2d. " Processes are now going on by which rocks are formed, on a small scale, of the same character as those which constitute the great mass of the earth. Hence it is fair to infer (1.) that all the rocks were formed in a similar manner. (2.) That by as- certaining the rate at which rocks are now forming we may form some estimate as to the time requisite to produce those constitut- ing the crust of the earth."
3d. All the stratified rocks, especially that large proportion of them which contain the remains of animals and plants, appear to have been formed from fragments of other rocks, worn down by the action of water and atmospheric agencies. Yet this process is very slow.
4th. " Yet there must have been time enough, since the crea- tion, to deposit at least ten miles of rocks in perpendicular thick- ness," by this process of attrition, washing, precipitation, drying, and hardening by means of heat, pressure, and the admixture of iron or lime.
5th. It is certain that since man existed, or in the last six thousand years, materials for the production of rock have not ac- cumulated to the average thickness of more than one or two hun- dred feet, or about one five hundreth part of the entire thickness of the stratified rocks that have been formed since the creation.
6th. During the deposition of the stratified rocks many changes must have occurred in the temperature and the materials held in solution by the waters which deposited them, and in the positions of the rocks themselves, as they have been bent and dislocated while in a soft state.
7th. " Numerous races of animals and plants must have occu- pied the globe previous to those which now inhabit it, and have successively passed away as catastrophes occurred, or as the climate became unfit for their residence. Thirty thousand species have already been dug from the rocks, and with few exceptions none of them corresponding to those now living upon the earth." " Not less than four or five, and probably more, entire races have passed away, and been succeeded by recent ones, so that the globe has actually changed all its inhabitants half a dozen times."
8th. Even since all the various strata of rocks have been in
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their present state and position changes have been accomplished, e. g., in the formation of deltas, and in the gradual wearing away of solid rock in channels by rivers (often hundreds of feet deep, and for miles in length), which must have required many thousands of years.
9th. The primary rocks, which everywhere form the founda- tion upon which the stratified rocks rest, and out of the fragments of which, by washing and wearing, the stratified rocks have been formed, were themselves evidently formed when the whole globe was gradually cooling from a condition of universal fusion from heat.
8. What are the different methods which have been suggested of reconciling the facts developed by geology with the truth of the Mosaic record of creation ?
1st. The method adopted by Dr. Chalmers, President Hitch- cock, and the great majority of Christian geologists, is as follows : The first verse of Genesis, disconnected from the subsequent con- text, affirms the truth that in the beginning, at some remote and unrevealed period in the past, God created the whole universe out of nothing ; and then after an interval, the measure of which is not given, the subsequent verses relate the general order in which God, in the space of six natural days, established the present order of this world, adapting it to the residence of its present inhabitants, and in which he created the present races of plants and animals. This interpretation of the Mosaic account of the creation was advanced as probable by many eminent biblical scholars before the rise of geological science, and it is now almost universally adopted by theologians as well as by geologists. There appears to be no objection to it upon any ground, and, as a general adjustment, it appears to be the best possible in the present state of our knowledge. It is only a general adjustment, however, leaving many questions of detail unsolved, both as to the interpretation of the record of the six days' work, and as to the reconciliation of the facts of geology, and the present scien- tific interpretation thereof, with the inspired record.
2d. In order to avoid several difficulties experienced in at- tempting to reconcile the Mosaic account of the six days' work with the science, Dr. John Pye Bmith proposed to supplement
194 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.