[2] As Cuvier, Buckland, and many others. On the question whether the phenomena of Geology can be comprised within the short period formerly assigned to them, the Rev. Samuel Charles Wilts long ago observed: "Buckland, Sedgwick, Faber, Chalmers, Conybeare, and many other Christian geologists, strove long with themselves to believe that they could: and they did not give up the hope, or seek for a new interpretation of the sacred text, till they considered themselves driven from their position by such facts as we have stated. If, _even now, a reasonable, or we might say_ POSSIBLE _solution were offered, they would_, we feel persuaded, _gladly revert_ to their original opinion."--_Christian Observer_, August, 1834. [3] Reflections on Geology. [4] Geology and Geologists. [5] New System of Geology. [6] Mineral and Mosaic Geologies, p. 430. [7] Geology of Scripture. [8] Scriptural Geology, _passim._ [9] Letter to Buckland, 15, _et seq._ [10] Origen, Augustine, &c. [11] Testimony of the Rocks, p. 144 [12] Discourse (5th Ed.), 115. [13] Sac. Hist. of World. [14] Rec. of Creation. [15] Nat. Theology. [16] Pre-Adamite Earth. [17] Harmony of Scripture and Geology. [18] Christian Observer, 1834. [19] Religion of Geology, Lect. ii. [20] Scripture and Geology. [21] I am not _replying_ to any of these conflicting opinions; else, with respect to this one, I might consider it sufficient to adduce the _ipsissima verba_ of the inspired text. Not a word is said of Adam's being "nine hundred and thirty years _old_;" the plain statement is as follows:--"And _all the days that Adam lived_ were nine hundred and thirty years." (Gen. v. 5.) [22] "Protoplast," pp. 58, 59; p. 325; 2d. Ed. [23] Unity of Worlds (1856), pp. 488, 493. [24] "A geological truth must command our assent as powerfully as that of the existence of our own minds, or of the Deity himself; and any revelation which stands opposed to such truths _must be false_. The geologist has therefore _nothing to do with revealed religion_ in his scientific inquiries."--_Edinb. Review_, xv. 16. [25] Ansted's Ancient World, 18. [26] Ansted's Ancient World, 30. [27] Scripture and Geology, 371. (Ed. 1855.) [28] "It is by no means unlikely that some beds of coal were derived from the mass of vegetable matter present at one time on the surface, and submerged suddenly. It is only necessary to refer to the accounts of vegetation in some of the extremely moist, warm islands in the southern hemisphere, where the ground is occasionally covered with eight or ten feet of decaying vegetable matter at one time, to be satisfied that this is at least possible." [29] Ansted's Anc. World, 75. [30] M'Culloch's System of Geology, i. 506. [31] Origin of Coal. [32] Testimony of the Rocks, p. 78. [33] Mr. Newman suggests that they were "marsupial bats" (Zoologist, p. 129). I have adopted his attitudes, but have not ventured to give them mammalian ears.