The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science Part 15

CHAPTER XV.

COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS.

"Lo, these are but the outlines of his ways, and how faint the whisper which we hear of him--the thunder of his power who could understand?"--Job xxvi., 14.

In the preceding pages I have, as far as possible, avoided that mode of treating my subject which was wont to be expressed as the "reconciliation" of Scripture and Natural Science, and have followed the direct guidance of the Mosaic record, only turning aside where some apt ill.u.s.tration or coincidence could be perceived. In the present chapter I propose to inquire what the science of the earth teaches on these same subjects, and to point out certain manifest and remarkable correspondences between these teachings and those of revelation. Here I know that I enter on dangerous ground, and that if I have been so fortunate as to carry the intelligent reader with me thus far, I may chance to lose him now. The Hebrew Scriptures are common property; no one can fairly deny me the right to study them, even though I do so in no clerical or theological capacity; and even if I should appear extreme in some of my views, or venture to be almost as enthusiastic as the commentators of Homer, Shakespeare, or Dante, I can not be very severely blamed. But the direct comparison of these ancient records with results of modern science is obnoxious to many minds on different grounds; and all the more so that so few men are at once students both of nature and revelation. There are, as yet, but few even of educated men whose range of study has included any thing that is practical or useful either in Hebrew literature or geological science. That slipshod Christianity which contents itself with supposing that conclusions which are false in nature may be true in theology is mere superst.i.tion or professional priestcraft, and has nothing in common with the Bible; but there are still mult.i.tudes of good men, trained in the verbal and abstract learning which at one time const.i.tuted nearly the whole of education, who regard geology as a ma.s.s of crude hypotheses dest.i.tute of coherence, a perpetual battle-ground of conflicting opinions, all destined in time to be swept away. It must be admitted, too, that from the nature of geological evidence, and from the liability to error in details, the solidity of its conclusions is not likely soon to be appreciated as fully as is desirable by the common mind; while it is unfortunately true that the outskirts of science are infested with hosts of half-informed and superficial writers, who state these conclusions incorrectly, or apply them in an unreasonable manner to matters on which they have no bearing. On the other hand, the geologist, fully aware of the substantial nature of the foundations of the science of the earth, regards it as little less than absurd to find parallels to its principles in an ancient theological work. Still there are possible meeting-points of things so dissimilar as Bible lore and geological exploration. If man is a being connected on the one hand with material nature, and on the other with the spiritual essence of the Creator; if that Creator has given to man powers of exploring and comprehending his plans in the universe, and at the same time has condescended to reveal to him directly his will on certain points, there is nothing unphilosophical or improbable in the supposition that the same truths may be struck out on the one hand by the action of the human mind on nature, and on the other by the action of the Divine mind on that of man. The highest and most n.o.bly const.i.tuted minds have ever been striving to scale heaven above and dive into the earth below, that they may extort from them the secret of their origin, and may find what are the privileges and destinies of man himself. They have learned much; and if through other gifted minds, and through his heaven-descended Word and Spirit, G.o.d has condescended to reveal himself, there must surely be much in common in that which G.o.d's works teach to earnest inquirers and that which he directly makes known. But few of our greatest thinkers, whether on nature or theology, have reached the firm ground of this higher probability; or if they have reached it, have dreaded the scorn of the half-learned too much to utter their convictions. Still this is a position which the enlightened Christian and student of nature must be prepared to occupy, humbly and with admission of much ignorance and incapacity, but with bold a.s.sertion of the truth that there are meeting-points of nature and revelation which afford legitimate subjects of study.

In entering on these subjects, we may receive certain great truths in reference to the history of the earth as established by geological evidence. In the present rapidly progressive state of the science, however, it is by no means easy to separate its a.s.sured and settled results from those that have been founded on too hasty generalization, or are yet immature; and at the same time to avoid overlooking new and important truths, sufficiently established, yet not known in all their dimensions. In the following summary I shall endeavor to present to the reader only well-ascertained general truths, without indulging in those deviations from accuracy for effect too often met with in popular books. On the other hand, we have already found that the Scriptures enunciate distinct doctrines on many points relating to the earth's early history, to which it will here be necessary merely to refer in general terms. Let us in the first place shortly consider the conclusions of geology as to the origin and progress of creation.

