Principles of Geology Part 70

But no argument can be drawn from such premises in favor of the infinity of the s.p.a.ce that has been filled with worlds; and if the material universe has any limits, it then follows, that it must occupy a minute and infinitesimal point in infinite s.p.a.ce.

So if, in tracing back the earth's history, we arrive at the monuments of events which may have happened millions of ages before our times, and if we still find no decided evidence of a commencement, yet the arguments from a.n.a.logy in support of the probability of a beginning remain unshaken; and if the past duration of the earth be finite, then the aggregate of geological epochs, however numerous, must const.i.tute a mere moment of the past, a mere infinitesimal portion of eternity.

It has been argued, that, as the different states of the earth's surface, and the different species by which it has been inhabited have all had their origin, and many of them their termination, so the entire series may have commenced at a certain period. It has also been urged, that, as we admit the creation of man to have occurred at a comparatively modern epoch--as we concede the astonishing fact of the first introduction of a moral and intellectual being--so also we may conceive the first creation of the planet itself.

I am far from denying the weight of this reasoning from a.n.a.logy; but, although it may strengthen our conviction, that the present system of change has not gone on from eternity, it cannot warrant us in presuming that we shall be permitted to behold the signs of the earth's origin, or the evidences of the first introduction into it of organic beings. We aspire in vain to a.s.sign limits to the works of creation in _s.p.a.ce_, whether we examine the starry heavens, or that world of minute animalcules which is revealed to us by the microscope. We are prepared, therefore, to find that in time also the confines of the universe lie beyond the reach of mortal ken. But in whatever direction we pursue our researches, whether in _time_ or s.p.a.ce, we discover everywhere the clear proofs of a Creative Intelligence, and of His foresight, wisdom, and power.

As geologists, we learn that it is not only the present condition of the globe which has been suited to the accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but that many former states also have been adapted to the organization and habits of prior races of beings. The disposition of the seas, continents, and islands, and the climates, have varied; the species likewise have been changed; and yet they have all been so modelled, on types a.n.a.logous to those of existing plants and animals, as to indicate, throughout, a perfect harmony of design and unity of purpose. To a.s.sume that the evidence of the beginning or end of so vast a scheme lies within the reach of our philosophical inquiries, or even of our speculations, appears to be inconsistent with a just estimate of the relations which subsist between the finite powers of man and the attributes of an Infinite and Eternal Being.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Essays on the Philosophy of the Hindoos.

[2] Inst.i.tutes of Hindoo Law, or the Ordinances of Menu, from the Sanscrit, translated by Sir William Jones, 1796.

[3] Menu, Inst. c. i. 66, and 67.

[4] Herodot. Euterpe, 12.

[5] A Persian MS. copy of the historian Ferishta, in the library of the East India Company, relating to the rise and progress of the Mahomedan empire in India, was procured by Colonel Briggs from the library of Tippoo Sultan in 1799; which has been referred to at some length by Dr. Buckland. (Geol. Trans. 2d Series, vol. ii.

part iii. p. 389.)

[6] See Davis on "The Chinese," published by the Soc. for the Diffus. of Use. Know. vol. i. pp. 137, 147.

[7] Humboldt et Bonpland, Voy. Relat. Hist. vol. i. p. 30.

[8] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 177.

[9] Plut. de Defectu Oraculorum, cap. 12. Censorinus de Die Natali. See also Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 182.

[10] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 182.

[11] Prichard's Egypt. Mythol. p. 193.

[12] Plato's Timaeus.

[13] Ovid's Metamor. lib. 15.

[14] Eluvie mons est deductus in aequor, v. 267. The meaning of this last verse is somewhat obscure; but, taken with the context, may be supposed to allude to the abrading power of floods, torrents, and rivers.

[15] The impregnation from new mineral springs, caused by earthquakes in volcanic countries, is perhaps here alluded to.

[16] That is probably an allusion to the escape of inflammable gas, like that in the district of Baku, west of the Caspian; at Pietramala, in the Tuscan Apennines; and several other places.

[17] Many of those described seem fanciful fictions, like the virtue still so commonly attributed to mineral waters.

[18] Raspe, in a learned and judicious essay (De Novis Insulis, cap. 19), has made it appear extremely probable that all the traditions of certain islands in the Mediterranean having at some former time frequently shifted their positions, and at length become stationary, originated in the great change produced in their form by earthquakes and submarine eruptions, of which there have been modern examples in the new islands raised in the time of history. When the series of convulsions ended, the island was said to become fixed.

