relics have been discovered in ancient deposits. In the cave of Gailenreuth they are found intermixed with the bones of extinct species of bears, hyænas, elephants, &c.; and the same discovery has been made in the caverns of Bize, Pondres, and Souvignargues, in the south of France; and more recently, in some caverns near Liege. In some of these localities, fragments of pottery, and rude flint knives, are said to have been found. Of course, the abettors of the pre-adamite theory, will not allow these human relics to be of the same age with the bones of the extinct animals; and have made several lame attempts to get over the difficulty thus lying in their way. M. Schmerling, and other men of learning, residing near these caverns, and having much better opportunities of knowing the facts, than any transient visitor, however skilful, have decidedly expressed their opinion, that the human bones in these deposits are coeval with those of the quadrupeds. It is not pretended, that the bones of men were merely lying on the surface, or found only in the entrance, where they might be accidentally dropt: they were found in the inmost recesses of the caves, buried in the mud with the bones of the bear, the hyæna, and the rhinoceros; and to deny them the same antiquity, is to attempt to uphold theory at the expense of unquestionable fact.

"But it is not in cave deposits only that human relics have been detected: they occur also in solid rocks. The discovery of human skeletons imbedded in grey limestone, in the island of Guadaloupe, marks an important era in the progress of geology. It is to be regretted that further researches have not been made into that interesting deposit; especially as most geologists roundly assert, that the stone is a mere modern concretion. This notion, now so generally adopted, is quite at variance with the plain facts of the case, as detailed by Mr. Konig, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1814; and the valuable specimen in the British Musuem gives it no countenance whatever. The stone, which I carefully examined, greatly resembles some varieties of oolite limestone; like which, it contains fragments of shells, and of corals; the latter, as in the oolite, sometimes retaining their original red colour. The bones are entirely fossilized, and have no appearance of recent bones accidentally incrusted with stalactite or travertine. Nothing but a fixed determination to set up theory against fact, can resist the evidence arising from this discovery. The strange idea, that these imbedded human remains are the result of a battle and massacre, of so late a date as 1710, may be believed, when once another petrified field of battle can be pointed out; but it is far more likely, that we shall first discover other fossil specimens of the human race in secondary rocks, affording such irresistible evidence, as will at once annihilate the whole system of preadamite creations."

We have thus presented some of the arguments and facts made use of by a strenuous champion in behalf of the literal meaning of the Mosaic text, without having had any other purpose in view than to point out some of the hypotheses and constructions on both sides, of a question of unsurpassed interest and importance to those of our readers who may never have set about weighing the several and particular arguments regarding it; perfectly satisfied at the same

time that "the volume of creation, the volume of providence, and the volume of inspiration, have all one Author," and must be in sweetest harmony; nay, convinced that the time will come when Geology and Scripture will reciprocally, and without the possibility of being set at odds, illustrate and recommend one another; when conjectures which we find so plentiful on both sides will have to yield to demonstrations, and the bitter exaggerations of one set of interpreters regarding the opinions of another set, shall be abashed amid the effulgence of truth and the light even of this world. the meanwhile, however, we must not close Dr. Young's volume before having a glimpse of the contents of the appendix, which smartly animadverts on Pye Smith's theory, especially of a local Creation, and a local Deluge.

In

We need not recapitulate what we before quoted from Dr. Smith concerning his alleged localities, further than to say that he limited them to a portion of Central Asia; whereas most commentators have thought that the Adamic creation replenished the whole earth before the flood, and that that flood was universal.

