adhere to the Mosaic account of the Creation, he believes every species of animal and vegetable, the fossil as well as the recent, to have been created during the four last days of the Mosaic creation : that during the 1656 years which intervened to the deluge, the whole of the secondary strata were deposited, and that the diversity of the fossil species found in various formations is owing to their being diffused, gradually and at different periods, from the point at which each species was first created. The tertiary strata he refers to the action of the deluge, affirming them (p. 464) "to have been formed from the fracture, the ruins, the disintegration, and decom→ position of those which had preceded them." This last assertion is very far from the truth. The upper surface of the chalk does indeed exhibit signs of violent destructive action, but this was succeeded by a long period of repose, in which the beds of plastic and London clay were deposited, conformable to the chalk and to each other, and containing the most delicate shells in the most perfect state of preservation. In the Isle of Wight basin a local disruption took place between the London clay and the lower freshwater beds, but in the Paris basin the whole tertiary series from the chalk to the upper freshwater is perfectly conformable, and is evidently the peaceful deposit of a long succession of years. The fact is that it is only the deposits termed "diluvial beds" which can, with any sort of probability be referred to the Mosaic deluge, and they exhibit phenomena so nearly accordant with what the effects of such a deluge would be, that few geologists hesitate so to refer them. The tertiary formations then must be referred to a similar origin with the secondary, whatever that origin may be.

We shall now attempt to shew that the secondary and tertiary strata could not have been deposited in the interval from Adam to Noah, and shall subjoin a few remarks shewing how the phenomena of geology may yet be reconciled with the Mosaic account.

Mr. Turner supposes that in this antediluvian period the different races of animals and plants were gradually extending themselves into new regions. This may, indeed, account for the appearance of new species in the more recent strata, but it does not explain the extinction of the old ones. The creation of fresh species seems ever to have gone hand in hand with the extermination of previous ones, and in examining a collection of fossils in the order of the strata, we are ever losing our old acquaintances and forming new ones at each step.

A gradual modification of the genera of fossils is also perceptible: the most ancient strata contain fossils totally unlike any known animals of the present day, and the fossil remains gradually become more modernized in character, till, in the newest of the tertiary strata, we find species identical with those now living. All this shows a repeated renewal of the creative power rather than a single exertion of it.

Mr. Turner would suppose the antediluvian period in which, according to him, the secondary strata were deposited, to have been one of physical repose and tranquillity. Yet these strata exhibit a

frequent interruption of that repose.

At several different periods

violent commotions and disruptions have taken place. The Old and the New Red Sandstone contain conglomerates of rolled pebbles of various rocks, and the upper surface of the Chalk has been jected to a violent action. Other circumstances, too, denote anything rather than an uniform course of nature throughout the secondary series. We find a race of land plants springing up repeatedly between the deposition of the oldest and the most recent strata, flourishing for a time, but soon making way for the marine deposits of which the greater part of the strata consist. Nor have these marine deposits been uniform and unchanging in their nature. We find that the sea has at various times deposited on the same spot every possible variety of sand, gravel, clay, chalk, oolite, and marble, at one time stocked to repletion with animal life, at other times destitute of every vestige of it. These facts appear to be quite irreconcileable with the appearances which would be presented by an uninterrupted course of nature during 16 or 17 centuries from the Creation to the Deluge.

Further, the space of sixteen centuries is far too short for the deposition of strata of the enormous thickness which we find in the secondary and tertiary formations. The total thickness of these strata, on a very moderate calculation, is not less than 18,000 feet of perpendicular height. Now there is no reason to suppose that the antediluvian sea formed its deposits with greater rapidity than the sea does at present, since in the period from Adam to Noah, we find no record of the laws of nature having differed from what they have been ever since the Deluge. But did the sea now form deposits at the rate of 18,000 feet in 1600 years, the Mediterranean would have been filled up since the time when Ulysses navigated it, and we should hear of ships running upon shoals where a few years before there had been no soundings. It seems then to be quite incompatible with the phenomena of the secondary and tertiary strata to assign their deposition to the sixteen centuries which intervened from the Mosaic Creation to the Deluge.

We shall now attempt to shew that although the secondary strata bear traces of having occupied hundreds, perhaps thousands of centuries in their deposition, yet that such an hypothesis is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but is merely something superadded to it. Persons are continually forgetting what has been so often urged by divines and philosophers, that the writings of Moses refer solely to the moral history of mankind, and not to the physical history of the earth. The account of the Creation is therefore exceedingly short and concise, given merely as a necessary introduction to the history of man. If we wish to learn more concerning the Creation than Moses has told us, we must read it in the book of Nature.

Mr. Turner himself admits, (p. 465,) from the words of Moses, that the earth existed "without form and void," for an indefinite period before the first day of Creation. And it is to this indefinite period, concerning which Moses has said nothing, that most geolo

gists now agree to refer the deposition of the secondary and tertiary strata. These strata exhibit a repeated destruction of existing species, followed by a creation of new ones, and the New Red Sandstone supplies an instance of a large superficial area, if not the whole earth, after teeming with animal and vegetable products, becoming "void" during a considerable period. There is nothing therefore contrary to analogy in supposing the Mosaic Creation,— the only one in which man existed, and the only one therefore which Moses has described,-to have been one of these successive creations, and the last which has hitherto taken place. On this supposition, the period when Moses states the earth to have been "without form and void" would be that in which the creatures of the previous formation had been wholly or in great measure destroyed, and before the reissuing of the creative mandate.