[19] It is not inconsistent with the Hindoo mythology to suppose that Pythagoras might have found in the East not only the system of universal and violent catastrophes and periods of repose in endless succession, but also that of periodical revolutions, effected by the continued agency of ordinary causes. For Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, the first, second, and third persons of the Hindoo triad, severally represented the Creative, the Preserving, and the Destroying powers of the Deity. The coexistence of these three attributes, all in simultaneous operation, might well accord with the notion of perpetual but partial alterations finally bringing about a complete change. But the fiction expressed in the verses before quoted from Menu of eternal vicissitudes in the vigils and slumbers of Brahma seems accommodated to the system of great general catastrophes followed by new creations and periods of repose.

[20] Meteor. lib. i. cap. 12.

[21] De Die Nat.

[22] Lib. ii. cap. 14, 15, and 16.

[23] Lib. ii. cap. 14, 15, and 16.

[24] Omne ex integro animal generabitur, dabiturque terris h.o.m.o inscius scelerum.--Quaest. Nat. iii. c. 29.

[25] This author was Regius Professor of Syriac and Arabic at Paris, where, in 1685, he published a Latin translation of many Arabian MSS. on different departments of philosophy. This work has always been considered of high authority.

[26] Gerbanitae docebant singulos triginta s.e.x mille annos quadringentos, viginti quinque bina ex singulis animalium speciebus produci, marem scilicet ac feminam ex quibus animalia propagantur, huncque inferiorem incolunt orbem. Absoluta autem coelestium orbium circulatione, quae illo annorum conficitur spatio, iterum alia produc.u.n.tur animalium genera et species, quemadmodum et plantarum aliarumque rerum, et primus destruitur ordo, sicque in infinitum producitur.--Histor. Orient Suppl. per Abrahamum Ecch.e.l.lensem, Syrum Maronitam, cap. 7. et 8. ad calcem Chronici Orientali. Parisiis, e Typ. Regia. 1685, fol.

I have given the punctuation as in the Paris edition, there being no comma after quinque; but, at the suggestion of M. de Schlegel, I have referred the number twenty-five to the period of years, and not to the number of pairs of each species created at one time, as I had done in the two first editions. Fortis inferred that twenty-five new _species_ only were created at a time; a construction which the pa.s.sage will not admit. Mem. sur l'Hist.

Nat. de l'Italie, vol. i. p. 202.

[27] "Quod enim hoc attollitur aut subsidit, et vel inundat quaedam loca, vel ab iis recedit, ejus rei causa non est, quod alia aliis sola humiliora sint aut altiora; sed quod idem solum mod attollitur mod deprimitur, simulque etiam mod attollitur mod deprimitur, mare: itaque vel exundat vel in suum redit loc.u.m."

Postea, p. 88. "Restat, ut causam adscribamus solo, sive quod mari subest sive quod inundatur; potius tamen ei quod mari subest. Hoc enim mult est mobilius, et quod ob humiditatem celerius multari possit."--Strabo, Geog. Edit. Almelov. Amst.

1707, lib. 1.

[28] _Volcanic eruptions_, eruptiones flatuum, in the Latin translations, and in the original Greek, a?af?s?ata, gaseous eruptions? or _inflations_ of land?--Ibid. p. 93.

[29] Strabo, lib. vi. p. 396.

[30] Book iv.

[31] L. vi. ch. xiii.

[32] Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. ii. chap. iv. section iii.

[33] Montes quandoque fiunt ex causa essentiali, quandoque ex causa accidentali. Ex essentiali causa, ut ex vehementi motu terrae elevatur terra, et fit mons. Accidentali, &c.--De Congelatione Lapidum, ed. Gedani, 1682.

[34] Von Hoff, Geschichte der Veranderungen der Erdoberflache, vol. i. p. 406, who cites Delisle, bey Hismann Welt- und Volkergeschichte. Alte Geschichte 1??? theil, s. 234.--The Arabian persecutions for heretical dogmas in theology were often very sanguinary. In the same ages wherein learning was most in esteem, the Mahometans were divided into two sects, one of whom maintained that the Koran was increate, and had subsisted in the very essence of G.o.d from all eternity; and the other, the Motazalites, who, admitting that the Koran was inst.i.tuted by G.o.d, conceived it to have been first made when revealed to the Prophet at Mecca, and accused their opponents of believing in two eternal beings. The opinions of each of these sects were taken up by different caliphs in succession, and the followers of each sometimes submitted to be beheaded, or flogged till at the point of death, rather than renounce their creed.--Mod. Univ. Hist.

vol. ii. ch. iv.

[35] Koran, chap. xli.

[36] Sale's Koran, chap. xi. see note.

[37] Ibid.

[38] Kossa, appointed master to the Caliph Al Mamud, was author of a book ent.i.tled "The history of the Patriarchs and Prophets, _from the Creation of the World_."--Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. ii. ch.

iv.