since human remains have scarcely been found in the diluvium of countries which geologists have yet examined, it cannot be that man had spread far on the earth's surface previous to the last deluge. Thus we are led to infer that the date of his creation could have reached back but a few thousand years. The same conclusion is confirmed by the manner in which ponds and morasses are filled up by the growth of sphagneous mosses. This process is still going on; so that during the life of an individual, he can often perceive considerable progress towards the conversion of a morass into dry ground: But were not the present condition of the globe of rather recent date, all such processes must ere this have reached their limits. Who has not observed, that where mountains rise into precipitous rocky peaks or ledges, with mural faces, in almost all cases, there is an accumulation around their bases of fragments detached by the agency of air, water, and frost? Where the rock is full of fissures, indeed, these fragments sometimes reach to the very top of the ledge: but, in general, the work of degradation is still in progress, and impresses the observer with the idea that its commencement cannot have been very remote. I am aware that such facts do not very definitively fix the time of the beginning of the present order of things; because we cannot easily compare them with human chronology. But when we read in the Bible, that it is only a few thousand years since man was placed upon the earth, we cannot but feel that these natural changes are in perfect coincidence with the inspired record; although alone they teach us only that their commencement was not very remote. Had deltas been pushed across wide oceans, or morasses been all filled up, or mountains been all levelled, we should at once perceive a discrepancy between revelation and nature. Now both of them proclaim the comparatively recent beginning of the present order of things on the globe, in the face of the hoary chronologies of many nations. 7. Geology and revelation agree in representing the surface of our globe as swept over by a general deluge at a period not very remote. Many distinguished geologists maintain, that the Mosaic account is strongly confirmed by geology. Others merely say, that the globe exhibits evidence of many deluges in early times, but that no one of them can be identified with the Noachian deluge. All will agree, however, (except perhaps some violent infidels,) that geology affords in these marks of former deluges a presumptive evidence in favor of the one described by Moses. We have no space here to draw out this evidence in detail: but we hope to do it at a future time; so that our readers can judge for themselves to how much it amounts. But in this place we maintain only, that in respect to a general deluge, geology strictly accords with revelation. And considering the nature of such an event and its rare occurrence, this coincidence must be regarded as highly interesting. 8. Finally, geology furnishes similar confirmatory evidence as to the manner in which revelation declares the earth will at last be destroyed. Recent discoveries and reasonings have rendered it probable that the internal parts of the earth still contain an immense amount of heat, sufficient in the opinion of some to keep the interior in a melted state; and sufficient, whenever God shall permit it to break from its prison, "to melt the elements and burn up the earth, and the things therein." Geology also renders it probable, that the consequence of such a catastrophe would be the formation of "a new heavens and a new earth." But we have no time at present to give a more full developement of these ideas suggested by modern geology. : Now in respect to the coincidences between geology and revelation that have been pointed out, they are for the most part such as no human sagacity could have invented at the time the book of Genesis was written for it is only by the light of the nineteenth century that they have been disclosed. We ought, therefore, to bear in mind, when we examine any apparent discrepancies between geology and revelation, that there exist between them many unexpected coincidences. In other words, we ought not to forget that even from geology alone, we derive presumptive evidence in favor of the sacred historian. The evidence of disagreement, therefore, must be very clear and strong, to justify us in rejecting the Mosaic cosmogony as false. ARTICLE VII. CRITICAL NOTICES. 1.-Beke's Origines Biblicae.* A new work has recently made its appearance in England, entitled Origines Biblicae or Researches on Primeval History, by C. T. Beke. Its principal design seems to be, to shew that the later Jews, and after their example, the Christian world in general, have made some very important and even fundamental mistakes in respect to Scripture geography. Aram or Syria, the author maintains, originally meant only Coelo-Syria, i. e. Syria between the ridges of the Lebanon mountains; which, by a great mistake, has been extended to the country of Mesopotamia. In like manner he avers, that there is no evidence that the city of Babylon was built at or near the place where the tower of Babel stood; and, what is still much more extraordinary, that the ancient Mizraim or Egypt, where the Israelites were held in bondage, was not the country extending along the banks and in the valley of the Nile, but a country on the peninsula of Mount Sinai! The Israelites, of course, when they left Egypt, did not pass over an arm or outlet of the gulf of Suez, as is generally supposed, but over the extremity of the gulf of Acaba, the eastern fork of the bay of the Red Sea. How Mr. Beke could find the fruitful country, (which the Egypt that the Israelites dwelt in is so abundantly represented in Scripture to be), in the peninsula of Sinai; and especially, how he could find in that desert the river which is so often adverted to in the first part of the book of Exodus, will, it is very likely, be a problem to some readers of difficult solution. But such must be advertised, that there is no difficulty which Mr. Beke cannot easily surmount. Great changes by the advance of the land upon the water, by earthquakes, or by other causes, he suggests, may have obliterated all traces of the river; and neglect of cultivation, with the drifting of desert sands, has converted the once fruitful country into a desert. All this effort thus to transpose Egypt and place it in the desert, seems to have originated from the difficulties which Mr. * For this article, we are indebted to Prof. Stuart.