required the existence of the class infusoria to prepare the sea for their creation!" Such ideas of imperfection in the works of the Almighty, are quite unworthy of our enlightened times; and the streams of knowledge flow to little purpose, if the head-springs are tainted with such impurities. Our notions of the power of the Creator never can be more elevated than in contemplating the more minute portions of the animated chain, the wonders of which make it appear as if he wished to veil his most perfect works from human eyes, and to lavish them on beings the most obscure, and, in appearance, the most vile; for, according to our finite and imperfect ideas, there would be less difficulty (if we may so speak of the works. of the Almighty,) in forming the large members of the whale, or of the elephant, than the delicate fibres and minute vessels of the gnat or of the spider. But as we descend in the scale of magnitude, we seem to ascend in that of perfection and incomprehensible difficulty; for by the aid of the microscope, we discover new wonders at every step of our investigations, and find that our unassisted vision can perceive but one half of the living beings which adorn the earth. The mind is lost in wonder, and is incapable of conceiving what the tongue can so easily express, that there are, in almost all fluids, animals as perfect as ourselves in bodily structure and action, so minute, that it would require millions of them to form the compass of one single grain of sea sand ?* But when we thus arrive at the verge of power in our instruments, we have still no reason to conclude that we have reached the utmost limit of animated creation. Future instruments may possibly exhibit wonders as great as those we are now considering; and we thus find, as astronomers have done in the opposite extremity, that we can discover no bounds to creative power and wisdom. It may also be remarked, that the balance of animal and vegetable productions is so admirably arranged, that the removal of any one link would serve to throw the whole chain into confusion. We come, then, in conclusion, to the same * The author has lately had an opportunity of demonstrating, in the most unequivocal manner, that it would require from one to three millions of some active animalcula to form the bulk of a grain of sand. This distinct measurement is made by means of a vegetable graduated fibre, accidentally discovered in a greenish scum on a gravel walk. point from whence we at first set out, viz. that zoophytes could not exist without the animals on which they feed; and as the same may be concluded, with regard to any other individual species, that all must have been the spontaneous creation of an Almighty power, at one and the same period, and not a gradual production, by the mere laws of nature. We shall have a future opportunity of showing why zoophytes could not but be the earliest fossil productions found in the secondary strata of the earth. The supposed chemical process, however, which we were before considering, must have required a much longer period than the inspired writings have given us, to bring it to perfection. The days of the Mosaical history, (which history never could be entirely excluded from the minds of men,) with their evenings and their mornings, were, therefore, forced into the indefinite periods necessary for the operation. Geologists, without any knowledge of the original text, and learned men, without any knowlege of geology, have, therefore, unintentionally formed a species of coalition, the effects of which strike deep into the very root of our confidence in Scripture, and sap the foundation on which our belief in the Omnipotence and Omniscience of an Almighty Creator ought to be founded. With whatever pleasure and interest, then, we may follow the more plausible theories of secondary formations on the surface of the earth, it appears impossible for our reason to enter, even in the slightest degree, into the hypothetical systems taught by the highest scientific authorities with regard to first formations. We are taught, both by scripture and by our reason, that the earth, as but a small part of an immense sytem, was intended as a temporary abode for immortal souls in their mortal bodies. We have no reason to suppose that we are misled by history, when we are informed that but a very few thousands of years have elapsed since the creation of mankind: we are taught to believe, from what we read in a part of Scripture, which it is not so much the object of science to dispute, that a very considerable portion of the historical events of the world has already passed away, and, consequently, we may infer, that the scene on which we now act a part, will not be of immense duration. Now, in considering the laws by which events are brought about, and the changes of this world are effected, we never discover so great a disproportion between the means and the end, as would be the case, if we admit, with but two many geologists, that millions of years may have been necessary for the preparation and ripening of this earth from chaos, to fit it up as a stage on which so brief a drama was to be acted. This is one of the first difficulties our reason has to encounter in considering the gradual formation of the globe from secondary causes: but our difficulties are only then beginning, for even if we admit this theory, we do not, in the least degree, advance towards the object of our search; we are as far as ever removed from a GREAT FIRST CAUSE, to which our reason is as true as the magnet to its pole. We cannot close our eyes upon the great truth so deeply impressed upon our minds by every thing around us, that, even admitting a chaos, that chaos must have been CREATED in all its component parts. The chemist, in his laboratory, may compound the various substances and fluids, from the qualities of which he is aware that crystals will be formed; but he is obliged to exercise the knowledge acquired from study and experience, and to apply the heat necessary for their formation. Although he may thus form the compound, can he create the materials of it? Though he may produce crystals, can he enact a law by which these beautiful forms shall be arranged? No. The potter may form the vessel, but he cannot create the clay. Amongst the many inextricable difficulties in which we become involved, by a departure