Dr. Smith gets over the literal and full meaning of the language of Scripture on these subjects by stating that the Divine Being, in communicating with man, adapts his communications to the weakness of man's understanding, and the inperfections of man's knowledge; and also that in scripture universal terms are often used to express a limited idea. He argues besides, as regards the rate of increase before the Deluge, that it was far less than after that catastrophe. In reply to some of these views, the following paragraphs are not without their force. Says our author :

"Had the creation and the deluge been limited to Central Asia, we must have found here some obvious traces of this localization; some peculiarities of soil, of rocks, of animals, and of vegetables; enabling us to discern, with tolerable accuracy, the extent of this newest part of the earth's surface, at once the cradle and the grave of its primeval inhabitants. But where are the landmarks of this Adamic world? Where are the traces of its existence, or its distinguishing features? The face of the country shews not a vestige of evidence for this localizing theory; which we are therefore warranted to dismiss, as the baseless fabric of a vision.'

"It is proper to add, that, according to the words of Peter (2 Peter iii), the heaven and the earth that are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, are the same that were overwhelmed by water; and we might as well plead for a local conflagration, as for a local flood. The argument

drawn from this text, is not to be set aside by alleging, that the world may mean only the inhabitants of the world; for at the day of judgment, 'the earth and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up;' not the inhabitants, who shall then be otherwise disposed of.

"Against the doctrine of a universal deluge, the doctrine taught in scripture according to its most plain and obvious sense, no such objections can

be urged. Those which Dr. Smith has produced as insurmountable, are chiefly conjured up by himself, or by those whom his lively imagination has induced him to follow.

"He alleges, that to effect a universal deluge, a zone of water five miles in thickness must have encircled the whole globe; that this mass of waters must have been created on purpose, and subsequently annihilated; and that this vast increase of the earth's bulk, though only temporary, would greatly augment its power of attraction, and tend to derange the whole solar system.

"But this difficulty is altogether imaginary. To produce a general deluge, there was no need to create a single particle of water: for there is enough of water in the ocean even now to repeat such a deluge, if required. All that is wanted for this purpose is, to elevate the bed of the sea, and consequently to sink the dry land; for when the former rises, the latter must subside, to fill up the space which would otherwise be a vaccuum. Nor was it at all necessary that the waters should attain an elevation of five miles above their present level, or even a third part of that height; for we have no right to suppose, that the antediluvian mountains were as lofty as the present. The highest existing mountains are either the cones of volcanoes, such as Chimborazo, Hecla, and the Peak of Teneriffe ;-which very probably had no place in the ancient world;-or, like the lofty peaks of the Himalayan range, they consist of masses of primary rocks, thrown up on their edges, like projecting fragments of broken ice; and these might be elevated in the breaking up of the earth's crust at the deluge."

As to the Ark, it is also happily enough remarked, that had the deluge been so limited as Dr. Smith represents, the question very naturally suggests itself why there was any such means of preserving the seed of animals at all. Why did not Noah and his family emigrate?

The reply to one or two other opinions of Dr. Smith, which the author pleases to designate mere fancies, may be quoted:

"Another of his facts is, that death entered our world before sin; and in connexion with this, that the carnivorous creatures lived on animal food before the fall of man, as well as after. He must therefore believe, that the ravages of fierce lions and prowling wolves could not diminish the happiness of the first pair; that the sight of a cruel tiger destroying a lamb, and the cries of the innocent victim piercing their ears, might be quite compatible with their state of perfect bliss! He argues, that the threatening of death implies that they had witnessed death; but he might as well reason, that the mention of good and evil to them implies that they had witnessed evil as well as good. He allows that, during the state of innocence, the constitution of man was exempted from the law of mortality; and he might as well have granted, that the ravenous propensities of carnivorous animals were then dormant. The case of animalcules is not easily explained; but if any were eaten by the first pair, with their earliest food, they were not themselves conscious of the fact.