-ED. B. met with, in finding a fulfilment of various prophecies in the Old Testament respecting the subversion of that country, and which he construes as meaning its total physical as well as civil subversion. The only cure for such hallucinations seems to be a more attentive critical and exegetical study of the prophecies contained in the Old Testament. The nature of figurative language and of prophetic style once being well understood, would liberate Mr. B., or any other reader, from the necessity of such theories, in order to sustain the authority of prediction. Nor can any effectual method of relief from such embarrassments be found, except in this way. Nothing can be more certain, than that the first requisite for an interpreter of the prophecies, is to become thoroughly acquainted with the style and manner of them. As to the geography of the Bible-one of the best internal evidences of the genuineness of this book, (independently of the moral nature of its contents), is the known and acknowledged fidelity of its writers in regard to localities. Just in proportion to our knowledge of ancient geography, and this too according to the general principles that have been followed, do we find that every thing, both as to countries and cities, is as it should be in the Scriptures. But suppose, for a moment, that Mr. Beke's theory respecting Egypt is true, then how could the Israelites pass over the gulf of Acaba, and direct their way eastward, and yet after a few days come to mount Sinai which lies on the peninsula west of Acaba? And if they turned back, when once passed over, and again travelled westward, why did they not come again in contact with the Egyptians, whose country they had just left? It is but a few years, since we had an attempt of a similar nature, to transfer the whole of the early localities in Scripture over to Hindoostan, or into China; and this was the more to be regretted, inasmuch as it ruined what might otherwise have been a good and useful edition of the sober and judicious Wells, whose sacred geography has long had a general currency in the English world. Pudet has nugas! When will visionaries cease to substitute the reveries of their own brain, for plain and well established facts? Never, it is to be feared, until it becomes as easy to study long enough and with sufficient effort to make one's self master of a subject, as it is to dress it up with mere conjectures and dreamy phantasies. These cost but little time, and do not require much talent; and besides, they are apt to make some noise because they are new, or attract perhaps some attention because they are ingenious. The unlucky wight that burned the temple of Diana, had some notion of a like nature in his head, about an easy method of procuring immortality of fame. The object of this notice is not a formal review, not even a brief one, of the principles of Mr. Beke's book. The reader who wishes to see such a review, may consult the London Quarterly, No. CIV. (Amer. edit. Vol. I. No. 2), where he will find a sober and fair-minded account of Mr. Beke's labours, and a pretty just estimate of their success. If the work reviewed were worth the trouble of more serious attention, even many more objections to its positions might easily be raised, than are there brought to view. But the game would not be worth the hunting.' Mr. Beke, it would seem, is one of those prudent and careful spirits, who is so afraid of the Rationalism of Germany, that he has very scrupulously refrained from even making himself acquainted with what it consists of. With great solemnity and earnestness he lets his readers know, that he has not even read or consulted one of all this γένος αλλοφύλων. We give him full credit as to the fact. His book presents the most convincing internal evidence that it is true. Not one of all the Philistines -although many of them are famous enough for visionary schemes and extravagant conjectures-not one has ventured on any thing like the extravagance of Mr. Beke himself. Their most visionary schemes here are sobriety itself, compared with the phantasies of the book which this timid and orthodox Englishman has gravely sent out into the world. On this point of Mr. Beke's prudential orthodoxy, we cannot refrain from quoting some very just and sober remarks from the London Quarterly, as mentioned above. "Now we may respect the prudent timidity with which Mr. Beke has scrupled to venture his faith in the inspiration of the Scriptures in such dangerous society-yet we cannot but think that he would have conducted his argument, if indeed he had written his book at all, much more to the satisfaction of well-informed and scholar-like readers, if he had enlarged the sphere of his reading in that quarter. We do not urge Milton's bold and characteristic argument, not merely for unlicensed printing, but for the indiscriminate reading of all works, whatever their tendency: 'I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where the immortal |