All this was (as we have said) thrown out merely as a mechanical hypothesis: it does not (as has been sometimes represented) account for the creation of the solar system ; but merely shows how, on mechanical suppositions, we may explain its possible formation, in conformity with more general pre-existent laws. So far then as the evidence of creation is concerned, it amounts to this, that the same evidence which we have of infinite power and wisdom in the actual adjustment of the existing system, by certain fixed laws of inimitable unity and simplicity, is by probability carried a step further back into past time ; and the sufficiency of the same unvarying principles not only to the preservation but to the original arrangement of the system, may yet more widely extend and enlarge our notions of the same sublime inferences, which the contemplation of the system, in its existing relations, is so transcendently calculated to teach. While speaking of astronomical evidence we most not omit to notice an idea, which often prevails, of some connection between astronomical epochs and events on our globe ; or, at least, a disposition to attach importance to coincidences of this kind. Thus some have dwelt upon the circumstance that by calculation of the motion of apsides of the earth's orbit, La Place found that the major axis of the orbit coin cided with the line of the equinoxes in the year 4004 B.C. [Diet. Cel. iii. Ira], which, according to Archbishop Usher's system, is the date assigned to the Mosaic creation. But it is difficult to see any physical reason why the globe should be more likely to be brought into its present state, or man placed upon it, under that particular combination of circum stances rather than any other.
There is, however, another branch of science from which information of a more positive kind may be extracted. In referring to the evidence which GEOLOGY may give on the subject of the origin of the world, we must premise, 1st. That the object of this science is not that of attempting any such discovery : the testimony which it may afford is but incidental. ad. The science itself is but of very modern origin, and its researches have as yet been carried but a little way, compared with what we must reasonably expect they will be : yet to that small extent its foundations have been laid in absolutely determined facts, and general results, which are real, settled, inductive truths, which no subsequent investigations can overthrow ; which, in fact, can only be called in question on grounds which, if true, must overthrow not only geology, but all inductive science whatever, that is the whole extent of human knowledge, and render our reasoning faculties useless, and all philosophy a mere illusion. ad. The evidence to which alone we can look on such a question as the present must be restricted to those portions of the subject which are of this strictly inductive character, and we must not mix up with them those conjectural hypo theses (however just and valuable for their proper purposes) in which geologists of all schools occasionally indulge.
In very briefly stating the general results of this evidence, which, little as it is, is yet undeniably certain, we shall, of course, not attempt anything like geological discussion, or elementary explanation ; we shall presume that the reader is either moderately acquainted with the elements of the science, or at least can have recourse to the works of the most eminent geologists, in which he will find ample proof of the assertions we bring forward, which in our narrow limits, of course, pretend to be no more than a recapitulation or summary of the evidence. For our facts then we simply refer the reader to Mr. Lyell's Principles of Geology, 4 vols. ; {cis Elements of Geology,' vol. ; Professor Phillips' Treatise on Geology (extracted from the Encyclopedia Brttannica); Sir H. de Is Beche's Geological Manual; Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise; and, for more general discussion, to Dr. J. Pye Smith's work before named, and to Professor Powell's Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth.
The pursuit of geological inquiry discloses the evidence and monuments of successive changes which have occurred in the state of the earth's surface (including under that term the solid portion extending to some depth below). In the attempt to trace these to their causes, sound induction recognises the one grand principle of referring to those which are both 'true' and 'sufficient' to explain the pheno mena. We cannot find true causes except such us are really proved to exist, and are found by experience to be in opera tion. The action of the waters on the land (whether the continual action of the rivers and the ocean, or the occasional force of inundations and torrents), the subterranean force of ' earthquakes, and the external operations of volcanoes ; the contractions and expansions which must accompany changes in the temperature of any considerable thickness of the earth's crust the fractures, flexures, and varieties of form which must arise from subterranean upheaving forces ;—these and the like are the real causes to which alone the sound geologist refers.
The accumulation of soil at the bottom of the waters, the imbedding of animal and vegetable remains in those deposi tions, the elevations of portions of the land out of the sea, are operations really and continually going on. When therefore we find fossil remains of organised beings imbedded in rocks, bearing also marks of a similar mode of deposition, we refer to such operations as those just mentioned as true causes to explain the phenomena ; and numerous series and succes sions of such depositions, containing the remains of species now extinct, and successively, in the order of deposition, containing fewer of recent and more of extinct kinds, even to whole general classes and orders of being, call for the like reference to the continued action of similar causes through periods of countless duration.