator, to accomplish its destruction.
Because this science teaches that the
revolutions o f nature have occupied immense
periods of time, it does not therefore teach that
they form an eternal series. It only enlarges
our conceptions of the D e ity ; and when men
shall cease to regard Geology with jealousy and
narrow minded prejudices, they will find that it
opens fields o f research and contemplation as
wide and as grand as astronomy itself.”* f
“ There is in truth, (says Bishop Blomfield)
no opposition nor inconsistency between R e ligion
and Science, commonly so called, except
* Hitchcock’s Geology of Massachusetts, P. 395.
f “ Why should we hesitate to admit the existence of our
Globe through periods as long as geological researches require ;
since the sacred word does not declare the time of its original
creation; and since such a view of its antiquity enlarges our
ideas of the operations of the Deity in respect to duration, as
much as astronomy does in regard to space ? Instead of bringing
us into collision with Moses, it seems to me that Geology furnishes
us with some of the grandest conceptions of the Divine
Attributes and Plans to be found in the whole circle of human
knowledge.” Hitchcock’s Geology of Massachusetts, 1835,
p. 225.