DR. BUCKLAND'S BRIDGEWATER TREATISE.

Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology. BY WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D. &c. 2 vols. 8vo.

THE BRIDGEWATER TREATISES may be regarded as marking an epoch in our literature: the agreeable and attractive manner in which the most exalted subject which can occupy the mind of man-the knowledge of the Creator and his attributes-has been inculcated in these works, having been productive of as much pleasure combined with instruction as perhaps any equal number of volumes ever published. If, therefore, Dr. Buckland's work had only constituted the concluding one of the series it would have excited great interest, but other circumstances have concurred to attach peculiar importance to his contribution, and these circumstances must be borne, in mind to enable us to appreciate the difficulties which the author had to contend with, and the degree of success with which he may be considered to have overcome them.

The publication of the Reliquiæ Diluvianæ* has caused Dr. Buckland to be looked upon as the champion of that party which views with jealousy and suspicion those discoveries made by geologists as to the past history of our globe, which appear at variance with the Mosaic account of the Creation. Most of our readers may recollect the triumph with which that work was received as a refutation of these deductions. Scientific men, who had simply, in good faith, promulgated the results of their investigations had been accused of infidelity, and, in the blind zeal to expose them, the charity which ought to have attributed their supposed errors to defective judgment, rather than to sinister intentions, and the common sense which should have suggested that it was another, and equally authentic revelation of Divine powert, which they were attempting to interpret, were alike forgotten.

We fear it was as much this party feeling as Dr. Buckland's acknowledged qualifications for the task, that caused him to be selected to write the treatise on Geology for the Bridgewater series; and the result of his labours was, naturally, expected with anxiety by two classes of readers. The religious alarmists hoped that they would produce an explanation of the facts recently ascertained as to the early state of our planet, which would be in accordance with their views; for the scrupulous adherence to the purest spirit of inductive philosophy, which has characterized the prosecution of this branch of science, during the last twenty years, has given an authority to the deductions promulgated by its cultivators, that cannot be shaken by mere declamatory arguments.

On the other hand, those who had received these deductions as physical truths, without reference to their bearings on a subject with which they had properly no connexion, were curious to ascertain how far Dr. Buckland would feel himself obliged to modify his opinions, in consequence of the facts brought to light since the publication of his

* Reliquiæ Diluviana, or Observations on the Organic Remains contained in Caves, Fissures, and Diluvial Gravel: and on other Geological Phenomena, attesting the VOL. II.

Z

Action of an Universal Deluge. —4to., 1823.

+ The "book of God's works" as Lord Bacon styles Nature. 11

former work. They knew that even in the Reliquiæ Diluviana, though the truth had been told, it was not the whole truth; enough had been stated to furnish arguments to those who, unable or unwilling to examine for themselves, were desirous of decrying opinions repugnant to their feelings, but the suppressed evidence was as fatal to these arguments as that brought forward appeared favourable to them, and the time was now arrived, when that evidence was too generally known and admitted by competent judges, not to be openly allowed by all*.

It will be, therefore, acknowledged that Dr. Buckland had a difficult and a delicate task to execute in his present work. His character as a scientific man required from him a full exposition of those geological facts which had been authenticated, and of the conclusions which followed from them, whether they were in accordance or not, with the doctrines he had previously advocated; while the unfortunate association between the truths of a physical science and those of a moral revelation, which he had so essentially assisted in establishing, compelled him again to enter into a discussion, alike injurious to true religion and to sound knowledge. Having considered the subject in its theological bearing in another place, we shall no further allude to this discussion than to point out how Dr. Buckland in his present work has erred, in our opinion, by again mixing up two

We must refer, generally, on this subject, to the article on Geology in our last number; nevertheless we will here briefly recapitulate the evidence by which the assertion in the text is supported.

Dr. Buckland's object, in his former work, was to show, "that the general dispersion of gravel and loam over hills and elevated plains as well as valleys, was the effect of an universal and transient deluge;" that the general form of valleys, their mutual connexion and ramifications, could only be accounted for on this supposition; that the evidence derived from the races of animals destroyed at the period, and the tradition throughout all nations of such a cataclysm, were collateral proofs of it; and that the event had occurred about 6000 years ago. Therefore these effects were the result of the Noachian deluge.

"In the full confidence that these difficulties will at length be removed, by the further extension of physical observations, we may for the present rest satisfied with the argument that numberless phenomena have been already ascertained, which, without the admission of an universal deluge, it seems not easy, nay, utterly impossible to explain." (Reliq. Dil.) "And by affording the strongest evidence of an universal deluge leads us to hope that it will no longer be asserted, as it has been by high authority, that geology supplies no proofs of an event, in the reality of which the truth of the Mosaic records is so materially involved." (Dedication to the Bishop of Durham.)

