Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology/Chapter 24

by William Buckland

CHAPTER XXIV.^[1]

Conclusion.

In our last Chapter we have considered the Nature of the Evidence afforded by unorganized mineral bodies, in proof of the existence of design in the original adaptation of the material Elements to their various functions, in the inorganic and organic departments of the Natural World, and have seen that the only sufficient Explanation we can discover, of the orderly and wonderful dispositions of the material Elements "in measure and number and weight," throughout the terraqueous globe, is that which refers the origin of everything above us, and beneath us, and around us, to the will and workings of One Omnipotent Creator. If the properties imparted to these Elements at the moment of their Creation, adapted them beforehand to the infinity of complicated useful purposes, which they have already answered, and may have further still to answer, under many successive Dispensations in the material World, such an aboriginal constitution so far from superseding an intelligent Agent, would only exalt our conceptions of the consummate skill and power, that could comprehend such an infinity of future uses under future systems, in the original groundwork of his Creation.

In an early part of our Inquiry, we traced back the history of the Primary rocks, which composed the first solid materials of the Globe, to a probable condition of universal Fusion, incompatible with the existence of any forms of organic life, and saw reason to conclude that as the crust of the Globe became gradually reduced in temperature, the unstratified crystalline rocks, and stratified rocks produced by their destruction, were disposed and modified, during long periods of time, by physical forces, the same in kind with those which actually subsist, but more intense in their degree of operation; and that the result has been to adapt our planet to become the receptacle of divers races of vegetable and animal beings, and finally to render it a fit and convenient habitation for Mankind.

We have seen still further that the surface of the Land, and the Waters of the Sea have during long periods, and at distant intervals of time, preceding the Creation of our species, been peopled with many different races of Vegetables and Animals, supplying the place of other races that had gone before them; and in all these phenomena, considered singly, we have found evidence of Method and Design. We have moreover seen such a systematic recurrence of analogous Designs, producing various ends by various combinations of Mechanism, multiplied almost to infinity in their details of application, yet all constructed on the same few common fundamental principles which pervade the living forms of organized Beings, that we reasonably conclude all these past and present contrivances to be parts of a comprehensive and connected whole, originating in the Will and Power of one and the same Creator.

Had the number or nature of the material Elements appeared to have been different under former conditions of the Earth, or had the Laws which have regulated the phenomena of inorganic matter, been subjected to change at various Epochs, during the progress of the many formations of which Geology takes cognisance, there might indeed have been proofs of Wisdom and Power in such unconnected phenomena, but they would have been insufficient to demonstrate the Unity and Universal Agency of the same eternal and supreme First Cause of all things.

Again, had Geology gone no further than to prove the existence of multifarious examples of Design, its evidences would indeed have been decisive against the Atheist; but if such Design had been manifested only by distinct and dissimilar systems of Organization, and independent Mechanisms, connected together by no analogies, and bearing no relations to one another, or to any existing types in the Animal or Vegetable kingdoms, these demonstrations of Design, although affording evidence of Intelligence and Power, would not have proved a common origin in the Will of one and the same Creator; and the Polytheist might have appealed to such non-accordant and inharmonious systems, as affording indications of the agency of many independent Intelligences, and as corroborating his theory of a plurality of Gods.

But the argument which would infer a Unity of cause, from unity of effects, repeated through various and complex systems of organization widely remote from each other in time and place and circumstances, applies with accumulative force, when we not only can expand the details of facts on which it is founded, over the entire surface of the present world, but are enabled to comprehend in the same category all the various extinct forms of many preceding systems of organization, which we find entombed within the bowels of the Earth. It was well observed by Paley, respecting the variations we find in living species of Plants and Animals, in distant regions and under various climates, that "We never get amongst such original or totally different modes of Existence, as to indicate that we are.come into the province of a. different Creator, or under the direction of a. different Will."^[2] And the very extensive subterranean researches that have more recently been made, have greatly enlarged the range of Facts in accordance with those on which Paley grounded this assertion.

