Some supposed that this fair world was occasionally, or periodically destroyed, and again renovated under a new aspect; and that a new creation of men and animals took place after every such renovation. The ancient Egyptians believed that this world was subject to occasional deluges and conflagrations, and that the gods by such awful judgments arrested the career of human wickedness, and purified the habitation of man from his own guilt. It was supposed that all the wicked were destroyed by such disasters, and that the few who escaped, were the wise, virtuous, and happy, but that their descendants gradually became wicked, and were in like manner swept away by the wrath of the gods.

Baron Humboldt states, that after the destruction of a large portion of the inhabitants of Cumana, in South America, by an earthquake, in 1766, an extraordinary fertility ensued, in consequence of the rain which had accom. panied the convulsion. On this occasion, says he, the Indians celebrated, in conformity to an ancient superstition, by festivals and dancing, the destruction of the world, and the approaching epoch of its renovation.

The Egyptian priests assigned certain periods of time for the destruction and renovation of the world. Accord ing to Pritchard, in his Egyptian Mythology, the cycles, or periods of these catastrophes, were variously estimated. Orpheus supposed their duration to be 120,000 years; Cassander, 300,000 years, &c. The Greek philosophers and stoics also, believed that the Earth was liable to be afflicted by periodical catastrophes, both by flood and fire. The first, they supposed, destroyed the whole human race, and annihilated all animal and vegetable productions, and that the second dissolved the Earth itself, but that this was afterwards renovated or re-produced.

The connection between the doctrine of successive catastrophes, and repeated deteriorations in the moral character of the human race, is more intimate and natural to the minds of men than might at first be imagined. For in a rude state of society, all great calamities are regarded by the people as the immediate judgments of God on the wickedness of man. Thus, says Mr. Lyell, in our own times, the priests persuaded a large part of the population of Chili, and perhaps believed themselves, that the great earthquake of 1822, which convulsed that country was

a sign of the wrath of heaven on them, for the great political revolution just then commencing in South America.

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We may observe from the accounts of travellers, and voyagers among barbarous tribes in the South Sea Islands, and in India, that earthquakes are almost universally considered among these people as judgments sent by a supreme, or superior being, on the wickedness of men. countries not subject to earthquakes, as among the Egyptians, there are still traditions, or forebodings of conflagrations, as we have already seen; and so far as is known, all nations and tribes, whether civilized or barbarous, are not without their notions, however vague, of a flood of water which destroyed at least most of the inhabitants of their own country. Were it not most probable that this idea has been handed down by tradition from the time of Noah, it would often appear as though it were an innate moral sentiment, designed by divine authority to impress all mankind with the fear of punitive justice.

This subject will come under consideration when we come to treat of the Deluge, and we will only remark further at present, that it is believed, neither the ancient philosophers, nor modern barbarians, ever entertained any idea of the final destruction of the Earth, this belief being derived exclusively from the sacred scriptures. We have seen that several ancient nations held to the doctrine of perpetual changes, consisting of the alternate destruction and renor tion of the Earth. A similar doctrine is said to have been taught by the Gerbanites, a sect of astronomers who flourished before the Christian era. They believed that after every period of 36,000 years, there were produced twenty-five pair of every species of animals, male and female; and that these multiply and spread over the face of this lower world. But that when a circulation of the heavenly orbs was completed, which is finished in the above named space of time, then other species of animals are created, together with new plants and other things, and so it goes on for ever and ever.— -Oriental History.

It is the light of revelation alone, to which we are indebted at the present day, for that knowledge and understanding which places us above a belief in the false doctrines of heathen philosophy. Civilization and experience never yet corrected the speculative philosophy, or the religious opinions of heathenism.

With respect to the knowledge which the ancients possessed of geology, nothing of importance can be said. The Greek naturalists, and the Arabian physicians and philosophers have recorded some few geological facts, and several Latin writers have noticed phenomena connected with earthquakes and volcanoes, especially the rising of islands out of the sea. But the geologist will search in vain, for any facts or speculations concerning the history of the Earth, worthy his notice, until the beginning of the 16th century; when some shells dug out of the Earth at Verona in Italy, became the subject of a controversy which may be considered as having laid the foundation of geolo gical knowledge.

These fossil, or petrified shells, were found in 1517, in consequence of some excavations which were made for the purpose of repairing some part of the city of Verona. Such remains, it is true, had long before been discovered in various places; but no persons of learning or judgment seem previously to have troubled themselves about such matters. The idea seems to have prevailed, that these were the products of what was then termed "plastic nature;" that is, that shells, and other organic remains, found in the solid earth, above the sea, were not the exuviæ of animals, but were formed in the rocks where they were discovered, and that they were nothing more than imitations of real shells and bones. This idea was probably suggested for the purpose of accounting for the appearance of shells in places where it was supposed impossible the sea should ever have been; the idea that the sea had changed its bed, or that the strata had been elevated by subterranean forces, being then entirely unknown. At present, such phenomena are readily accounted for on the hypothesis that many parts of the earth have been thrown up from the bottom of the sea by volcanic action.

