vation of their souls, and beneath which they are
boasting that they will bury the Bible beyond the possibility of a
resurrection, vanishes into a mere _unproved notion_, based upon an
_if_.

It is truly astonishing, that any sober-minded person should allow
himself to be shaken in his religious convictions by the alleged results
of a science so unformed and imperfect, as geologists themselves
acknowledge their favorite science to be. "The dry land upon our globe
occupies only _one-fourth_ of its whole superficies. All the rest is
sea. How much of this fourth part have geologists been able to examine?
and how small seems to be the area of stratification which they have
explored? We venture to say not one _fiftieth part of the whole_."[362]
"Abstract or speculative geology, were it a perfect science, would
present a history of the globe from its origin and formation, through
all the changes it has undergone, up to the present time; describing its
external appearance, its plants and animals at each successive period.
_As yet, geology is the mere aim to arrive at such knowledge_; and when
we consider how difficult it is to trace the history of a nation, even
over a few centuries, we can not be surprised at the small progress
geologists have made in tracing the history of the earth through the
lapse of ages. To ascertain the history of a nation possessed of written
records is comparatively easy; but when these are wanting, we must
examine the ruins of their cities and monuments, and judge of them as a
people from the size and structure of their buildings, and from the
remains of art found in them. This is often a perplexing, always an
arduous task; _much more so is it to decipher the earth's
history_."[363] "The canoes, for example, and stone hatchets found in
our peat bogs afford an insight into the rude arts and manners of the
earliest inhabitants of our island; the buried coin fixes the date of
some Roman emperor; the ancient encampments indicate the districts once
occupied by invading armies, and the former method of constructing
military defenses; the Egyptian mummies throw light on the art of
embalming, the rites of sepulture, or the average stature of ancient
Egypt. This class of memorials yields to no other in authenticity, but
it constitutes a small part only of the resources on which the historian
relies; whereas in geology it forms the only kind of evidence which is
at our command. For this reason _we must not ex