1. The widest and most important generalization of modern geology is that all the materials of the earth's crust, to the greatest depth that man can reach, either by actual excavation or inference from superficial arrangements, are of such a nature as to prove that they are not, in their present state, original portions of the earth's structure; but that they are the results of the operation, during long periods, of the causes of change--whether mechanical, chemical, or vital--now in operation, on the land, in the seas, and in the interior of the earth. For example, the most common rocks of our continents are conglomerates, sandstones, shales, and slates; all of which are made up of the debris of older rocks broken down into gravel, sand, or mud, and then re-cemented. To these we may add limestones, which have been made up by the acc.u.mulation of corals and sh.e.l.ls, or by deposits from calcareous springs; coal, composed of vegetable matter; and granite, syenite, greenstone, and trap, which are molten rocks formed in the manner of modern lavas. So general has been this sorting, altering, and disturbance of the substance of the earth's crust, that, though we know its structure over large portions of our continents to the depth of several miles, the geologist can point to no instance of a truly primitive rock which can be affirmed to have remained unchanged and _in situ_ since the beginning.

"All are aware that the solid parts of the earth consist of distinct substances, such as clay, chalk, sand, limestone, coal, slate, granite, and the like; but, previously to observation, it is commonly imagined that all had remained from the first in the state in which we now see them--that they were created in their present forms and in their present position. The geologist now comes to a different conclusion; discovering proofs that the external parts of the earth were not all produced in the beginning of things in the state in which we now behold them, nor in an instant of time. On the contrary, he can show that they have acquired their actual condition and configuration gradually and at successive periods, during each of which distinct races of living beings have flourished on the land and in the waters; the remains of these creatures lying buried in the crust of the earth."[140]

2. Having ascertained that the rocks of the earth have thus been produced by secondary causes, we next affirm, on the evidence of geology, that a distinct order of succession of these deposits can be ascertained; and though there are innumerable local variations in the nature of the rocks formed at the same period, yet there is, on the great scale, a regular sequence of formations over the whole earth.

This succession is of the greatest importance in the case of aqueous rocks, or those formed in water; and it is evident that in the case of beds of sand, clay, etc., deposited in this way, the upper must be the more recent of any two layers. This simple principle, complicated in various ways by the fractures and disturbances to which the beds have been subjected, forms the basis of the succession of "formations" in geology as deduced from stratigraphical evidence.

3. This regular series of formations would be of little value as a history of the earth were it not that nearly all the aqueous rocks contain remains of the contemporary animals and plants. Ever since the earth began to be tenanted by organized beings, the various acc.u.mulations formed in the bottoms of seas and at the mouths of rivers have entombed remains of marine animals, more especially their harder parts, as sh.e.l.ls, corals, and bones, and also fragments or entire specimens of land animals and plants. Hence, in any rock of aqueous formation, we may find fossil remains of the living creatures that existed in the waters in which that rock was acc.u.mulated or on the neighboring land. If in the process of building up the continents, the same locality const.i.tuted in succession a part of the bottom of the ocean, of an inland sea, of an estuary, and a lake, we should find in the fossil remains entombed in the deposits of that place evidences of these various conditions; and thus a somewhat curious history of local changes might be obtained. Geology affords more extensive disclosures of this nature. It shows that as we descend into the older formations we gradually lose sight of the existing animals and plants, and find the remains of others not now existing; and these, in turn, themselves disappear, and were preceded by others; so that the whole living population of the earth appears to have been several times renewed prior to the beginning of the present order of things. This seems farther to have occurred in a slow and gradual manner, not by successive great cataclysms or clearances of the surface of the earth, followed by wholesale renewal. This doctrine of geological uniformity is, however, to be understood as limited by the equally certain fact that there has been progress and advance, both in the inorganic arrangements of the earth's surface and in its organized inhabitants, and that there have, in geological as in historical times, been local cataclysms and convulsions, as those of earthquakes and volcanoes, often on a very extensive scale. Farther, there are good reasons to believe that there have been alternations of cold or glacial periods and of warm periods, of periods of subsidence and re-elevation, and of periods of greater and less activity of certain of the leading agents of geological change. But as to the extent of these differences and their bearing on the geological history, there is still much uncertainty and difference of opinion.[141]