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The shells at Verona furnished matter for much lation, and many writers gave their opinions concerning them, as well as of other fossils found in similar situations. Among these, one writer named Fracastoro, gave it as his settled conviction that these and other fossil shells, whereever they were found, had once belonged to living animals, and at the same time ridiculed the notion that the "plastic force" of nature ever formed them, or any other such like productions. He also maintained that these belonged to animals which grew and multiplied in the places

where they were found, and that the time of their growth was before Noah's flood. All this no doubt was true; but such new and strange doctrines raised against Fracastoro many bitter opponents. His clear and philosophical views were disregarded, his ideas concerning plastic nature comDatted, and the passions, as well as the arguments and learning of the times, were arrayed against him.

The questions discussed, were, first, whether fossil remains had ever belonged to living animals; and, second, if this be admitted, whether all the phenomena concerning them can be explained in consequence of the changes which took place by the waters of Noah's flood.

At this period, the idea prevailed in the christian world, that the earth had undergone no considerable changes, except those produced by the general deluge, and that, therefore, to attempt to shew that fossil remains had been elevated by any other catastrophe, would be opposing physical appearances against christian faith. The clergy, on this ground, entered warmly into this dispute, but at the same time, it appears that they allowed the subject to be canvassed with considerable freedom, though the arguments on both sides were often such as would have little effect on the mind of a geologist at the present day.

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The system of scholastic disputation" says Mr. Lyell, (speaking on this subject,) " encouraged in the universities of the middle ages, had unfortunately trained men to habits of indefinite argumentation, and they often preferred absurd and extravagant propositions, because greater skill and acuteness was required to maintain them; the end and object of such intellectual combats, being victory, and

not truth."

No theory, at that period, was so whimsical as not to find advocates, and as theories of the earth were chiefly founded in opinions and conceits, rather than on facts and observations, the greatest latitude was indulged in the dis. play of ingenuity and imagination in their support. Some of the inventions brought forward in the shape of arguments against the doctrine that shells once belonged to living animals, were indeed quite too ridiculous to have come from any source claiming to possess the power of reasoning. Thus one of the opposers of Fracastoro, by name Mattioli, profe sed to account satisfactorily for the facts in the case of the shells at Verona, and other such like appearances, by supposing that a certain materia pin

guis, or fatty matter, set into fermentation by the heat of the earth, gave form and substance to these objects. Another author, Fallopio, of Padua, Professor, &c., conceived that petrified shells, had been generated by fermentation, in the places where they were found, and that in some cases at least, they had acquired their forms by the “tumultuous movements of terrestrial exhalations." Fallopio was the renowned professor of anatomy at the celebrated school of Padua, and whose name, on account of his discoveries, is seen in every book of anatomy, to this day. Yet this learned man taught his pupils, from the chair of that famous university, that certain elephant's tusks which were dug up in some part of Italy, were nothing more than earthy concretions. And agreeably to the same doctrines, he intimated, that in his opinion, some ancient vases which were disinterred at Rome, were natural impressions, formed by the plastic force of nature, and that they were not the artificial works of man. To the same school of reasoners belonged Mercati, who published a book in 1574, containing some good figures of fossil shells, preserved in the Pope's museum at Rome. In explaining these subjects, the author has no doubt that the fossils there represented, are not real shells, but mere stones, which had assumed the appearances of shells, "through the influence of the heavenly bodies." Olivi, a contemporary author, after much reasoning on these subjects, satisfied himself that fossil shells, bones, and such like things, were nothing more than the "sports of nature."

In the midst of those who entertained such fanciful notions, which indeed were characteristic of the age, there was not wanting a few, who, like Fracastoro, saw their folly and ridiculous tendency, and who dared to assert the truth on the subject of fossils. Among these was Palissy, a Frenchman, who in 1580 undertook to show that shells and bones, found in rocks, were really animal remains, and that they had been deposited there by the universal deluge, &c.

Although similar doctrines, as we have seen, had before been advanced in Italy, it appears that in France they were entirely new, for Fontenelle, who pronounced an eulogy on Palissy before the French Academy, fifty years afterwards, says, that he was the first who " dared to assert in Paris, that the remains of testacea and fish, had once belonged to marine animals."-See Lyell, vol. 1, p. 26.