Our readers are aware that Dr. Buck

land has acknowledged that subsequent discoveries have invalidated the justness of his conclusions deduced from organic remains, but he has not, that we know of, exposed the other weak points in his arguments, which it did not require any additional facts to make evident.

Though there was physical evidence of the violent effects of water over the whole known surface of the earth, as far as it had been examined, yet there was, not only, none that it had acted simultaneously, even at any two adjoining localities, but the very circumstance that the traces were those of violent currents, excavating valleys, depositing gravel, boulders, &c., on hill-sides and tops, was a direct proof that the water had not acted universally and simultaneously. If we suppose a mountain lake to burst its barrier, or a subterranean movement to elevate a large extent of the bed of the ocean, the hydraulic action of the water so displaced might produce such effects as those mentioned. But no laws with which we are acquainted could cause currents, adequate to that purpose, in an ocean gradually elevated above the summits of the highest mountains; and Dr. Buckland must have been aware that, except by the immediate will of a Divine Power, suspending at his pleasure the otherwise immutable laws of nature, no universal deluge ever could have occurred on the earth. The attempt, therefore, to establish the truth of a miracle by human reasoning was in this, as in every other case, as unphilosophical as it was fruitless.

such incongruous matters. The object of the Bridgewater treatises, according to their founder's intention, was to illustrate the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, manifested in the creation; in short, both according to the words, as well as the spirit of the bequest, they were intended to form a body of Natural Theology, in which the arguments adduced by Paley and others should be elaborated, extended, and corrected, according to the improved state of our knowledge of the material universe. It was by strictly adhering to this plan, and by sedulously avoiding reference to Revelation, that Dr. Buckland's colleagues, with a single exception, succeeded in producing a series of works equally instructive and beneficial; this path was open to that gentleman, and the example of Mr. Kirby should have warned him of the mischief that must accrue from deviating from it; but the author of the Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, fettered by the load of his previous reputation, appears to have been unwilling entirely to surrender a position by the defence of which it was acquired; and has consequently missed the opportunity of establishing a more permanent and more desirable celebrity, by becoming the author of a work which should be equally characterized by sound knowledge, philosophical reasoning, and by its freedom from polemical disquisitions.

Ever since the futility of all attempts to construct a theory of the earth," in the present state of our knowledge, was distinctly recognised, it has been the proud boast of the cultivators of geology that they sedulously avoided all speculative hypotheses, and confined themselves to the accumulation of facts; it is the strict adherence, by the leading geologists of our times, to this precept, that has raised the science to its present pre-eminence, and has made the study of it attractive to well-disciplined minds.

The first prominent defect that strikes us in the outset in Dr. Buckland's book, is occasioned by the disregard of this rule; having commenced with a disquisition on the verbal interpretation of the Mosaic cosmogony, and having endeavoured to prove that there is no discrepancy between that record of creation and the results of our observations on the successive conditions of the earth, Dr. Buckland could hardly avoid entering into an account of the first emergence of the globe from a chaotic state, and by so doing, he has, in some measure, blighted the ripening fruits of the more philosophical mode of proceeding, of his cotemporaries.

But failure accompanies this as well as every other attempt to substantiate revealed truth by the collateral aid of finite intelligence. Dr. Buckland's cosmogomy has not the slightest connexion with that of Moses, and is obscure and unintelligible; although the deductions of physical astronomy render it highly probable, that our globe may have, at one time, been in a semi-fluid state, yet no knowledge we at present possess can enable us to frame, with anything approaching consistency, an account of its transition from a level, uniform, spheroidal surface, acquired by rotation, to its present irregularity, both in density and level. This subject has been touched on by a cotemporary geologist of the first rank, and we gladly avail ourselves of his words.

"It is difficult for a speculator to believe, that Geology may become a very important branch of natural science, though it should wholly dis

claim the investigation of problems concerning the creation or concentration of the matter of the globe, or the establishment of the laws of the universe. To know the successive changes which the globe has undergone, and thus to trace a retrospective outline of its successive conditions, is actually attempted by geology; but the very processes employed in this enterprise are founded on the recognition of the existing laws of nature, and altogether exclude the popular notion of a chaos, and the philosophical hypotheses of a solid globe, condensing from an atmospheric expansion."