In the sediment _now_ acc.u.mulating in the bottom of the waters are being buried remains of the existing animals and plants. A geological formation is being produced, and it contains the skeletons and other solid parts of a vast variety of creatures belonging to all climates, and which have lived on land as well as in fresh and salt water. Let us now suppose that by a series of changes, sudden or gradual, all the present organized beings were swept away, and that, when the earth was renewed by the power of the Creator, a new race of intelligent beings could explore those parts of the former sea basins that had been elevated into land. They would find the remains of mult.i.tudes of creatures not existing in their time; and by the presence of these they could distinguish the deposits of the former period from those that belonged to their own. They could also compare these remains with the corresponding parts of creatures which were their own contemporaries, and could thus infer the circ.u.mstances in which they had lived, the modes of subsistence for which they had been adapted, and the changes in the distribution of land and water and other physical conditions which had occurred. This, then, is precisely the place which fossil organic remains occupy in modern geology, except that our present system of nature rests on the ruins, not of one previous system, but of several.

4. By the aid of the superposition of deposits and their organic remains, geology can divide the history of the earth into distinct periods. These periods are not separated by merely arbitrary boundaries, but to some extent mark important eras in the progress of our earth; though they usually pa.s.s into each other at their confines, and the nature of the evidence prevents us from ascertaining the precise length of the periods themselves, or the intervals in time which may separate the several monuments by which they are distinguished. The following table will serve to give an idea of the arrangement at present generally received, with some of the more important facts in the succession of animal and vegetable life, as connected with our present subject. It commences with the oldest periods known to geology, and gives in the animal and vegetable kingdoms the _first appearance_ of each cla.s.s, with a few notes of the subsequent history of the princ.i.p.al forms. It must, however, be borne in mind that farther discoveries may extend some cla.s.ses farther back than we at present know them, and that a more detailed table, descending to orders and families, would give a more precise view of the succession of life. Farther, the several geological formations would admit of much subdivision, and are represented locally by various kinds and different thicknesses of sediment.[142]

TABULAR VIEW OF THE SUCCESSION OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AND ORGANIC REMAINS.

==================================================================== PERIODS. SYSTEMS OF CLa.s.sES OF ANIMALS. PLANTS.

FORMATIONS. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Ancient Metamorphic Eozoon and probably other Graphite and EOZOIC rocks of Protozoa. Iron Ores PERIOD. Scandinavia, representing Canada, etc. Vegetable Matter.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Cambrian. _Radiata_--Hydrozoa, Algae.

PRIMARY Echinodermata OR (Cystideans). PALaeOZOIC _Mollusca_--Brachiopoda, PERIOD. Lamellibranchiata, Gasteropoda, Cephalopoda (Bivalve and Univalve Sh.e.l.l-fishes). _Articulata_--Annelida, Crustacea (Worms and Soft Sh.e.l.l-fishes of the lower grades). Lower Silurian. _Radiata_--Anthozoa Algae.

(coral animals), Echinodermata (sea stars, etc.). _Mollusca_--Polyzoa, Tunicata. Other Mollusks and Articulates as before. Upper Silurian. Radiates, Mollusks, and Acrogenous Articulates as before. Land plants.

_Vertebrata_--First Ganoid and Placoid Fishes. Erian or Devonian. _Articulata_--Insects Acrogens and higher Crustaceans. and _Vertebrata_--Fishes, Gymnosperms.

Ganoid and Placoid. Carboniferous. _Mollusca_--Pulmonata Acrogens, (Land Snails). Gymnosperms, _Articulata_--Myriapods, Endogens?