"There is one favourite object never lost sight of in these Lectures, the

ascription of inconceivable antiquity to the globe. The fabulous ages claimed by the annalists of Egypt and Hindostan, for their respective nations, sink into utter insignificance beside the exorbitant demands of Dr. S. He claims many thousands of centuries for the production of gneiss alone; as if that, and other primary rocks, could not have been formed in a day, or in an hour, by the almighty fiat, at the first creation. He claims countless ages for the formation of the secondary and tertiary strata, according to his slow rate of deposition already noticed. He demands, as we have seen, an immeasurable period for the eruption and action of the volcanoes of Auvergne; and he requires 500,000 years, on the authority of Mr. Mc. Laren, for a single period of volcanic quiescence at Arthur's Seat! This last he pronounces 'no random guess, but founded upon knowledge and consideration.' Yet he owns, that Mr. Rhind takes a very different view of the matter and well he might. I have had frequent opportunities of examining the same rocks, and can assure the reader, that there is nothing to indicate, whether the said period was 500,000 years, or 500 years, or less than 500 days. The assertion is a matter of pure fancy."

We are pleased to find Dr. Young admiring the religious sentiments which pervade certain portions of Dr. Smith's work, and frankly admitting that although their geological views, on some points, are diametrically opposed, yet that he believes both are devoutly inquiring after truth, and love the truth as far as they discern it.

ART. II.-The Hour and the Man. By HARRIET MARTINEau. 3 vols. London: Moxon. 1840.

DID the title-page not also announce that this is a "Historical Romance," the reader who has gone no further into the volumes would be at a loss to conceive what was the nature or subject of the work. But even with the announcement, and after a perusal of the story, one does not discover any particular propriety in the terms selected-the Hour and the Man; and therefore we must set them down as words chosen for the purpose of exciting curiosity and enticing readers; for it is certain that Miss Martineau's name, coupled though it may be with the most unintelligible title to a book, will command attention, but perhaps still more when so mystically connected.

The "Man" was a real personage and the most celebrated of the Negro race of whom modern history presents any records, being no other than Toussaint L'Ouverture, the hero of St. Domingo, where the scene of the romance is laid. The most striking passages in the life of that extraordinary man, and the revolution in which he so signally figured, of course supply the principal incidents of the work, the author keeping pretty closely to the facts as recorded by the most favourable accounts of Toussaint's character and career,

coloured and disposed to her liking and ability, and interspersed with many other pictures of scenery and society novel to Europeans, and not a few disquisitions, as well as pointed recognitions of important principles, according to the author's potent manner and peculiar philosophy.

The main fault which we find with this remarkable work, is the charging the portraits of individuals and the picture of a community not only different physically and in corporeal forms, but morally, intellectually, and socially, pretty much according to English standards. Even the European colonists and planters are British rather than French, according to some of the representations. We think too that the theorist frequently triumphs over the painter of nature, and the faculty for metaphysical distinctions over imagination. The parts, when separately taken, are each and all powerful in a literary sense, that is, in so far as thought and language are concerned. They are also often just and truthful in themselves. But when the whole are combined, and considered as developing character and tracing events, there appears to us a want of consistency and of united force that interferes with the general effect intended to be produced. Miss Martineau's power appears to be that of a master of the grand principles of human nature, and who is capable of delineating character to the minutest shade abstractedly. But she is far from being so felicitous in making her personages develope themselves in action or even in dialogue; and hence we think she never can take her place in the rank of first-rate novelists or romancists. Nay, it is stretching to some extent the meaning of these terms to call her Deerbrook and the Hour and the Man by either of them. Her fictions are philosophizings tacked to invented circumstances, or recorded facts, which are so constructed as not to awaken the profoundest sympathy, however much we may admire the moral or the doctrine sought to be taught.

In one respect this lady's tales surpass almost all others: she composes them with the highest aims. She is ever in earnest and therefore ever commands, the reader's respect as well as attention. She does not express herself like one who only is careful not to do harm, but as one who feels herself bound to do positive good. She does not select or handle a theme that will merely amuse during an idle hour, but one that will bear serious treatment and severe thought, that will transmit valuable lessons and require a reperusal, all the while also being suggestive.

We are not going to give any outline of the romance further than stating, as already intimated, that it expands the real story of the Negro hero, and represents him in the fairest and noblest lights that the facts will permit. She not only pronounces him to have been a man of wonderful sagacity, and endowed with a native genius for war and government, but to have been religiously pious and merci