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XVIII.

LETTER in perfect harmony with each other, and that the phenomena will gradually come to light that will illustrate and reconcile both. Let us in the meantime patiently wait for this satisfying and enlightening result.

LETTER XIX.

REMARKS ON THE EXTRAVAGANT SYSTEMS OF GEOLOGICAL
CHRONOLOGY-AND ON THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF NATURAL
AGENCIES FORMING THE WORLD WITHOUT A DIRECTING
INTELLIGENCE.

XIX.

THAT the present human race has arisen since the LETTER last great change which our globe has undergone, is the conclusion of some of the latest French geologists, who reason only from the appearances in the subterraneous strata and in their fossil remains.1 This deduction corresponds with the Mosaic account, that Noah and his three sons were preserved from the Deluge, and that every branch of the human population which has since existed, has originated from them.

It has been inferred by some that there was no

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'Mr. F. Cuvier says of his brother, the celebrated Baron Cuvier, 'Every authentic observation that has been accumulated up to the present moment, has convincingly corroborated the conclusion which has been established by my brother, that the human species was subsequent to the last of the catastrophes which has laid bare our present continent.' Prelim. Observ. to Cuvier on Fossil Bones. 4th edit. Engl. 1834. p. 3. Mr. Alex. Brongniart likewise states his opinion, that the last Geognostic period, during which the bark of the globe has been in a state of repose, has the commencement of its date at least 4,000 years ago.' p. 9. This state of repose constitutes the Jovian epocha,' p. 31, which he calls the post diluvian period.' Brogn. Tabl. des Terrains, p. 27. He places the beginning of his Jovian period at the birth of mankind. p. 28. cal Professor at Paris in 1833, also states, that earth a little after this catastrophe;' but thinks, that he was not existing on the earth before the Great Deluge; or, rather, that nothing proves that he was then in existence upon it.' Geol. Populaire, pp. 57, 58. He also prefers to suppose that the Universal Deluge, which he admits, was more ancient than that mentioned by Moses.

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Mr. Boubée, Geologi

Man appeared on the

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XIX.

LETTER antediluvian race, because no fossil human bones of that antiquity have yet come to light; but their absence does not disprove the existence of mankind between the Creation and the Deluge; it only indicates that they were not living in those sites, where these strata have been examined, as there are now many parts of Asia, Africa and even America, without them. Human existence began in the East. The rocky beds of Asia have not yet been penetrated or examined like those of Europe; nor is there any evidence that the antediluvian race were either a very numerous, or a very dispersed population. They may have densely inhabited a few particular regions, or some of those islands, which several geologists are inclined to consider to have composed the primitive dry land. It follows of course from these remarks, that until we know and explore the real localities in which they were dwelling, we shall not find any human fossil bones. Thus our present geological science, does not invalidate the Hebrew history of the antediluvian world."

We perceive that it is still the appointed law of nature in this respect, that in all the countries of the earth to which man has not spread, it shall be pre-occupied universally by plants, and mostly by animals also; every where, indeed, by birds and

2 The Baron Cuvier's sensible remarks on this subject deserve citation:- All these tend to confirm the assertion, that the human race did not exist in the countries where fossil bones are found, at the epoch of the revolutions which buried those bones; but I do not wish to conclude that man did not exist previously to this epoch. He might have inhabited some confined tract of country, whence he repeopled the world after these terrible events. Perhaps the places in which he dwelt have been entirely swallowed up, and his bones buried at the bottom of the present seas, with the exception of the small number of individuals who have propagated the species.' Cuvier on Fossil Bones, v. i. p. 77.

XIX.

insects at least, and every sea by shell-fish. We also LETTER find that the human population has always very gradually diffused itself; and that in all the regions whose commencing population we have witnessed or can trace, they have had to clear the soil of its previous occupants, before they could dwell comfortably upon it. We may therefore be sure, that the primeval state of all the antediluvian dry land, was that of copious and successive vegetation, long before man could be on every part of it; that animals must have enjoyed this provided feast long before he could reach it; and that wherever the waters were resting or flowing, fish and saurians, and phocæ, and the testaceous and crustaceous tribes, and all kinds of aqueous plants, must have been its first inhabitants, and so have remained as long as man was not there. They were created to be so; they were formed to be his predecessors. He was the latest made; he always spreads himself far less rapidly than they do; they have often preceded him by many ages. The vast continent of New Holland is an evidence of this. Altho it is nearly as large as any of the before known quarters of the world; yet it is in the largest portion almost wholly uninhabited; a very thin and scattered population in the rudest and most destitute state, are now found in wandering divisions upon it, in the present late period of our earthly chronology. No authenticated facts in geology carry the present mode and state of human society, beyond that period at which the Jewish history places the Deluge, from which the subsequent propagation of mankind began. Geology and this history are, therefore, not at variance on this great point.

3 Baron Cuvier's ideas coincide with this view. "In closely examining what has taken place on the surface of the globe since it was

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LETTER

XIX.

No one doubts or disputes that the various rocks and strata which compose our surface have been produced or deposited in succession, one after the other; the upper upon the lower at some intervals of time, greater or less. It is as generally admitted that at some periods after these depositions and formations, such of them as exhibit veins of granite, trap or other matter have been pierced and entered by these intruding substances. In like manner if any of these rocks or beds have been raised up into hills or mountains, these elevations have been made after their masses had been deposited in the formation of the surface. Every geologist assenting to these facts, the only point, on which differences of opinion have arisen concerning them, has been as to the time or times, in which these several events took place. On this there is but little agreement, and it is on this subject that some allow their imaginations to stretch into a credulity so extravagant, that we need not wonder at the tales and chimeras which more vulgar minds believe and propagate.

If it were not in print before our eyes, could we have supposed, that in this sceptical age, men of science, men of knowlege and reasoning, and who desire to be respected also for their judgment, should seriously teach and write that our earth has been existing, not as Moses indicates, 6,000 years only; but 300,000. Not content with this lavish conjecture one left dry for the last time, whence continents have assumed their present form, at least in the highest parts, we clearly see that the last revolution, and consequently the establishment of present society, cannot be very ancient. It is one of those results, which, tho most clearly proved, is the least regarded, in sound geology: a result the most valuable, as it unites, in an unbroken chain, natural and civil history.' Cuv. Foss. Bones, p. 78.

Altho the world is not eternal, it is nevertheless very ancient; and in calculating all the time that was required for the formation

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