In all the numerous examples of Design which we have selected from the various animal and vegetable remains, that occur in a fossil state, there is such a never-failing Identity in the fundamental principles of their construction, and such uniform adoption of analogous means, to produce various ends, with so much only of departure from one common type of mechanism, as was requisite to adapt each instrument to its own especial function, and to fit each Species to its peculiar place and office in the scale of created Beings, that we can scarcely fail to acknowledge in all these facts, a Demonstration of the Unity of the Intelligence, in which such transcendent Harmony originated; and we may almost dare to assert that neither Atheism nor Polytheism would ever have found acceptance in the World, had the evidences of high Intelligence and of Unity of Design, which are disclosed by modern discoveries in physical science, been fully known to the Authors, or the Abettors of Systems to which they are so diametrically opposed. "It is the same handwriting that we read, the same system and contrivance that we trace, the same unity of object, and relation to final causes, which we see maintained throughout, and constantly proclaiming the Unity of the great divine Original."^[3]

It has been stated in our Sixth Chapter, on primary stratified rocks, that Geology has rendered an important service to Natural Theology, in demonstrating by evidences peculiar to itself, that there was a time 'when none of the existing forms of organic beings had appeared upon our Planet, and that the doctrines of the derivation of living species either by Developement and Transmutation^[4] from other species, or by an Eternal Succession from preceding individuals of the same species, without any evidence of a Beginning or prospect of an End, has no where been met by so full an answer, as that afforded by the phenomena, of fossil Organic Remains.

In the course of our inquiry, we have found abundant proofs, both of the Beginning and the End of several successive systems of animal and vegetable life; each compelling us to refer its origin to the direct agency of Creative Interference; "We conceive it undeniable, that we see, in the transition from an Earth peopled by one set of animals to the same Earth swarming with entirely new forms of organic life, a distinct manifestation of creative power transcending the operation of known laws of nature: and it appears to us, that Geology has thus lighted a new lamp along the path of Natural Theology."^[5]

Whatever alarm therefore may have been excited in the earlier stages of their development, the time is now arrived when Geological discoveries appear to be so far from disclosing any phenomena, that are not in harmony with the arguments supplied by other branches of physical Science, in proof of the existence and agency of One and the same all-wise and all-powerful Creator, that they add to the evidences of Natural Religion links of high importance that have confessedly been wanting, and are now filled up by facts which the investigation of the structure of the Earth has brought to light.

"If I understand Geology aright, (says Professor Hitchcock,) so far from teaching the eternity of the world, it proves more directly than any other science can, that its revolutions and races of inhabitants had a commencement, and that it contains within itself the chemical energies, which need only to be set at liberty, by the will of their Creator, to accomplish its destruction. Because this science teaches that the revolutions of nature have occupied immense periods of time, it does not therefore teach that they form an eternal series. It only enlarges our conceptions of the Deity; and when men shall cease to regard Geology with jealousy and narrow-minded prejudices, they will find that it opens fields of research and contemplation as wide and as grand as astronomy itself."^[6][7]

"There is in truth, (says Bishop Blomfield) no opposition nor inconsistency between Religion and Science, commonly so called, except that which has been conjured up by injudicious zeal or false philosophy, mistaking the ends of a divine revelation." And again in another passage of the same powerful discourse, after defining the proper objects for the exercise of the human understanding, his Lordship most justly observes, "Under these limitations and corrections we may join in the praises which are lavished upon philosophy and science, and fearlessly go forth with their votaries into all the various paths of research, by which the mind of man pierces into the hidden treasures of nature; harmonizes its more conspicuous features, and removes the veil which to the ignorant or careless observer, obscures the traces of God's glory in the works of his hands."^[8]

The disappointment which many minds experience, at finding in the phenomena of the natural world no indications of the will of God, respecting the moral conduct or future prospects of the human race, arises principally from an indistinct and mistaken view of the respective provinces of Reason and Revelation.