Arachnidans (Gallyworms, Spiders and Scorpions). _Vertebrata_--Batrachians or Amphibians prevalent. Permian. _Vertebrata_--Lacertian or Lizard-like Reptiles. -------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Tria.s.sic. _Vertebrata_--Higher SECONDARY Reptiles prevalent; OR Marsupial Mammals. MESOZOIC PERIOD. Jura.s.sic. _Vertebrata_--Great Endogenous prevalence of higher trees.

Reptiles; Fishes, h.o.m.ocerque; Earliest Birds. Cretaceous. _Vertebrata_--Decadence Angiospermous of reign of Reptiles; Exogens.

Ordinary Bony Fishes. -------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Eocene. _Vertebrata_--Mammals Exogens TERTIARY prevalent, especially prevalent.

OR Pachyderms; Cycloid CAINOZOIC and Ctenoid Fishes PERIOD. prevalent. First _living_ Some Modern Invertebrates. Species appear.

Miocene. Living Invertebrates more numerous. Pliocene. Living Invertebrates still more numerous. -------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Post-Pliocene. First living Mammals. Existing POST- Living Invertebrates vegetation.

TERTIARY prevalent. OR MODERN Post-Glacial Man and living Mammals. PERIOD. and Recent. ====================================================================

The oldest fossil remains known are the Protozoa of the Laurentian rocks. In the succeeding Cambrian or Primordial rocks we find many extinct species of zoophytes, sh.e.l.l-fish, and crustaceans, and the algae or sea-weeds. In the Palaeozoic period as a whole, though numerous Batrachian or Amphibian reptiles existed toward its close, the higher orders of fishes seem to have been the dominant tribe of animals; and vegetation was nearly limited to cryptogams and gymnosperms. In the Mesozoic period, though small mammalia had been created, large terrestrial and marine reptiles were the ruling race, and fishes occupied a subordinate position; while, at the close, the higher orders of plants took a prominent place. In the Tertiary and Modern eras, the mammalia, with man, have a.s.sumed the highest or dominant position in nature.

On this series of groups, and the succession of living beings, Sir. C.

Lyell remarks "It is not pretended that the princ.i.p.al sections called Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary are of equivalent importance, or that the subordinate groups comprise monuments relating to equal portions of time or of the earth's history. But we can a.s.sert that they each relate to successive periods, during which certain animals and plants, for the most part peculiar to their respective eras, flourished, and during which different kinds of sediment were deposited."

We have already, in previous chapters, noticed the parallelism of the succession of life in the earth as revealed in Genesis with that disclosed by geology; but this subject must be farther referred to in the sequel, and in the mean time the reader may compare for himself the succession of life in the table with that in the later creative days.

5. The lapse of time embraced in the geological history of the earth is enormous. Fully to appreciate this it is necessary to study the science in detail, and to explore its phenomena as disclosed in actual nature. A few facts, however, out of hundreds which might have been selected, will suffice to indicate the state of the case. The delta and alluvial plain of the Mississippi have an area of more than 12,000 square miles, and must have an average depth of about 800 feet. At the present rate of conveyance of sediment by the river, it has been calculated that a period of about 33,000 years is implied in the deposition of this comparatively modern formation.[143] To be quite safe, let us take 30,000 years, and add 50,000 more for the remainder of the Post-pliocene or Quaternary. We may then safely multiply this number by forty, for the length of the Tertiary period. We may add three times as much for the Mesozoic period, and this will be far under the truth. It will then be quite safe to a.s.sume that the Palaeozoic period was three times as long as the Mesozoic and Tertiary together. This would give altogether, say, 51,280,000 years for the whole of geological time from the beginning of the Palaeozoic, leaving the duration of the Eozoic and previous periods undetermined, but requiring perhaps nearly as much time. Great though these demands may seem, they would be probably far below the rigid requirements of the case were it not for the probability that the present rate of transference of material by the great river is less than it was in Post-pliocene and early modern times. This might enable us to reduce our estimate considerably within the scope of a hundred millions of years.[144] Take another ill.u.s.tration from an older formation. An excellent coast section at the Joggins, in Nova Scotia, exhibits in the coal formation proper a series of beds with erect trunks and roots of trees _in situ_, amounting to nearly 100. About 100 forests have successively grown, partially decayed, and been entombed in muddy and sandy sediment. In the same section, including in all about 14,000 feet of beds, there are 76 seams of coal, each of which can be proved to have taken more time for its acc.u.mulation than that required for the growth of a forest. Supposing all these separate fossil soils and coals to have been formed with the greatest possible rapidity, forty thousand years would be a very moderate calculation for this portion of the Carboniferous system; and for aught that we know thousands of years may be represented by a single fossil soil. But this is the age of only one member of the Carboniferous system, itself only a member of the great Palaeozoic group, and we have made no allowance for the abrasion from previous rocks and deposition of the immense ma.s.s of sandy and muddy sediment in which the coals and forests are imbedded, and which is vastly greater than the deltas of the largest modern rivers.

