We cannot close these remarks without alluding to the important subject of the distribution of organic remains, for it is over them the reconciliation of God's word and works will be made. Geologists are falsely accused of saying with the atheist, "Nature is the only cause-nature was everlasting." We only guess at the meaning of the author in the magniloquent sentence, "Animated nature, undelivered from the vacuous domain of pristine nonentity, awaited the great will of the Everlasting." But we perfectly understand the expression, "God created great whales, and every living thing that moveth,'" and we believe it; our intellect receives the fact, our faith approves it, and we rejoice to know that that God is our God, in whom we live, move, and have our being. No germ of Atheism, we hope, exists in this confession of faith. Believing in the almighty power of God, who "created heaven and earth and all that in them is," and rejecting all the folly and impiety of the Vestigians, we stand upon the same ground as our author.

But the terms of our agreement do not end here, for the author admits the main facts of science in reference to the nature and distribution of organic remains. What these facts are we shall briefly state. It is frequently difficult to ascertain by mineralogical tests to what portion of the geological series a certain rock belongs; and if no fossils are found, the investigator must, in the absence of other proofs, trust to sagacious conjecture. We might mention, as examples, many limestones of different ages so closely resembling varieties of that important mass on which the carboniferous series rests, as to be undistinguishable by composition and structure. But when a handful of fossils is extracted, the enigma is solved, and the relative position of a paleozoic or secondary rock is as correctly determined as though the inferior and over-lying beds were seen in contact. Such an identification would be impossible, if the several strata, or groups of strata, did not possess organic remains peculiar to themselves. This fact has been justly considered one of the fundamental principles of the science; and many geologists believe that even in the present imperfect state of their knowledge, it may be satisfactorily explained. There has been, they say, an increase in the number, and an elevation in the types, of organic forms from the time of the production of the lowest fossiliferous rock to the deposition of the most modern tertiary; but while new forms have been introduced into each successive bed, others have disappeared. The Silurian rocks, for example, contain the relics of numerous Trilobites of many genera, as well as species, and wherever these rocks occur, whether in Europe, Asia, or America, there

the remains of these curious crustaceans are collected,―a fact which seems to imply that they were present in all the existing seas of that period. For a time the Trilobite was the predominant form of animal life, but when the mountain limestone was deposited, the race had become diminutive in size and unimportant in number; and soon after, or during the formation of that deposit was extinct. In the lias beds are found the remains of enormous reptiles, and they were the lords of the sea or of its coasts; but their numbers rapidly decreased, and above the chalk no remains of this once powerful race are found. But it is in the study of the remains of molluscous animals we become most conscious of the constant change in the character of the fauna. In each succeeding group of rocks some new forms are discovered, and some old ones are lost. There are a few genera which have left their remains, in a greater or lesser number, in formations of all ages, and have still living representatives: the remains of the Lingula, for example, are abundant in the lowest fossiliferous strata, and of the same animal there are living representatives in the Indian Ocean and on the coast of Australia; but of the species found in the paleozoic and secondary strata, not one is at this moment known to be in existence. Upon this subject we may quote the remarks of Hugh Miller:

"Every plant and animal that now lives upon earth began to be during the great tertiary periods, and had no place among the plants and animals of the great secondary division. We can trace several of our existing quadrupeds, such as the badger, the hare, the fox, the red deer, and the wild cat, up to the earlier times of the Pleistocene; and not a few of our existing shells, such as the great pecten, the edible oyster, the whelk, and the pelican's-foot shell, up to the greatly earlier times of the coralline crag. But at certain definite lines in the deposits of the past, representative of certain points in the course of time, the existing mammals and molluscs cease to appear, and we find their places occupied by other mammals and molluscs. . . . . We thus know that in certain periods, nearer or more remote, all our existing molluscs began to exist, and that they had no existence during the previous periods which were, however, richer in animals of the same great molluscan group than the present time."

In an attempt to reconcile his theory to these facts, the author fails completely, for he depends upon the influence of climate and circumstances for the production of those specific differences, which he cannot deny, and thus comes so nearly in contact with the Lamarckian hypothesis as to be in danger of the atheistical infection with which he believes the geologist to be afflicted. He makes no attempt to explain why the helix, purpura, and many other prolific genera of molluscous animals

are not found in the secondary rocks; though supposing them to have existed at the time of the deposition of those formations, we cannot understand why animals now so abundant, in individuals as well as in species, should have escaped entombment in some of the immense accumulations of mineral matter. Nor does he give a reason why the number of genera in the pliocene tertiaries should be nearly four times more numerous than in the Silurians, and in existing seas be multiplied eightfold; nor explain how it can have happened, that during the formation of rocks, some animals of the same species should have been distributed all the world over, though now severally confined to localities by their adaptations to climate; but he does confess to the difficulty of finding some cold spot on the world before the Flood, where the progenitors of the Arctic fauna could have found shelter.