By the exercise of our Reason, we discover abundant evidences of the Existence, and of some of the Attributes of a supreme Creator, and apprehend the operations of many of the second causes or instrumental agents, by which he upholds the mechanism of the material World; but here its province ends: respecting the subjects on which, above all others, it concerns mankind to be well informed, namely, the will of God in his moral government, and the future prospects of the human race, reason only assures us of the absolute need in which we stand of a Revelation. Many of the greatest proficients in philosophy have felt and expressed these distinctions. "The consideration of God's Providence (says Boyle) in the conduct of things corporeal may prove to a well-disposed Contemplator, a Bridge, whereon he may pass from Natural to Revealed Religion."^[9][10]

"Next (says Locke) to the knowledge of one God, Maker of all things, a clear knowledge of their duty was wanting to mankind."

And He, whose name, by the consent of nations, is above all praise, the inventor and founder of the Inductive Philosophy, thus breathes forth his pious meditation, "Thy creatures have been my books, but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens, but I have found thee in thy temples." Bacon's Works, V. 4. fol. p. 487.

The sentiment here quoted had been long familiar to him, for it pervades his writings; it is thus strikingly expressed in his immortal work. "Concludamus igitur theologian sacram ex Verbo et Oraculis Dei, non ex lumine Naturæ aut Rationis dictamine hauriri debere. Scriptum est enim cœli enarrant Glorium Dei, at nusquam scriptum invenitur, cceli enarrant Voluntatem Dei."^[11][12]

Having then this broad line marked out before us, and with a clear and perfect understanding, as to what we ought, and what we ought not to expect from the discoveries of Natural Philosophy, we may strenuously pursue our labours in the fruitful fields of Science, under the full assurance that we shall gather a rich and abundant harvest, fraught with endless evidences of the existence, and wisdom, and power, and goodness of the Creator.

"The Philosopher (says Professor Babbage) has conferred on the Moralist an obligation of surpassing weight; in unveiling to him the living miracles which teem in rich exuberance around the minutest atom, as well as through the largest masses of ever active matter, he has placed before him resistless evidence of immeasurable design."^[13]

"See only (says Lord Brougham) in what contemplations the wisest of men end their most sublime inquiries! Mark where it is that a Newton finally reposes after piercing the thickest veil that envelopes nature—grasping and arresting in their course the most subtle of her elements and the swiftest—traversing the regions of boundless space—exploring worlds beyond the solar way—giving out the law which binds the universe in eternal order! He rests, as by an inevitable necessity, upon the contemplation of the great First Cause, and holds it his highest glory to have made the evidence of his existence, and the dispensations of his power and of his wisdom better understood by men."^[14]

If then it is admitted to be the high and peculiar privilege of our human nature, and a devotional exercise of our most exalted faculties, to extend our thoughts towards Immensity and into Eternity, to gaze on the marvellous Beauty that pervades the material world, and to comprehend that Witness of himself; which the Author of the Universe has set before us in the visible works of his Creation; it is clear that next to the study of those distant worlds which engage the contemplation of the Astronomer, the largest and most sublime subject of physical inquiry which can occupy the mind of Man, and by far the most interesting, from the personal concern we have in it, is the history of the formation and structure of the Planet on which we dwell, of the many and wonderful revolutions through which it has passed, of the vast and various changes in organic life that have followed one another upon its surface, and of its multifarious adaptations to the support of its present inhabitants, and to the physical and moral condition of the Human race.

These and kindred branches of inquiry, co-extensive with the very matter of the globe itself, form the proper subject of Geology, duly and cautiously pursued, as a legitimate branch of inductive science: the history of the Mineral kingdom is exclusively its own; and of the other two great departments of Nature, which form the Vegetable and Animal kingdoms, the foundations were laid in ages, whose records are entombed in the interior of the Earth, and are recovered only by the labours of the Geologist, who in the petrified organic remains of former conditions of our Planet, deciphers documents of the Wisdom in which the world was created.