Considerations of a physical rather than of a geological nature also give us long periods for the probable existence of the earth, though they serve to correct somewhat the extravagant estimates of some theorists. Croll has based an interesting calculation on the amount of erosion of the land by rivers. That of the Mississippi amounts to one foot in 6000 years. That of the Ganges gives one foot in 2358 years, the average being, say, one foot in 4179 years. Some smaller rivers give a much shorter time; but the average of two great rivers, one draining a very large area of the western and another of the eastern hemisphere, and in very different climates and geographical conditions, will probably be the most reliable datum. Croll, however, prefers the Mississippi rate.[145] If we estimate the proportion of land to water as 576 to 1390, this will give for the entire area of the ocean a rate of deposition of one foot in 14,400 years. Now the entire thickness of all the stratified rocks is estimated at 72,000 feet; and at this rate the enormous time of 1,036,800,000 years would be necessary. But we have no right to a.s.sume that deposition has been going on uniformly over the entire sea-bottom. On the contrary, the greater part of it takes place within a belt of about one hundred miles from the coasts, and the deposit of calcareous and other matters over the remainder will scarcely make up for the portions of this belt on which no deposit is taking place. This will give an area of deposit of about 11,650,000 square miles, consequently only one twelfth of the above time, or about 86,400,000 years, would be required. This can be but a very rough calculation; but it has the merit of squaring very nearly with the calculations derived from physical considerations, more especially by Sir William Thomson, which limit the possible existence of the earth's solid crust to one hundred millions of years.

Similar conclusions have also been deduced from what is known of the physical const.i.tution of the sun. Croll's own ingenious theory of glacial periods produced by the varying eccentricity of the earth's...o...b..t, along with the precession of the equinoxes, would give, according to him, about 80,000 years ago for the date of the Glacial period, and for the beginning of the Tertiary period about 3,000,000 years ago.

It would thus appear that physical and geological science conspire in a.s.signing a great antiquity to the earth, but not an unlimited antiquity. They agree in restricting the ages that have elapsed since the introduction of life within one hundred millions of years. I confess, however, that a consideration of the fact that all our geological measures of erosion and deposition seem to be based on cases which refer to what may be termed minimum action leads me to believe that the actual time will fall very far within this limit. For example, if we were to suppose an elevation of the land drained by the Mississippi even to a small amount, its cutting power would be vastly increased for a long time. The same effect would result from a subsidence and re-elevation, or from any cause increasing the amount of rainfall or deposition of snows in winter. Now we know that such things have occurred in the past, while we have no reason to believe that the amount of action was ever much less than at present. Similar considerations apply to nearly all our geological measures of time; and there has been a tendency to exaggerate these, as if geologists were ent.i.tled to demand unlimited time, and to stretch the doctrine of uniformity to the utmost.