There is an objection which may be urged against this theory, that the sun, which Moses relates to have been created on the fourth day, was necessary to the production of those animals and vegetables whose remains are found in our strata. But as in several passages of Scripture the apparent motion of the sun is described as the real one, so in this place we are inclined to think that what Moses relates as the actual creation of the heavenly bodies was in fact only their apparent creation, that is, their being made visible to this earth by the gradual clearing of the atmosphere. Mr. Turner himself is of opinion that it was but the solar system which was created on the fourth day, and that the fixed stars were pre-existing. But still there seems a great want of analogy in supposing that the sun, the moon, the planets, and their satellites, all which, except the two former, appear to exist for their own sakes alone, and not for ours, were all created in one day as adjuncts to our earth, while the latter existed in dark and useless solitude for ages before. It would seem far more probable that the whole of the solar system, each part of which stands in certain and definite relations to the rest, was of contemporaneous creation. And it is very conceivable that such a destruction of created nature as we suppose to have rendered the earth without form and void immediately before the Mosaic creation, was attended by a turbid atmosphere of sufficient density to produce total darkness. The first step towards a renewal of creation was to dispel this darkness by causing the mist gradually to clear away. The alternations of day and night would thus be rendered perceptible, though the mist was as yet far too dense to expose to view the sun which caused those alternations. On the second day we may suppose that the misty clouds rose from the earth and reached that elevation which they commonly occupy in the atmosphere, or, as the translators of Genesis call it, the firmament. By the fourth day the clouds were so far broken and dispersed as to render visible the heavenly bodies, both those of the solar system and the fixed stars, which are hence said to have been created on that day. We thus have an explanation of the difficulty noticed by Mr. Turner, p. 81, of light having existed per se three days before

the existence of the sun, and which he endeavours to explain by the undulatory theory of light.

We have thus, with a full consciousness of the difficulties of the subject, ventured to offer a theory of the cosmogony, which appears to us to reconcile the facts of geology with Holy Writ, without encroaching on any of its essential truths.

In concluding this lengthened review of Mr. Turner's work, we regret that want of space forbids us to dwell on many parts of it which are highly interesting and instructive. A second volume we perceive is announced for publication, and we shall look forward with pleasure to its appearance.

PARAPHRASE OF THE EIGHTH PSALM.

O LORD, our Lord, what majesty

Through all the earth attends thy name,
Who sittest fast enthron'd on high,
Above the star-encircled frame.

E'en childhood's voice attests thy power,
E'en infant lips thy deeds recal,
To still the avenger's joyous hour,
And mix oppression's cup with gall,
When I survey each rolling sphere,
The matchless wonders of thy hand,
And mark the radiant orbs, that near
Thy jasper courts in order stand ;—

Lord! what is man, that thou shouldst bow
Thine ear to note his feeble prayer?

Or what the son of man, that thou
Should'st tend him with a father's care?

Nigh unto angels is his place,

Which thy free mercy has assign'd;
Honour and glory, strength and grace
Thou dost around his temples bind.

To him thy providence hath given
Earth's boundless fruits and ocean's store,
The myriad forms that mount the heaven,
Or haunt the forest, plain, or shore.

Whate'er has growth, whate'er has breath,
Lives his prov'd wishes to fulfil;
And land and flood, and life and death
Seem but the servants of his will.

Yet give me, Lord, to read aright
The symbols of thy wond'rous plan,
And learn how infinite thy might,
And feel how truly weak is man.

E. S.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Analyst.

Conceiving that among your readers there may be many who love to study the habits and fashions of our forefathers by examining their architectural and monumental remains, I purpose, should it meet your approbation, occasionally introducing to their notice, such objects of antiquarian or historical interest as have hitherto escaped the notice of the antiquary, or been but briefly dwelt upon by our local historians. With this view I have sent you a short notice of Porter's Mill, in the parish of Claines, about three miles from Worcester; and should it in the slightest degree interest any of your readers, the wishes will be fully answered of

Worcester, Nov. 22, 1834.

Yours, respectfully,

H. E.

There are perhaps few spots to be visited in the neighbourhood of Worcester that will better reward the lover of landscape, the artist, or the antiquary, than Porter's Mill; the rich and varied scenery with which it is surrounded will delight the former, the artist will be pleased with the picturesque outline of the house, whilst the associations connected with it have an equal charm for the lover of antiquity. That portion of the house which has been spared from the hands of the improver is well worthy of attention, as illustrating the style of residence of the middle gentry early in the sixteenth century. Originally the house was constructed of timber-framing, the intermediate spaces being lathed and plastered: the west end is deserving an attentive consideration;—the bold projection of the upper stories of the house in advance of those immediately beneath, had the two-fold advantage of preserving the lower part from wet and producing a pleasing effect of light and shade. The barge-boards and pinnacles which, no doubt, at one time decorated the gables, cease to exist; there is, however, a good specimen of a brick chimney very common in the counties of Worcester, Warwick, and Stafford :—the plan of each shaft being that of one square placed diagonally on another, presenting eight right angles. Over a fire-place now used as a bakehouse, are the arms of Elizabeth, and the five-leaved rose, one of the Tudor badges.

It is impossible to examine this or any of the domestic buildings between the reigns of Henry VII. and Elizabeth, without being struck with the ingenuity, which out of materials at first sight so unfitted for the purpose of the picturesque, could produce an effect so pleasing to the eye. A moulding is never seen without its apparent use, or a carving that does not form part of the design which could ill be dispensed with; the chimnies which moderns twist into every variety of form to conceal, are here