Shall it any longer then be said, that a science, which unfolds such abundant evidence of the Being and Attributes of God, can reasonably be viewed in any other light than as the efficient Auxiliary and Handmaid of Religion? Some few there still may be, whom timidity or prejudice or want of opportunity allow not to examine its evidence; who are alarmed by the novelty, or surprised by the extent and magnitude of the views which Geology forces on their attention, and who would rather have kept closed the volume of witness, which has been sealed up for ages beneath the surface of the earth, than impose on the student in Natural Theology the duty of studying its contents; a duty, in which for lack of experience they may anticipate a hazardous or a laborious task, but which by those engaged in it is found to afford a rational and righteous and delightful exercise of their highest faculties, in multiplying the evidences of the Existence and Attributes and Providence of God.^[15]

The alarm however which was excited by the novelty of its first discoveries has well nigh passed away, and those to whom it has been permitted to be the humble instruments of their promulgation, and who have steadily persevered, under the firm assurance that "Truth can never be opposed to Truth," and that the works of God when rightly understood, and viewed in their true relations, and from a right position, would at length be found to be in perfect accordance with his Word, are now receiving their high reward, in finding difficulties vanish, objections gradually withdrawn, and in seeing the evidences of Geology admitted into the list of witnesses to the truth of the great fundamental doctrines of Theology.^[16] The whole course of the inquiry which we have now conducted to its close, has shown that the physical history of our globe, in which some have seen only Waste, Disorder, and Confusion, teems with endless examples of Economy, and Order, and Design; and the result of all our researches; carried back through the unwritten records of past time, has been to fix more steadily our assurance of the Existence of One supreme Creator of all things, to exalt more highly our conviction of the immensity of his Perfections, of his Might, and Majesty, his Wisdom, and Goodness, and all sustaining Providence; and to penetrate our understanding with a profound and sensible perception^[17] of the "high Veneration man's intellect owes to God."^[18]

The Earth from her deep foundations unites with the celestial orbs that roll through boundless space, to declare the glory and show forth the praise of their common Author and Preserver; and the voice of. Natural Religion accords harmoniously with the testimonies of Revelation, in ascribing the origin of the Universe to the will of One eternal, and dominant Intelligence, the Almighty Lord and supreme first cause of all things that subsist—"the same yesterday, to-day and for ever"—"before the Mountains were brought forth, or Ever the Earth and the World were made, God from everlasting and world without End."

