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DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

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PREFACE.

IN presenting the following pages to the judgment of the world, I have reason to fear, that the very title of the work will excite, in the minds of some, feelings by no means favourable to an unprejudiced perusal of it.

I am fully aware of the objections which have frequently been raised to the endeavours to connect physical facts, with the details of Scripture; and I am, also, aware of the mischief that has sometimes ensued to the cause of Religion, from the imprudent, or unskilful defence, made by those whose wishes and intentions were the most friendly to it.

The course of every science must be progressive; beginning in faint attempts to dissipate the obscurity of ignorance, and gradually advancing towards the full light of truth. To this usual course, the science of

Geology cannot be considered as an exception, having already passed through some of its early stages, which were avowedly marked with obscurity and error. During these stages of geological ignorance, I am free to admit, that the attempt, to connect the supposed discoveries in the physical phenomena of the earth, with the truths announced to us in the Sacred Record, could not but tend to injure either the one cause or the other; because, it is impossible, that any concord can exist between truth and error. In this case, it unfortunately happened, that the assertions of Philosophy were uttered with such boldness, and so supported by the deceptious evidence of physical facts, seen under a false light, that it was difficult for the supporters of Revelation, ignorant, as they generally were, of the nature of these facts, to hold their ground with success, or not to weaken their own cause by an apparent failure in its support.

The necessity which has, however, been acknowledged, of rejecting the geological theories of those days, opposed, as they were, to the Mosaical History, was, therefore, a fair source of hope and encouragement to such as advocated the unerring character of Inspired Scripture. It, at least, left that Mosaic

Narrative uninjured by the assault; and encouraged a hope, that, as in all other cases, the truth would finally appear, and prevail.

It has been well remarked, by the able author of a work which has lately appeared, full of information, and written upon the soundest principles," It is now thirty-five years "since my attention was first directed to "these considerations. It was then the fashion "for science, and for a large part of the edu"cated, and inquisitive world, to rush into "a disbelief of all written Revelation; and "several geological speculations were di"rected against it. But I have lived to see "the most hostile of these, destroyed by their

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own as hostile successors; and to observe, "that nothing, which was of this character, "however plausible at the moment of its appearance, has had any duration in human "estimation, not even among the sceptical.

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Of late years, accordingly, fact after fact has been gradually accumulating; each tending to temper the wild character of an hypothetical philosophy; and every day produces some new evidence of the hasty and erroneous conclusions from physical facts, to which the friends of Revelation had found it too often necessary to succumb.

* Sacred History of the World, by Mr. Sharon Turner.

Each of these errors in philosophy has been a source of triumph to the cause of truth ; and the time is gradually approaching, if it be not yet fully come, when the trial must be brought to a positive issue, and when those undeniable physical facts, seen in a new and more correct light, will lend their aid to the support, instead of to the destruction of our confidence in Scripture; and when the simplicity and consistency of the Geology of Scripture, will make us regard with astonishment and contempt, schemes that could so long have exerted so powerful an influence over our reason and understanding.

I am not vain enough to suppose, that I am, myself, qualified to bring about so desirable an end: but, as it is the duty of every one, to lend a hand to the demolition of ERROR, and to the encouragement of TRUTH, I propose, in the following pages, to endeavour, in as clear and concise a manner as the subject will admit of, to account for the geological structure of the upper surface of our earth; taking the Mosaical History for my guiding star, to be kept constantly in view throughout my course.

A great part of my object will be attained, if I can succeed in bringing any one of those able minds, who are now so influential in

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