"Undoubtedly the progress of legitimate geology teaches us that the same laws of nature have operated on this globe under very different circumstances, as to temperature, relation of land and sea, animal and vegetable life, and many other things, and it is become a proper problem for geology to discover these circumstances. In this point of view, the reflections of Leibnitz and the mathematical labours of La Place and the astronomers, become of great value, since they help to fix conspicuous landmarks for the guidance of the surveyors in this large field of science; but let no one delude himself with the notion of discovering by geological processes the emergence of the harmoniously-adjusted terraqueous globe from a former state of chaos. It is certainly not a philosophical, and surely cannot be thought a religious notion, that man shall ever discover, among the works of God, the traces of a period when his divine attributes were first awakened to rescue his creation from anarchy. Geology takes for granted the existence and collection of the matter of the globe, with its supernatant ocean and its enveloping atmosphere. Except in the degree of influence which circumstances permit them to exert, it takes for granted the uniformity of action of all material causes. The investigation of miracles never can be admitted into natural science." (Professor Phillips, Art. Geology, Encyclop. Metropol.)

Accordingly we regard Dr. Buckland's account of the original state of the globe, and of the solidification of its surface by radiation, oxidation, &c., brief and general as it is, as positively mischievous in an elementary work, intended for instruction to persons not conversant with philosophical reasoning, because it tends to give them erroneous notions as to the proper objects and limits of the science.

Dr. Buckland has obviously aimed at making his work popularly attractive, but he has done so at the expense of making it beneficial. No one totally ignorant of geology could acquire any connected outline of information on the subject, from his volumes alone. We think he judged rightly, in omitting purely mineralogical details, and in referring his readers to other works for that information; but, by altogether passing over the investigation of the modes in which existing agencies are ceaselessly engaged in removing and renewing the inequalities of the earth's surface, in transporting to the ocean, by means of running water, the materials for new strata, analogous in their characters to those which now constitute the stratified crust of the globe, and by avoiding discussion on the probable action of subterranean forces in modifying these and former deposits, he has voluntarily renounced a fertile source of interest and instruction, no wise inferior to that which he has explored. It is true, that accounts of the discoveries of pre-existing organized beings, differing

in form from those now inhabiting the globe, and of the series of inductions by which anatomists are enabled to read the history of an extinct species in a small portion of its relics, may appear more captivating than dry details of mere chemical and mechanical actions ceaselessly modifying the surface of our planet. But the two classes of phenomena are too intimately connected with its history, to allow of the one being correctly treated independently of the other; and an author of Dr. Buckland's rank and authority should rather have directed his readers in the right path to knowledge, than have humoured an idle taste for what was especially amusing. The existence of this taste being strongest in least cultivated minds, it becomes the imperative duty of a teacher to control it by strict mental discipline; unfortunately the necessity for making the acquisition of knowledge pleasing, induces a constant violation of this rule; and popular works on scientific subjects are too often calculated to convey erroneous notions on the precise limits between what is really ascertained as fact, and what is the result of speculative induction. Works on geology are peculiarly liable to this defect, from the nature and variety of the subjects they treat of; and yet no science has really less need for such extrinsic aid; the number and singularity of the facts which it develops are quite sufficient to invite a study of them by any one capable of appreciating the beauty of an extensive and connected chain of evidence, diligently accumulated and cautiously examined.

If it be alleged that the primary purport of the publication was to teach natural theology, and not the history of the earth, and therefore, that portion of the latter was most dwelt on which furnished the greatest number of arguments bearing on the principal object*,—we reply, that the value of any argument adduced from a physical science must depend on the reader's conviction of the authenticity of the facts on which it is based, and of the soundness and consecutiveness of the deductions made from them; to enable a reader, consequently, to judge for himself, he ought to have a complete general outline at least of the science laid before him; this plan having been successfully adopted by Messrs. Whewell, Kidd, Drs. Roget and Prout, Dr. Buckland might have followed such examples without derogation, and with more probability of making his work efficient. This mode of proceeding is the more necessary in the present case, because most persons are capable of following the train of reasoning by which the principal conclusions in geology are arrived at, supposing the facts to be authentic, and these the general reader must take on the authority of his author, whatever the subject may be he is studying.

Nor are the evidences of design and adaptation in the details of the organic creation, more convincing proofs of the existence of an eternal, intelligent, and omnipotent First Cause, than is the constancy of the laws by which inorganic matter is governed. The deductions of geology, as we have seen, are based on the assumption of this constancy, and astronomy has established the fact regarding the all-pervading laws of

* When a variety of examples only concur to the establishment of the accuracy of one line of argument, it is sufficient to develop that argument once, in all its generality, and to leave the individual instances of its application to speak for them

selves. Dr. Buckland has repeated the conclusion, that design is to be inferred from the evidence of adaptation to an end, so frequently, and so nearly in the same terms, as to be irksome, if not positively ludicrous.