reasonably extend this opinion to the other rocks. Is it not universally acknowledged, that in every part of the world where man has hitherto penetrated, he has found the granite superimposed by the gneiss-the primitive limestones over it-the slates overlying the limestone-the transition limestones, and the coal measures, again overlying in their order the slates? Why is this. so? Is this accident? Is invariable succession mere chance? The more we look at this great matter, the more we look at the scheme of creation as a regular and successive one.

Our accumulated pages admonish us that we have not room to enter upon the details of American geology. We must then content ourselves with observing, that the rocks of the inferior and submedial order, with their appropriate minerals and organic companions, have all been found conforming to the order of the European series; that the very important division, the medial order, has been clearly made out, with the coal measures invariably lying over the carboniferous limestone; that we are not yet prepared to express ourselves unhesitatingly, upon the geological character of the red sandstones of New-Jersey, lying beneath the trap at the Passaic river, and the red argillaceous earths of New-Brunswick, in the same state, which partake so strongly the character of decomposed greenstones: that the salt brines of the state of New-York at Salina, at Kiskimenetas in the state of Pennsylvania, and in other quarters, are drawn from sandstones lying between the carboniferous and the transition limestones, and not from the new red sandstone formation, whence rock salt is derived in Cheshire, England. Rock salt has not yet been found with us; and it is hardly worth hazarding an opinion as to the origin of our salt brines at present, since the mineral waters of Ballston and Albany, in the state of New-York, which have from sixty to seventy of muriate of soda, are absolutely drawn from the slates of the submedial order. Of the supermedial order, little can be said. We have extensive and independent beds of clay, to which we cannot with proper confidence assign any place in the series, for they contain no fossils: but in the marles of New-Jersey we begin to find soundings, for here various specimens of saurian animals are found, with many testaceous fossils; in mineral deposites of a less equivocal nature, and very much resembling the broken down greensands, at the summit of Haldon hill, in Devonshire. We have not the least doubt, that we have a variety of the Mososaurus, or Maestricht animal: we cannot mistake the osteological characters, nor the mineral ones in which it is found. We have seen also, lately, in the possession of Isaac Lea, Esq. a head of a new saurian, extremely small, and which has been recently described in the Transactions of the American Philosophical SoVOL. VII.-No. 14.

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ciety, Vol. III., by Dr. Hays, as Saurodon leanus, under the new genus Saurodon, which he now proposes.

We have no chalk on this continent: we have no longer any expectation of finding it, and the probable non-existence of every bed of the supermedial order, north of 40° N. lat. awakens singular reflections in our mind, which interest us intensely, when we consider that there is no authentic account of the remains of any animal whatever, being found in any of the diluvial beds of this continent. Geologists must look to the south and south-west of this continent for the tertiaries,—we mean old tertiaries,—for the calcareous oolites of the Bahamas, Cayahueso, or Key West, as it is pronounced, and often written, are accruing at this day. We shall now say a few words on geological writers, particularly those whose works stand at the head of this article, and shall then conclude the subject, with some general reflections on fossil and recent natural history.

Dr. Ure's book is a well printed, handsome, thick octavo, with fine, clear, large letters, that any man may read without spectacles. We had a good opinion of it before we had read a line of it. We believe it is St. Augustine who says, that we can always tell "bona domus ipso vestibulo." As to geological information, we can conscientiously say, that it is a very excellent book, replete with information to uninitiated readers, and contains a great deal of valuable chemical and mineralogical reasoning, which does credit to Dr. Ure. We have been exceedingly pleased with it, and we must add, amused beyond measure by some of the worthy Doctor's speculations. His first fifty pages of introduction are upon very high matters, and evince, as the whole work does, no small talent for developing his own opinions, and appropriating those of others. His two motives for undertaking the work are, he says, "First, a desire to lay before the world a view of certain intrinsic sources of change in the constitution of the earth, which seem to have escaped the observation of philosophers, but which appear to me deducible from modern physical and geological discovery." We refer our readers with pleasure to the work itself, for his manner of treating this branch of the subject, and shall limit our observations to his second motive. "Second, a wish to lead popular students of philosophy, to the moral and religious uses of their knowledge."

Before we proceed, we would premise, that the religious education we have received, makes us shrink from the irreverent manner observed by many religious writers, when they venture to speak with such familiarity of final causes, in discussing physical phenomena. Geology, we are aware, has been brought into disrepute, by the wild speculations of writers not belonging to the religious class; but these men have not influenced geological knowledge, and are already forgotten. Geology has now become

a matter of fact business, and the eminent philosophers and naturalists, who lead the geological opinions of the day, are not more respected for the soundness of their conclusions, than for the tribute that is paid to them by all who know how to value moral excellence. We refer our readers again to Dr. Buckland's inaugural discourse, as a model, for the manner in which men should consider geology as connected with natural religion. What can be more irreverent than to suppose, that the feeble reasoning of man can add to, or illustrate in a necessary manner, the force of Divine revelation. We cannot approve, or admire in any degree, the conduct of those who counsel us to look up to the ineffable heights of revelation, by the aid of geology; or to borrow the light of revelation to investigate geological phenomena. Many may do it with good intentions, but we have never yet seen it done with any credit to themselves; and whilst we believe the purest faith may exist with those who are ignorant of geology, we would invite our fellow creatures to the physical revelation of God through his works. Dr. Ure, we think, has entirely gone out of his way in this matter. In an attempt to treat of the primitive forms of matter, in the first chapter, evidently suggested by his own chemical manipulations and experiments; amidst a host of "radiating and self-acting fluids, vibrations, undulations, frictions, percussions, calorifics, and colorifics," and Heaven knows what, he comes at length to a "calorific energy," which actuates the body of the earth; but instead of this leading him to the doctrine of central heat, as we supposed it would, it brings him to that verse in Genesis, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," which he applies to this immense fermentation; and borrowing a beautiful poetical expression of Milton,