We are not among those who find no difficulty in reconciling the received facts of modern Geology with the Mosaic narrative of the Creation. We do not believe that the scientific investigation is yet sufficiently extensive to admit of that minute comparison which is necessary to establish a perfect harmony. We have lived long enough to remember the abandonment of one favourite geological hypothesis after another; the introduction of opinions which at an earlier period would have been unanimously condemned, and we may say, the reconstruction of the science. But extensive as the surveys of modern geologists have been, the necessity of investigation is still acknowledged, and many doubtful theories wait disproof or confirmation. Against such crude hypotheses as the one to which reference has been made, we, therefore, earnestly protest. The Bible is not in danger from the attack of the sciences, for if among their students there should be men, who from an antipathy to the natural freedom its public reception always ensures, to its stern morality, or to the spiritual life it reveals, seize upon assumed facts to oppose its occasional allusions to subjects of scientific investigation, the large majority of thinking men are willing to wait the development of physical truths, and the result will approve their prudence.

The author of "Voices from the Rocks" is as much opposed to the doctrine of long geological periods and the pre-adamic formation of the earth, as the author of "Atheisms," but takes a bolder and perhaps safer position by attributing all fossiliferous stratified rocks to the Deluge. He has thus avoided the necessity of excluding that limited district occupied by the antediluvian race, from the operation of those physical causes by which rocks were formed; and it is certainly less difficult

regarding the geological series simply as an accumulation of mineral matter-to believe that stratified rocks may have been heaped together in one year by such extraordinary agencies as produced a universal deluge, than by landslips in sixteen hundred years. There is, also, some reason in the argument he employs to prove that certain subaqueous formations cannot at any period have been a part of the dry land, as they give no evidence of denudation, fluviatile deposits, or alluvial soils; but he states some facts too broadly, and omits others which would greatly modify his conclusions. He altogether fails, we think, to disprove the theory of the overthrow of ancient forests, and the fossilization of vegetable productions on the localities where they grew. In discussing the age of some human remains he arrives, upon most inconclusive evidence, at the following startling result: "Here, then, we have an undeniable proof of the existence of the human race during the formation of the palæozoic rocks, thus striking at the very root of the whole system of modern Geology." But, although we object to this and many other of his opinions, and dispute some of his assumed facts-as, for example, the presumed absence in England of belemnites found in the chalk of Ireland and France-we must give him credit for some originality in the discussion of his subject, and approve the spirit in which the book is, for the most part, written. These merits, however, do not compensate for the error of having made a comparison which, in the present state of science, places the Divine revelation in a position antagonistic to the deductions of eminent and practical men of science. The highest commendation we can give to the authors of the best books on the Mosaical Geology is due to every man who writes with a good intention.

ART. V.-A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

A Hundred Years Ago: an Historical Sketch, 1755 to 1756. By James Hutton. Longmans & Co.

THE period chosen by Mr. Hutton for review was well adapted for the creation of an interesting historic picture. The years 1755 and 1756, in themselves notable, distinguished by somewhat momentous situations and striking scenes, the actors in which were illustrious, ennobled by the oratory of Fox, the learning of Johnson, and the varied genius of Abercrombie, Watt, and Goldsmith, were signalized as the advent of events

yet more remarkable, with which names yet more memorable were associated; for the star of freedom brightened with the rising manhood of Washington, while Voltaire stimulated the march of those ideas which were developed in the unprecedented revolution of France. In the clear, suggestive narrative of public affairs, contained in Mr. Hutton's retrospective pages, we follow with interest the movements of the day, watching the course of diplomacy in ministerial measures, and the aims of crown policy in court expedients, while in the abundant illustrations, anecdotes, and descriptive passages of the volume, we obtain insight into the transactions, habits, and manners of our forefathers a century ago, seeing how public opinion was then moulded, how armies were equipped, what was the literature and art of our ancestors, and what, in fact, were the infinitely diverse aspects, political and social, of the great commonwealth in that age.

The record is intrinsically attractive; but, in addition, it is especially interesting to trace the numerous analogies between the era and our own, and following the parallels to perceive, despite widely differing conditions and relations, the strength of those affinities which make the "whole world"-of whatever epoch“ kin.” If, in many instances, the force of these comparisons is humiliating, the numerous contrasts in our favour also presented, offer reason for congratulation as criterions of progress very edifying and encouraging to mark.

It is no slight commendation of Mr. Hutton's acceptable volume to say that it has fully realized its author's object in the writing, affording us a graphic conception of the period, and forming a test book, by which to estimate subsequent improvement. Written earnestly in an honest spirit, it is amusing throughout, is interspersed with much noteworthy matter, and is marked at intervals by a healthful vein of satire, not without charm to those who sympathize with Mr. Hutton's sentiments.

The circumstances of our ancestors in 1755 were somewhat critical. Exposed to the risk of war with the most important of military opponents, they had the misfortune at the same time of owning allegiance to a paternal sovereign, whose chief care at the juncture was the protection of his beloved native electorate of Hanover. The most important post of the ministry was occupied by one, the weakness, timidity, and irresolution of whose character would seem disastrous at such a crisis. Truly, it needed the eloquent championship of Pitt and the heroism of Howe to maintain the interests and honour of England. The question of dispute with France, which then