LECT. IV. This testimony was just. Dr. Buckland had indeed put forth his zeal, his characteristic patience, and his never wearied exertions, in exploring the drift, or, as it was usually called, diluvium, of the British Isles: and after careful inductions from his own observations, he proceeded with the following passage, in reference to that mighty action of water to which such effects were attributed.

Dr. Buckland on

Deluge.

"An agent thus gigantic appears to have operated univereffects of the sally on the surface of our planet at the period of the deluge; the spaces then laid bare by the sweeping sway of the solid materials that had before filled them, are called Valleys of Denudation; and the effects we see produced by water in the minor cases I have just mentioned, by presenting us an example, within tangible limits, prepare us to comprehend the mighty and stupendous magnitude of those forces by which whole strata were swept away, and valleys laid open, and gorges excavated in the more solid portions of the substance of the earth, bearing the same proportion to the overwhelming ocean by which they were produced, that modern ravines on the sides of mountains bear to the torrents which, since the retreat of the deluge, have created and continue to enlarge them."*

* Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, p. 237.

LECTURE V.

2 PETER II. 5. God spared not the old world,—bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

In this sentence of the holy apostle, it is mani- LECT. V. festly declared, that the design of the deluge was to inflict a deserved punishment upon that generation of men, whose awful impiety had defied the power of the Most High, and scorned his mercy. This defining of the object warrants the conclusion, that whatever amount and extent of the diluvial waters would suffice to execute the sentence of excision, would also be adequate to fulfil the moral purpose of the Righteous Judge in ordaining this infliction. If the universality of the flood extended to the human race," the world of the ungodly," it is all that is requisite to satisfy the purpose of the visitation.

In the last lecture, we had set before us some account of the mistaken views which had been extensively entertained concerning the effects of the deluge, as supposed to have left their permanent impressions upon the surface of our globe and we listened to the opinions of some of the most illustrious naturalists and geologists

LECT. V. in favour of that hypothesis, under different modifications.

Additional knowledge acquired.

candour of

eminent geologists.

But the lapse of not more than ten years has brought a vast collection of observations to bear upon this interesting subject and I conceive it may, with the strictest truth, be said that the annals of science, or of literature, or of theology, do not present a nobler instance of fairness and Integrity and mental integrity, than was shewn by the most perfect geologists that our country, or any other, can boast, in yielding up a favourite and long cherished opinion, to which they had committed themselves in the most public manner, and for which they had been hailed with flattering applause; knowing also, by a very sure anticipation, that the concession to the power of evidence, the avowal of honest conviction, would expose them to the censures of some, who " understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm," though they speak and write with a confidence in the direct proportion of their incompetency to say or affirm upon good grounds.

The observations which, in their legitimate deductions, have produced this remarkable result, have been made by many persons, and those the best qualified, from their high attainments in all science, and the skill for making observations which long practice alone can give; they have been made in many countries, near and far distant; and they have been made with a circumspection, an exactitude, and an

DILUVIAL FORMATIONS.

125

anxious watchfulness against the causes of mis- LECT. V. take, which ought to command our admiration and gratitude.

of diluvial

tions.

Those laborious researches were chiefly di- Investigation rected to the drift of which we have been speak- accumulaing, and to which was commonly assigned the name of diluvium. This is found to spread widely over the surface in many countries, either visibly covering the ground, or barely concealed by the turf and cultivable soil. During the more early period of geological progress, this diversified mass was, implicitly, and rather hastily though the error was natural, regarded as of one formation; and thence it was an easy step of advance, in drawing the conclusion that a universal flood was the active and immediate cause of the whole, that this flood was among the most recent events affecting the exterior crust of the earth, and that it must have been identical with the great deluge of universal tradition and of sacred history. But the need was felt of closer examination, minutely distinguishing, and carefully classifying. The constitution, mineralogical or lithological (for we cannot altogether avoid using the technical terms,) of the small grains of sand, the pebbles, the bowlders, and the masses of all sizes, which compose the so-called diluvium, was scrutinized, and compared with the character of rocks at every point on the lines of distance, till the parent rocks were demonstrated from which the fragments had been broken or rubbed off. The

LECT. V. mineralogical constitution thus traced up to a commencing point, gave a sure indication of the extent of each kind of drift; and a measure of the varying water-power, by which the detached bodies of stony matter had been moved onwards. Hence were perceived the different degrees of force and velocity which characterised the streams as they flowed; the earlier or later dropping of the mud, sand, pebbles, and larger pieces, on their course; the greater or less rolling at the bottom before a resting-place was obtained; the extent of the deposit in breadth, and where it terminated by the moving power being exhausted, or being checked by some obstacle; and the deductions which could be drawn, as to the time requisite, under different degrees of water-power, for wearing the rough and sharp fragments of rocks of various hardness and tenacity, till they could be brought into rounded forms with smooth surfaces.

The difficul

ties great, yet

To any mind not practised in such inquiries, in a good it is not easy to conceive what a wide field this was for investigation and it could not be occu

measure sur

mounted.

pied by studies only in the closet: it required painful and patient toil in flood and field, over wide plains, in river-beds, on the sea-coasts, in the windings of large and small valleys, and up the mountain-sides; and all this to be effected over many miles of surface, and in different and distant regions of the earth. No one person could be competent to more than a limited share