surest manner: for had not the surface of the earth been thus prepared for their reception, where would have been the use of all that admirable system of organization bestowed upon vegetables? And it is no small proof of design in the arrangement of the materials that compose the surface of our earth, that whereas the primitive and granitic rocks are least calculated to afford a fertile soil, they are for the most part made to constitute the mountain districts of the world, which, from their elevation and irregularities, would otherwise be but ill adapted for human habitation; whilst the lower and more temperate regions are usually composed of derivative or secondary strata, in which the compound nature of their ingredients qualifies them to be of the greatest utility to mankind by their subserviency to the purposes of luxuriant vegetation. "Thus Geology contributes proofs to Natural Theology, strictly in harmony with those derived from other branches of natural history; and if it be allowed, on the one hand, that these proofs are in this science less numerous and obvious, it may be contended, on the other, that they are calculated to lead us a step farther in our inferences. The evidences afforded by the sister sciences exhibit, indeed, the most admirable proofs of design and intelligence originally exerted at the Creation: but many who admit these proofs still doubt the con 1 X PREFACE. tinued superintendence of that intelligence, maintaining that the system of the universe is carried on by the force of the laws originally impressed on matter, without the necessity of fresh interference or continued supervision on the part of the Creator. Such an opinion is, indeed, founded only on a verbal fallacy; for laws impressed on matter,' is an expression which can only denote the continued exertion of the will of the lawgiver, the prime agent, the first mover: still, however, the opinion has been entertained, and perhaps it nowhere meets with a more direct and palpable refutation than is afforded by the subserviency of the present structure of the earth's surface to final causes; for that structure is evidently the result of many and violent convulsions subsequent to its original formation. When, therefore, we perceive that the secondary causes producing these convulsions have operated at successive periods, not blindly and at random, but with a direction to beneficial ends, we see at once the proofs of an overruling intelligence continuing to superintend, direct, modify, and control the operations of the agents, which he originally ordained. "The consideration, also, of the evidences afforded by Geological phænomena may enable us to lay more securely the very foundations of Natural Theology, inasmuch as they clearly point out to us a period antecedent to the habitable state of the earth, and consequently antecedent to the existence of its inhabitants. When our minds become thus familiarized with the idea of a beginning and first creation of the beings we see around us, the proofs of design, which the structure of those beings affords, carry with them a more forcible conviction of an intelligent Creator, and the hypothesis of an eternal succession of causes is thus at once removed. We argue thus it is demonstrable from Geology that there was a period when no organic beings had existence: these organic beings must therefore have had a beginning subsequently to this period; and where is that beginning to be found, but in the will and fiat of an intelligent and all-wise Creator ?" May we not, then, well exclaim in the words of a modern poet, "There is a voiceless eloquence on earth, Telling of Him who gave her wonders birth; Hill, flood, and forest, mountain, rock, and sea, * Vide "The Omnipresence of the Deity," a Poem. By Robert Montgomery. |