6. During the whole time referred to by geology, the great laws both of inorganic and organic nature have been the same as at present. The evidence of light and darkness, of suns.h.i.+ne and shower, of summer and winter, and of all the known igneous and aqueous causes of change, extends back almost, and in some of these cases altogether, to the beginning of the Palaeozoic period. In like manner the animals and plants of the oldest rocks are constructed on the same physiological and anatomical principles with existing tribes, and they can be arranged in the same genera, orders, or cla.s.ses, though specifically distinct. The revolutions of the globe have involved no change of the general laws of matter; and though it is possible that geology has carried us back to the time when the laws that regulate life began to operate, it does not show that they were less perfect than now, and it indicates no trace of the beginning of the inorganic laws. Geological changes have resulted not from the inst.i.tution of new laws, but from new _dispositions_, under existing laws and general arrangements.

There is every reason to believe that in the inorganic world these dispositions have required no new creative interpositions during the time to which geology refers, but merely the continued action of the properties bestowed on matter when first produced. In the organic world the case is different.

7. In the succession of animal and vegetable life we find a constant improvement and advance by the introduction of new types of being. We have already given a general outline of this advancement of organized nature. It has consisted in the introduction, from time to time, of new and more highly organized beings, so as at once to increase the variety of nature, and to provide for the elevation of the summit of the graduated scale of life to higher and higher points. At the same time, in each successive period, it has been the law of creation that the forms of life then dominant should attain their highest development, and should then be succeeded by more advanced types. For instance, in the earlier Palaeozoic period we have molluscous animals and fishes, then apparently the highest forms of life, appearing with a very advanced organization, not surpa.s.sed, if even equalled, in modern times. In the latter part of the same period, some lower forms of vegetable life, now restricted to a comparatively humble place, were employed to const.i.tute magnificent forests. In the Mesozoic period, again, reptiles attained to their highest point in organization and variety of form and employment, while mammalia had as yet scarcely appeared.[146]

8. If now we ask in what manner the succession of life on the earth has been produced, two apparently opposite hypotheses rise before us.

The one is that of introduction of new species by creative acts, the other that of development of new species by changes of those previously existing. In one respect the difference of these views is little more than one of expression, for the meaning of the statements depends on what we understand by a species and what by a mere varietal form, and also on what we understand by creation and what we mean by development. Twenty years ago nearly all geologists were believers in creation, though it must be admitted without precisely understanding what they meant by the term. Now, the great impression produced by Darwin's speculations and the prevalence of the evolutionist philosophy have produced a leaning in the other direction. More recently, however, the absurdities into which the extreme evolutionists find themselves driven have produced a reaction; and we hope that views consistent with revelation, or at least with Theism, will again be in the ascendant, and that present controversies will serve to give more precise and definite views than heretofore of the relation of nature to G.o.d. As ill.u.s.trations of the opinions prevalent before the rise of the development theory, I may quote from Pictet and Bronn, two of the most eminent palaeontologists.

Pictet says, in the introduction to his "Traite de Paleontologie:" "It seems to me impossible that we should admit, as an explanation of the phenomena of successive faunas, the pa.s.sage of species into one another; the limits of such transitions of species, even supposing that the lapse of a vast period of time may have given them a character of reality much greater than that which the study of existing nature leads us to suppose, are still infinitely within those differences which distinguish two successive faunas. Lastly, we can least of all account by this theory for the appearance of new _types_, to explain the introduction of which we must necessarily, in the present state of science, recur to the idea of distinct creations posterior to the first."

The following are the general conclusions of Bronn, in his elaborate and most valuable essay, presented to the French Academy in 1856, as summarized in a notice of the work in the Journal of the Geological Society:

"1. The first productions of this power in the oldest Neptunian strata of the earth consisted of Plants, Zoophytes, Mollusks, Crustaceans, and perhaps even Fish; the simultaneous appearance of which, therefore, contradicts the a.s.sumption that the more perfect organic forms arose out of the gradual transformation in time of the more imperfect forms.

"2. The same power which produced the first organic forms has continued to operate in intensively as well as extensively increasing activity during the whole subsequent geological period, up to the final appearance of man; but here also can no traces be found of a gradual transformation of old species and genera into new; but the new have everywhere appeared as new without the co-operation of the former.