from the guidance of the sacred record, and by supposing, with the continental philosophy, that the solid globe was a chemical crystalline deposit from an aqueos chaos, we have to overcome this certain fact in these same laws of nature, viz. that as we know of no other source of heat, and, consequently, of fluidity on our globe, and, probably, in the other members of the solar system, than the sun; as we know that there are parts of our planet around the poles where no water can exist in a fluid state, for the greater part, if not the whole of the year, from the absence of that sun's influence, nor, indeed, ever could have existed since the solar system was arranged; and as we know that without that solar influence no fluidity could exist on any part of the earth's surface, by the mere laws of nature, (as even mercury becomes solid at a higher temperature than exists at the poles,) how are we to suppose a chaotic AQUEOUS fluid, held together in empty space, and without the melting influence of a sun, which, consistently with this philosophy, we must conclude was not yet precipitated or crystallized C into perfection within its own chaos; for if we adopt the chaotic principle, with regard to our own planet, we cannot, in fairness, refuse it to the other heavenly bodies. In adopting secondary causes, then, or the theory of the formation of the earth by the mere laws of nature from an aqueous chaos, we must account for fluidity without heat, an effect without a cause, and directly opposed to all the known laws of nature.* In advocating, then, the chaotic philosophy, we must account for the creation of the crude materials of which that chaos must have been composed, and also for those wonderful laws to which matter has been subjected, and by which it is forced to assume those crystalline forms which we so much admire; and being thus forced to acknowledge a Creator so wise and powerful as to be able to form even a chaos out of nothing, ("for if God did not create the first thing, then there is something besides Him that was never made, and then * The greatest degree of natural cold that has hitherto been observed in the open air, is about 50 degrees below zero; but at the actual poles, and more especially at the south pole, which is surrounded by ice, and inaccessible by ships for upwards of 1000 miles on all sides, is, probably, at a much lower temperature. Mercury freezes at 39 degrees below zero, and then becomes malleable like any other metal. Thus, at the poles, mercury never could have existed in a fluid state, any more than water; and the strongest spirits are frozen at a still higher temperature. "All substances in nature, as far as we know them, occur in one or other of three states; that of solids, of liquids, or of elastic fluids. "In a vast number of cases the same substance is capable of assuming each of these states in succession. Thus, sulphur is usually solid, but at 218 degrees it becomes a liquid, and at 570 degrees it boils, and is converted into an elastic fluid. Water is a liquid, but at 32 degrees it freezes into a solid, while at 212 degrees it boils into an elastic fluid. "All solids (a very few excepted) may be converted into liquids by heating them sufficiently; and almost all liquids by cooling them sufficiently, may be converted into solids. The law of nature then, is, that solids by heat are converted into liquids and elastic fluids; while elastic fluids and liquids by cold are brought into the state of solids."-Edin. Encyclop. Chemistry, p. 36. "From what has been advanced respecting the situation, properties and manner of formation of the ice surrounding the pole, we may naturally conclude that a continent of ice-mountains may exist in regions near the pole, yet unexplored, the nucleus of which may be as ancient as the earth itself, and its increase derived from the sea and atmosphere combined."--Scoresby's Arctic Reg. vol. ii. p. 319. there are two Eternals,"*) we come to the consideration of his power to create things in a more perfect form. We find that created matter is divided into three kingdoms, as they have been called, of animal, vegetable and mineral: there are few who would now dispute that the first and second of these great divisions must have been at first formed in a perfect and mature state, although both have since been submitted to laws, through which they must pass from the embryo state to perfection. We cannot for a moment suppose the first man to have been once an infant, or the first oak tree to have sprung from an acorn, though all subsequent individuals, in both species, must now pass through these stages. If this perfection of form is admitted, then, in the first creation of the animal and vegetable world, are we to suppose that the mineral productions of the earth were exceptions from this rule? or that a Being so wise and so powerful as to be able to create a man or a tree, with all the wonderful contrivance and design discoverable in each, and above all, endued with a living principle, was yet obliged to form an imperfect mass, and to wait the fermenting or crystallizing process from which its more perfect form was to arise? The idea is revolting to reason; and when we have rejected it as improbable, as impossible, then comes inspiration, with its lofty and imposing simplicity, to assist our weak understandings, and to assure us that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Having, by this line of reasoning, come to the conclusion. that the theory of a chaos, or imperfect formation of the earth, is not only contrary to our reason, but also in direct opposition to history, our belief in the truth of the inspired writings is strengthened and confirmed; and we feel equally disposed to question those theories of philosophy which account for the present appearances and stratifications on the earth's surface, by a numerous succession of accidents and revolutions * LETTER FROM JEREMY TAYLOR, TO JOHN EVELYNE, ES Q. "To your question,' How it appears that God made all things out of nothing,' I answer, it is demonstrably certain, or else there is no God. For if there be a God, he is the one principle: but if he did not make the first thing, then there is something besides him that was never made, and then there are two Eternals. Now, if God made the first thing, he made it of nothing. "Your obliged and affectionate servant, |