PREFACE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
Summary
Although the Mosaic account of the creation of the world is an inspired writing, and consequently rests on evidence totally independent of human observation and experience, still it is interesting, and in many respects important, to know that it coincides with the various phenomena observable in the mineral kingdom. The structure of the earth, and the mode of distribution of extraneous fossils or petrifactions, are so many direct evidences of the truth of the scripture account of the formation of the earth; and they might be used as proofs of its author having been inspired, because the mineralogical facts discovered by modern naturalists were unknown to the sacred historian. Even the periods of time, the six days of the Mosaic description, are not inconsistent with our theories of the earth. There are, indeed, many physical considerations which render it probable that the motions of the earth may have been slower during the time of its formation than after it was formed, and consequently that the day, or period between morning and evening, may have then been indefinitely longer than it is at present. If such a hypothesis is at all admissible, it will go far in supporting the opinion which has long been maintained on this subject by many of the ablest and most learned scripture critics.
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- Essay on the Theory of the Earth , pp. v - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1815