"3. In the succession of the different forms of plants and animals, a certain regular course and plan is perceptible, which is quite independent of chance. While all species possess only a limited duration, and must sooner or later disappear, they make way for subsequent new ones, which not only almost always offer an equivalent, in number, organization, and duties to be performed, for those which have disappeared, but which are also generally more varied, and therefore more perfect, and always maintain an equilibrium with each other in their stage of organization, their mode of life, and functions. There always exists, therefore, a certain fixed relation between the newly arising and the disappearing forms of organic life.

"4. A similar relation necessarily exists between the newly arising organic forms and the outward conditions of life which prevailed at their first appearance on the earth's surface, or at the place of their appearance.

"5. A fixed plan appears to be the basis of the whole series of development of organic forms, in so far as man makes his first appearance at its close, when he finds every thing prepared that is necessary to his own existence and to his progressive development and improvement--which would not have been possible had he appeared at a former period.

"6. Such a regular progress in carrying out the same plan from the beginning to the end of a period of millions of years can only be accounted for in one of two ways. Either this course of successive development during millions of years has been the regular immediate result of the systematic action of a conscious Creator, who on every occasion settled and carried out not only the order of appearance, formation, organization, and terrestrial object of each of the countless numbers of species of plants and animals, but also the number of the first individuals, the place of their settlement in every instance, although it was in his power to create every thing at once--or there existed some natural power hitherto entirely unknown to us, which by means of its own laws formed the species of plants and animals, and arranged and regulated all those countless individual conditions; which power, however, must in this case have stood in the most immediate connection with, and in perfect subordination to, those powers which caused the gradually progressing perfection of the crust of the earth, and the gradual development of the outward conditions of life for the constantly increasing numbers and higher cla.s.ses of organic forms in consequence of this perfection. Only in this way can we explain how the development of the organic world could have regularly kept pace with that of the inorganic. Such a power, although we know it not, would not only be in perfect accordance with all the other functions of nature, but the Creator, who regulated the development of organic nature by means of such a force so implanted in it, as he guides that of the inorganic world by the mere co-operation of attraction and affinity, must appear to us more exalted and imposing than if we a.s.sumed that he must always be giving the same care to the introduction and change of the vegetable and animal world on the surface of the earth as a gardener daily bestows on each individual plant in the arrangement of his garden.

"7. We therefore believe that all species of plants and animals were originally produced by some natural power unknown to us, and not by transformation from a few original forms, and that that power was in the closest and most necessary connection with those powers and circ.u.mstances which effected the perfection of the earth's surface."

Barrande also, probably the greatest living palaeontologist of Europe, adheres substantially to these views; as Aga.s.siz did, and I believe Hall and Dana still do, in America.

I have, for my own part, seen no reason to dissent from these views, though in the sequel I shall endeavor to present some considerations which may tend to reconcile with them some of the hypotheses of a contrary nature now held. It must be admitted, however, that the majority of geologists and biologists have abandoned these views of Pictet and Bronn, and have gone over to the evolutionist philosophy, with how little reason I have endeavored to show elsewhere,[147] and shall farther ill.u.s.trate in the Appendix. Let it be observed, however, that even evolution does not affect the grand idea of the unity of nature, or the fact that the plan of the Creator in the organic world was so vast that it required the whole duration of our planet, in all its stages of physical existence, to embrace the whole. There is but one system of organic nature; but, to exhibit the whole of it, not only all the climates and conditions now existing are required, but those also of all past geological periods. Further, the progress of nature being mainly in the direction of differentiation of functions once combined, it has a limit backward in the most general forms and conditions, and forward in the most specialized. This is the history of the individual and probably also of the type, of the world itself and of the universe; and for this reason material nature necessarily lacks the eternity of its author.

It appears, from the above facts and reasonings, that geology informs us--1. That the materials of our existing continents are of secondary origin, as distinguished from primitive or coeval with the beginning.

