work, the Testimony of the Rocks, has shown how all the phenomena of the deluge may have been produced by the gradual submergence and raising again of the country comprised within a radius of a few hundred miles around the dwelling-place of Noah, so as to include the then habitable portion of the globe. This phenomenon of the change of level of large portions of the earth's surface, by depression or elevation, is not unknown to geologists; though the periods in which these vast oscillations occur are of immeasurably longer duration than that of the Deluge. He shows that the descent during the first forty days may, nevertheless, have been so gradual as to have been imperceptible, except from the effects, the pouring in of the mighty waters from the neighbouring seas into the growing hollow, and the disappearance of the mountain tops. And when, after a hundred and fifty days had come and gone, and the depressed hollow began slowly to rise, the boundless sea around the ark would flow outwards again towards the distant ocean, and Noah would see that the fountains of the deep were stopped, and the waters returning from off the earth continually.

This process, miraculous though it be in thus calling into sudden action secondary agents, meets the difficulties of the case in a way which no other known hypothesis will. It supplies and disposes of the mighty mass of water required for the catastrophe. It also limits the number of animals which Noah would

have to accommodate in the ark within reasonable bounds. Mr. Miller mentions an interesting calculation which Sir Walter Raleigh made in his days, to show that Noah's ark was capable of holding all the then known animals of the world, with provisions for all the time during which the earth was submerged. The calculation of this great voyager is justly considered to have been sober and judicious. But our growing acquaintance with the animal kingdom has converted his trustworthy result from being an argument for a universal, to that for a partial deluge. The eightynine known animals of his time would now embrace but a single region. There are no fewer than one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight different species of mammals at present known! To this extraordinary increase in our knowledge may be added the six thousand two hundred and sixty-six birds of Lesson, and the six hundred and fifty-seven reptiles of Charles Bonaparte, or, subtracting the sea-snakes and turtles as fitted to live outside the ark, his six hundred and forty-two reptiles,* for all of which there could not possibly have been room in the ark.

The question has been asked, Why were birds taken into the ark, if the deluge were only partial ? But this objection is based upon an error in natural science, into which even naturalists of the last century, such as Buffon, not unfrequently fell: viz. that of assigning to species wide areas in creation which in

*Testimony of the Rocks, p. 323.

reality they do not occupy. A better acquaintance. with the habits of many of the non-migratory birds will convince such an objector, that even in a local deluge, of the extent which we suppose the Flood may have attained, many species would have become extinct but for their preservation in the ark, as the surrounding regions could not have supplied them.*

But is not this notion of a partial deluge contrary to the express language of Scripture? No doubt the words of Scripture, were there no facts like those I have mentioned to direct our interpretation, would be understood as relating to a universal flood of waters over the whole extent of the globe: there would be no cause for questioning this, and therefore no ground of doubt. But when the new facts become known, as they are at present, then the question is started, Does the Scripture language present any insuperable difficulty to this more limited interpretation? That it does not, may be inferred from the fact, that two of our celebrated commentators on Scripture, Matthew Pool and Bishop Stillingfleet, both in the seventeenth century, long before the discoveries of natural science required it, advocated this view. The strongest expression in the whole account is this, All the high hills, that were UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, were covered. But that, if other circumstances require it, this may appertain solely to the region affected and not to the whole globe, is * Testimony of the Rocks, p. 292.

apparent from the use of a similar expression by the same inspired writer in another place, in which it is evident, that he cannot have intended the whole globe, but only Palestine and the countries in the immediate neighbourhood: This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee (Deut. ii. 25).

I proceed now to the Third Class of Examples.

3.-Instances in which Science has been delivered from the false conclusions of some of its votaries, and thereby shown to be in entire agreement with Scripture.

1. From the great diversities which exist among the tribes of men which at present inhabit the earth it has been boldly inferred by some writers,

All men

of one blood.

that it is impossible that they can all have descended from common parents. The statements of Scripture, that Eve was the mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20); that after the deluge the earth was peopled by the descendants of one man Noah (Gen. x. 32); and the declaration of St. Paul (Acts xvii. 26) that God hath MADE OF ONE BLOOD all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, are all equally set aside as irreconcilable with the facts of nature. Thus the works and word of God.

have been driven once more into conflict, and upon entirely new ground. But this apparent contradiction between nature and revelation has been altogether reconciled, and the argument thrown back upon the sceptic to his complete refutation by the researches of the late Dr. Prichard. His facts and arguments have been collected in his invaluable work on the Natural History of Man. He takes no guide but the phenomena which the various tribes present, and which well-authenticated history furnishes. And he comes to the conclusion, that there are no permanent lines of demarcation separating the several tribes or nations; that all the diversities which exist are variable, and pass into each other by insensible gradations; that there is scarcely an instance in which the actual transition cannot be proved to have taken place; and that there is everything to lead us to infer, quite irrespectively of Scripture testimony, that all the families of the earth are descended from common parents, and that at no very distant epoch. So triumphantly is the Scripture account verified by an impartial and independent appeal to facts.*

* "The Sacred Scriptures, whose testimony is received by all men of unclouded minds with implicit and reverential assent, declare that it pleased the Almighty Creator to make of one blood all the nations of the earth, and that all mankind are the offspring of common parents. But there are writers in the present

day, who maintain that this assertion does not comprehend the uncivilized inhabitants of remote regions; and that Negroes, Hottentots, Esquimaux, and Australians, are not, in fact, men in the full sense of that term, or beings endowed with like mental faculties with ourselves. Some of these writers contend, that the

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