"Dove-like, sat brooding on the vast abyss,
And made it pregnant”—

He, then, forgetful of all sound geology, adds, "In this sublime conception, thus finely paraphrased, may we not recognise the impregnation of the torpid sphere," &c. as though the planets were so many goose eggs, laid in eternal space, to be hatched by

-but, proh pudor! It is inconceivable, how men otherwise very sensible, and who plume themselves upon being religious par excellence, fall into such incongruity,-and then the zealous and meddling spirits, who are altogether ignorant of science, make geology responsible for all the nonsense of their more learned brethren.

But this is not Dr. Ure's only stravaganza. He has too much science to undervalue the labours and opinions of Cuvier; and, therefore, when treating of the harmonies of animal organization, at page 506, he says, "There is in organic beings a cor

relation of forms appropriate to each, whereby the individual can be determined from every one of its fragments. Each animal constitutes a whole, one systematic cycle, whose parts are in mutual correspondence, and concur to the same definite action, by a reciprocal reaction. None of the parts can change, without a symmetrical change in the others; and hence each taken by itself, indicates and gives all the rest." At page 507, he further says, "Hence, not only the class and order, but the genus, and even the species, are found to be expressed in the form of every part." And upon other occasions-relying upon Cuvier's opinions, that the difference of organization between recent animals and the antediluvian ones, decides that there is no common consanguinity and descent-our Doctor declares, ex cathedrâ, that no animals known to us, descended from the stock saved by Noah. As it has always been our opinion, that Cuvier has gone rather too far in this matter, and that his disciples are likely to go still farther, we take this occasion to state our disbelief both in the Doctor's premises and conclusions. Animals may be said to be in their most perfect state, when the mutual relation of the parts of their organization, are such as to enable them to perform the most various and perfect functions. There is an immense difference between man and the zoophytes, yet they have some things in common, either in visible organs, or in reproductive or conservative actions. It is this mutual relation which has been urged too far, and asserted by Cuvier as the necessary condition of the existence of animals. It is insisted, that hoofs indicate molar teeth with flat crowns, a capacious and multiplied stomach, &c. Now, such teeth are common both to the ox and the horse, and their stomachs are entirely dissimilar. Numerous other instances of want of harmony between the parts of animals might be adduced. We venture to think, we could put many bones into Dr. Ure's hand for inspection, and that he would be very much puzzled to decide, whether they belonged to the American hare or the English rabbit; and yet how much do they differ from each other! the flesh of the one is brownof the other white. The young levret comes into the world perfect, with a well furred skin, and able to run and provide for itself. The rabbit is born blind, naked and helpless. Every animal has a system of organs peculiar to itself, yet some of its organs may resemble the organs of other animals, whose habits are not common to it. Thus Cuvier's law of all herbivorous animals being hoofed, is not true of the hare, which has a digitated foot, like many carnivorous animals. It is upon this pretended mutual relation of parts the Doctor has relied, when he came to the conclusion, that all the races of antediluvian animals are extinct; and that all recent animals are of course the fruits either of a post-diluvian creation, or spontaneous generation.

Now how does the religious Dr. Ure contrive to accommodate these notions, which he has borrowed from Cuvier, to the revealed word of God? Thus. He says, at page 500, "The races preserved in the ark kept seed alive for the immediate use of Noah's family:" that is, they were merely put on board for sea stock, and to help the family along, until the new creations were big enough for the spit. Noah and his friends ate them all up, spiders and all. What is it the Bible says?—"To keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth." But in the face of this declaration, which is in harmony with the whole narration, and where a new creation or production of animals is never once alluded to, we have Dr. Ure, who declares the animals were not saved to replenish the earth, but to be eaten by Noah and his family, unclean animals and all. And this flagrant disrespect to revelation, is indulged in this flippant manner, because he has been captivated by a French theory. Yet Dr. Ure is a religious writer. Now, if taking liberties with the Bible be irreligion, we say unhesitatingly, that all the irreligion which has been introduced into geology, has been by religious writers, or men who are anxious to be distinguished as such.

We can give another instance of this in the writings of a man, who, if he has no pretensions to the character of a geologist, it is evident, has some to that of a scholar. Mr. Penn, in his "Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies," undertakes to show which of these is true and which is false, assuming, for his own purposes, what is by no means true, that a mineral system of geology has been got up, in opposition to the Mosaic account of the creation. Now, if even this were so, a writer, to determine in the conclusive manner Mr. Penn proposes to do, where the truth lay between the systems, should be not only an accomplished Hebraist, but a perfect master of all the geological phenomena. That he is not the first, we have abundant evidence in his work. Of geology, it proves him to be in the main ignorant. His geological knowledge has evidently been drawn from a few books. Mr. Penn supposes the earth to have been created perfect in six days; and because the mineral geology supposes a much longer period of time necessary to produce the geological phenomena, he has thought it necessary to write a religious book against it. We do wish, since these writers insist upon our taking things au pied de la lettre, that they would sometimes look into their Bibles, not upon those occasions alone when controversy makes it convenient, but for their own instruction and improvement.*

They do not appear to know, that the whole planetary creation is declared by the Bible to have been effected, before those six days, so much insisted upon, are mentioned. The very first verse of Genesis says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void."