2. That a chronological order of formation of these rocks can be made out. 3. That the fossil remains contained in the rocks const.i.tute a chronology of animal and vegetable existence. 4. That the history of the earth may be divided in this way into distinct periods, all pre-Adamite. 5. That the pre-Adamite periods were of enormous duration. 6. That during these periods the existing general laws of nature were in force, though the dispositions of inorganic nature were different in different periods, and the animals and plants of successive periods were also different from each other. 7. The introduction of new species of animals and of plants, while indicating advance in the perfection of nature, does not prove spontaneous development, but rather a definite plan and law of creation.

The parallelism of these conclusions of careful inductive inquiry into the structure of the earth's crust, with the results which we have already obtained from revelation, may be summed up under the following heads:

1. Scripture and Science both testify to the great fact that there was a beginning--a time when none of all the parts of the fabric of the universe existed; when the Self-Existent was the sole occupant of s.p.a.ce. The Scriptures announce in plain terms this great truth, and thereby rise at once high above atheism, pantheism, and materialism, and lay a broad and sure foundation for a pure and spiritual theology.

Had the pen of inspiration written but the words, "In the beginning G.o.d created the heavens and the earth," and added no more, these words alone would have borne the impress of their heavenly birth, and would, if received in faith, have done much for the progress of the human mind. These words contain a negation of hero-wors.h.i.+p, star-wors.h.i.+p, animal-wors.h.i.+p, and every other form of idolatry. They still more emphatically deny atheism and materialism, and point upward from nature to its spiritual Creator--the One, the Triune, the Eternal, the Self-Existent, the All-Pervading, the Almighty. They call upon us, as with a voice of thunder, to bow down before that Awful Being of whom it can be said that he created the heavens and the earth. They thus embody the whole essence of natural theology, and most appropriately stand at the entrance of Holy Scripture, referring us to the works which men behold, as the visible manifestation of the attributes of the Being whose spiritual nature is unveiled in revelation. Scripture thus begins with the announcement of a great ultimate fact, to which science conducts us with but slow and timid steps. Yet science, and especially geological science, can bear witness to this great truth.

The materialist, reasoning on the fancied stability of natural things, and their inscription within invariable laws, concludes that matter must be eternal. No, replies the geologist, certainly not in its present form. This is but of recent origin, and was preceded by other arrangements. Every existing species can be traced back to a time when it was not; so can the existing continents, mountains, and seas. Under our processes of investigation the present melts away like a dream, and we are landed on the sh.o.r.es of past and unknown worlds. But I read, says the objector, that you can see "no evidence of a beginning, no prospect of an end." It is true, answers geology; but, in so saying, it is not intended that the present state of things had not an ascertained beginning, but that there has been a great and, so far as we know, unlimited series of changes carried on under the guidance of intelligence. These changes we have traced back very far, without being able to say that we have reached the first. We can trace back man and his contemporaries to their origin, and we can reach the points at which still older dynasties of life began to exist. Knowing, then, that all these had a beginning, we infer that if others preceded them they also had a beginning. But, says another objector, is not the present the child of the past? Are not all the creatures that inhabit the earth the lineal descendants of creatures of past periods, or may not the whole be parts of one continual succession, under the operation of an eternal law of development? No, answers geology, species are immutable, except within narrow limits, and do not pa.s.s into each other, in tracing them toward their origin. On the contrary, they appear at once in their most perfect state, and continue unchanged till they are forced off the stage of existence to give place to other creatures. The origin of species is a mystery, and belongs to no natural law that has yet been established. Thus, then, stands the case at present. Scripture a.s.serts a beginning and a creation. Science admits these, as far as the objects with which it is conversant extend, and the notions of eternal succession and spontaneous development, discountenanced both by theology and science, are obliged to take refuge in those misty regions where modern philosophical skepticism consorts with the shades of departed heathenism.[148]

2. Both records exhibit the progressive character of creation, and in much the same aspect. The Almighty might have called into existence, by one single momentary act, a world complete in all its parts. From both Scripture and geology we know that he has not done so--why we need not inquire, though we can see that the process employed was that best adapted to show forth the variety of his resources and the infinitely varied elements that enter into the perfect whole.