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1. In the first Section of his fourth Chapter the same author has also so clearly shown the great extent to which several of the most common mineral substances e. g. lime, magnesia, and iron, eater into the composition of animal and vegetable bodies, and has so fully set forth the evidences of design in the constitution and properties of the few simple substances, viz. fifty-four Elementary principles, into some one or more of which the component materials of all the three great kingdoms of Nature can be resolved, that I deem it superfluous to repeat in another form, the substance of arguments which have been so well and fully drawn by my learned Colleague, from those phenomena of the mineral Elements, which form no small part of the evidence afforded by the Chemistry of Mineralogy, in proof of the Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness of the Creator.
2. Paley Nat. Theol. p. 450. Chap. on the Unity of the Deity.
3. Buckland's Inaug. Lect. 1819, p. 13.
4. As a misunderstanding may arise in the minds of persons not familiar with the language of physiology, respecting the import of the word Developement, it may be proper here to state, that in its primary sense, it is applied to express the organic changes which take place in the bodies of every animal and vegetable Being, from their embryo state, until they ar rive at full maturity. In a more extended sense, the term is also applied to those progressive changes in fossil genera and species, which have followed one another during the deposition of the strata of the earth, in the course of the gradual advancement of the grand system of Creation. The some term has been adopted by Lamarck, to express his hypothetical views of the derivation of existing species from preceding species, by successive Transmutations of one form of organization into another term, independent of the influence of any creative Agent. It is important that these distinctions should be rightly understood, lest the frequent application of the word Developement, which occurs in the writings of modern physiologists, should lead to a false inference, that the use of this term implies an admission of the theory of Transmutation with which Lamarck has associated it.
5. British Critic, No. XVII. Jan. 1831, p. 194.
6. Hitchcock's Geology of Massachusetts, p. 395.
7. "Why should we hesitate to admit the existence of our Globe through periods as long as geological researches require; since the sacred word does not declare the time of its original creation; and since such a view of its antiquity enlarges our ideas of the operations of the Deity in respect to duration, as much as astronomy does in regard to space? Instead of bringing us into collision with Moses, it seems to me that Geology furnishes us with some of the grandest conceptions of the Divine Attributes and Plans to be found in the whole circle of human knowledge." Hitchcock's Geology of Massachusetts, 1835, p. 225.
8. Sermon at the opening of King's College, London, 1831, pp. 19. 14.
9. Christian Virtuoso, 1690. p. 42.
10. "Natural Religion, as it is the first that is embraced by the mind, so it is the foundation upon which revealed religion ought to be superstructed, and is as it were, the stock upon which Christianity must be engrafted. For though I readily acknowledge natural religion to be insufficient, yet I think it very necessary. It will be to little purpose to press an infidel with arguments drawn from the worthiness, that appears in the Christian doctrine to have been revealed by God, and from the miracles its first preachers wrought to confirm it; if the unbeliever be not already persuaded, upon the account of natural religion, that there is a God, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Boyle's Christian Virtuoso, Part II. prop. 1.
11. Bacon De Augm. Scient. Lib. IX. ch.i.
12. "Nothing," says Sir I. F. W. Herschel, "can be more unfounded than the objection which has been taken in limine, by persons well-meaning perhaps, certainly narrow-minded, against the study of natural philosophy, and indeed against all science,—that it fosters in its cultivators an undue and overweening self-conceit, leads them to doubt the immortality of the soul, and to scoff at revealed religion. Its natural effect, we may confidently assert, on every well constituted mind, is and must be the direct contrary. No doubt, the testimony of natural reason, on whatever exercised, must of necessity stop short of those truths which it is the object of revelation to make known; but while it places the existence and principal attributes of a Deity on such grounds as to render doubt absurd and atheism ridiculous, it unquestionably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle to further progress; on the contrary, by cherishing as a vital principle an unbounded spirit of inquiry, and ardency of expectation, it unfetters the mind from prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and free to every impression of a higher nature which it is susceptible of receiving, guarding only against enthusiasm and self deception by a habit of strict investigation, but encouraging, rather than suppressing, everything that can offer a prospect or a hope beyond the present obscure and unsatisfactory state. The character of the true Philosopher is to hope all things not impossible, and to believe all things not treasonable." Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, p. 7.
13. Babbage on the Economy of Manufactures, 1 Ed. p. 319.
14. Lord Brougham's Discourse of Natural Theology, 1 Ed. p. 194.
15. A study of the natural world teaches not the truths of revealed religion, nor do the truths of religion inform us of the inductions of physical science. Hence it is, that men whose studies are too much confined to one branch of knowledge, often learn to overrate themselves, and so become narrow-minded. Bigotry is a besetting sin of our nature. Too often it has been the attendant of religious zeal: but it is perhaps most bitter and unsparing when found with the irreligious. A philosopher, understanding not one atom of their spirit, will sometimes scoff at the labours of religious men; and one who calls himself religious will perhaps return a like harsh judgment, and thank God that he is not as the philosophers,—forgetting all the while, that man can ascend to no knowledge, except by faculties given to him by his Creator's hand, and that all natural knowledge is but a religion of the will of God. In harsh judgments such as these, there is not, only much folly, but much sin. True wisdom consists in seeing how all the faculties of the mind, and all parts of knowledge bear upon each other, so as to work together to a common end; ministering at once to the happiness of man, and his Maker's glory.—Sedgwick's Discourse on the Studies of the University, Cambridge, 1833, App. note F. p. 102, 103.
16. One of the most distinguished and powerful Theological writers of our time, who about 20 years ago devoted a chapter of his work on the Evidence of the Christian Revelation, to the refutation of what he then called "the Scepticism of Geologists," has in his recent publication on Natural Theology, commenced his considerations respecting the origin of the world, with what he now terms "The Geological argument in behalf of a Deity." Chalmers's Natural Theology, V. I. p. 229. Glasgow, 1835.

    For Dr. Chalmers's interpretation of Genesis i. 1. et seq. see Edinburgh Christian Instructor, April, 1814.

17. "Though I cannot with eyes of flesh behold the invisible God; yet, I do in the strictest sense behold and perceive by all my senses such signs and tokens, such effects and operations as suggest, indicate, and demonstrate an invisible God."—Berkeley's Minute Philosopher, Dial. iv. c. 5.
18. Boyle.