most extraordinary animal that ever came under his consideration.

and afford evidence of four distinct possibly exist at the surface of the periods in their order of succession, earth as at present constituted. indicated by changes in the nature Among these we find the Ichthyoof the organic remains that are em- saurus, a reptile 50 feet long, with bedded in them. They are, how- the head and breast of a lizard, the ever, altogether different from the snout of a dolphin, the teeth of a species now found on the earth. crocodile, the spine and ribs of a Cuvier made astonishing discover- fish, and the extremities of a whale. ies in this strata. In the quarries But the most extraordinary formaof Montmartre alone, he discovered tion of this period is the Pterodactyle, above 50 distinct species of mam- some of which have been found in malia. Among them one sometimes England. The form of its neck is reaching the size of a rhinoceros, that of a bird, its wings a bat, its which he calls palæthericun, (the body and tail mammalia, and a beak ancient beast,) a most remarkable furnished with sixty pointed teeth, animal intermediate between the and is well ranked by Cuvier as the rhinoceros, the horse, and the tapir. In this strata also is found dinotherion, which is particularly described In the next series, the transition, by Buckland, as the largest of all we nearly lose animal life; at all terrestrial mammalia, being 18 feet events we only find it in its most in length. The head of one of these, simple shape, the bare commencewhich was found last year in Ger- ment of organic life; but instead of many, was 4 feet long, by 3 feet it we come to vegetable formation, breadth. To attempt a description the first which appeared upon our of this animal without a plate is im- planet. These strata form the great possible; but any one who has the coal formations and iron ore. By curiosity to examine a Geological the application we are obliged to work, will soon arrive at the conclu- make of them to satisfy our daily sion, that it could not have been an necessities, we are unconsciously inhabitant of this earth as now con- brought into immediate connection stituted. There is also another with the vegetation which clothed most extraordinary animal called the ancient earth before one half of Megatherium, a look at the form of its actual surface had been formed, whose skeleton will be the most and from the wreck of forests that convincing of its extinct character. clothed our infant planet we enjoy We then come to the secondary the heat of our fires, the light of strata, where new wonders open up our lamps, and the fundamental These strata consist of chalk, elements of art and industry. The oolite, sandstone, &c. We here next series we arrive at is the prilose the warm-blooded mammalia, mary, the original unstratified rock, the then condition of the globe not wholly destitute of animal or vegeallowing their existence, and come table remains, and indicating, to reptiles. It is in this Oolite se- chiefly, the agencies of fire and waries that we arrive at the wonderful ter, the two most active agents with Saurian remains, some amphibious, which chemistry has made us acsome terrestrial, some like flying quainted. dragons. This species is clearly demonstrated to belong to a species which not only do not, but could not

to us.

From this very brief and necessarily imperfect examination, we arrive at the conclusion, that the

deeper we descend into the strata of the teeth in harmony with those inthe earth, the higher do we ascend dicated beforehand by the feet; in into the history of past ages of cre- short, each species was as it were ation. We find successive stages re-constructed from a single one of marked by varying forms of animal its component elements." What and vegetable life, and these, gene- conclusion then are we compelled rally, differ more and more widely to draw from these facts? Why, from existing species as we go further we have no means of escaping the downwards into the receptacles of conviction of the existence on our the wreck of more ancient creations. planet of many habitable surfaces, or We find a constant and regular as- worlds, as they have been called, semblage of organic remains com- each distinct in time and peopled mencing with one series of strata with its peculiar races of aquatic and and ending with another, which con- terrestrial beings. Thus, as we intains a different assemblage; and crease our knowledge of the inexthe characters of all these animals haustible variety displayed in living are proved, by demonstration, to be adapted to the peculiar region they inhabited. But should any start or doubt as to the possibility of these demonstrations, and question how Geologists can speak with so much minuteness as to the species of these animals, we refer him to Cuvier, and doubt must give way to admiration. After stating the discovery of innumerable fragments of bones of unknown animals in the gypsum quarries of Montmartre, he thus records the manner in which he applied himself to the task of re-constructing their skeletons. "I at length found myself," says he, as if placed in a charnel house, surrounded by mutilated fragments of many hundred skeletons of more than twenty kinds of animals, piled confusedly around me; the task assigned me was to restore them all to their original position. At the voice of comparative anatomy, every bone and fragment of a bone resumed its place. I cannot find words to express the pleasure I experienced in seeing, as I discovered, one character, and how all, the consequences which I predicted from it were successively confirmed; the feet were found in abundance with the characters announced by the teeth;

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nature, and admire the infinite wisdom and power which it displays, our admiration is multiplied by the reflection that it is only the last of a great series of pre-existing creations, of which we cannot estimate the number or limit in past time. This conclusion is strengthened by the total absence of the human species throughout the entire range of Geological discoveries. As Dr. Buckland well observes, "had the case been otherwise, there would indeed have been great difficulty in reconciling the early and extended periods which have been assigned to the extinct races of animals with our received chronology. On the other hand, the fact of no human remains having as yet been found in conjunction with those of extinct animals, may be alleged in confirmation of the bypothesis that these animals lived and died before the formation of man.

This detail upon the compact of the earth was necessary to make any subsequent observations at all intelligible. In a future paper we may offer a few more thoughts on the immediate bearing of these facts on the Mosaic account of the Creation.

THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. No. I.

ground-work of his operations, and employs every erroneous tendency To no intelligent and well-regu- of the human mind for the accomlated mind, can the origin of Man plishment of his diabolical purposes. be a subject of indifference. Apart Hence the ungodly are strengthened from the intense curiosity which im- by him in their speculative or pracpels us in the path of inquiry, there tical Atheism, and even the faithful are powerful motives to excite a de- servants of God are harrassed by his sire for information on this subject. atheistic suggestions. It may be If to our fellow creatures, with urged that avowed Atheists are unwhom we are placed on equal known, and that, therefore, attempts ground, by a similitude of nature, to prove the Being of a God are we sustain important relations which unnecessary and uncalled-for. But are the source of correspendent du- if Atheism have its seat in the heart, ties, we must stand in transcendently (which is the fountain of obedience important relations to the Fountain or transgression,) if either speculaof all being, the Author of our exist- tively or practically it ruin the soul, ence, and to him we must owe duties build up Satan's kingdom and grieve the most sacred and momentous. and distress the righteous, it cannot If, also, we are the production of an be unnecessary to contribute to its infinitely intelligent and Almighty destruction. Nor is such an employBeing, the avoiding of his displea- ment in other respects unprofitable. sure and the securing of his favour While we "walk through Nature up must be objects of the highest mo- to Nature's God," our esteem, revement. He who gave being and rence, and love for our Creator are beauty, diversity and harmony to augmented by an enlarged acquaintthe Universe, must be alike terrible ance with "the glories that compass in his power and beautifying in his his Name;" and we are at once smile. Upon the supposition, then, humbled and abased by a consciousthat we owe our existence to a great ness of his Greatness, Majesty and First Cause, we are prompted by a Purity, and a sense of our sense of duty and interest, to rest littleness, vanity, and pollution. our belief in Him upon sure and How delightful to trace the delineasatisfactory ground, by a due inves- tions of Divine Light, and Love, and tigation of the subject, and an ac- Power on the visible Universe-to quaintance with those proofs and hear the work of the Deity proclaim evidences which give stability to "his eternal power and Godhead," faith and preclude all doubt. We-and to feel, on a survey of Nature, are well aware that Atheism is not that we are under the Eye of Omthe dictate of an enlightened intellect, but of a depraved and deceitful heart, for "the fool hath said in his heart there is no God." But the very fact that such depravity exists proves the possibility and danger of faith in such a saying, and sanctions the use of means for its prevention ed with these truths and reflections, and destruction. Besides, the invi- and we shall doubtless derive benefit sible foe of God and Man makes to ourselves and honour the Divihuman ignorance and depravity the nity.

own

niscience, in the hand of Omnipotent Goodness; that we dwellin the temple of Jehovah's Universe, and are the objects of his paternal love, Providential care, and enduring Mercy! Let us, then, enter upon the subject proposed, impress

On

In support of the proposition that ver had a beginning, or it owes its there is an unoriginated and eternal existence to the omnific energy of a Being, the Creator of all things, we Supreme Being. If matter has eteroffer the following observations :- nally existed, it must be according to I. Atheism, or the assumption, its present structure and appearance, "there is no God," is incapable of for Atheism excludes any Being proof.-No man can be certain that competent to effect a change. Atheism is true till he has explored the supposition that there is no the regions of boundless space, for- Almighty Artist, if matter were once med an acquaintance with all it an unorganized mass it must perpecontains, and ascertained that the tually remain so, and if once organmagnificent pile of the Universe ized it must endlessly retain that exists without a Supreme Architect organization. To talk of chance, -all which is impossible. The in- or the fortuitous concurrence of cirfinitude of space precludes the at- cumstances, organizing or re-organtempt, and renders Atheism uncer- izing matter, is perfectly absurd. tain, though it were incapable of Chance is either nonentity or else reproof. If there be a thing in a designation of some material or boundless space of whom we have immaterial substance. If nothing, never heard, or a Cause in operation it can effect nothing; if matter, it is in any part of the Universe of which equally insufficient; if spirit, the we are ignorant, that Being, or that point is conceded, and chance is Cause, may be God, the original but another name for the intelligent cause of all things. Were there no Supreme Being. Either, then, the direct proof, therefore, of the being Universe or the things that are of a God, the Atheist would notwith-seen,' were not made of things standing be doubtful, perplexed, and which do appear," but "framed by unhappy; like the traveller who en- the word of God," or all things ters a dense and extensive forest, eternally existed as they are now unable to determine whether there organized. The refutation of the be a Proprietor who may punish latter will prove the truth of the him for intrusion or transgression, former; and the latter is refuted in or whether a Lion may not lurk the following manner :about his path and rend him as his 1. No compound or organization

prey.

II. From every modification of Atheism, the Atheist can be driven to the last resort which alone has the appearance of plausibility, namely, that the Universe has eternally existed, according to its present organization; and this hypothesis can be satisfactorily disproved.

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can be eternal. It is absurd to suppose so. When we contemplate a watch, a clock, or an architectural pile, we are upon first sight irresistibly convinced that the parts of which it is composed were once in a separate or different state of existence, and combined according to their present appearance by a skilful arNothing cannot produce some-tist.-Were we to survey a perfectly thing, nor can a thing produce itself; for this would be to act before existing, which is absurd; and as something now exists, it follows that something has eternally existed. Either, then, the Universe has ne

homogeneous mass, the impression would be different, for in that we should perceive no combination to imply a combiner, or a period when the particles of which it is composed were united together. Now every

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thing with which we are acquainted an eternal succession of men, is no is a compound. Even the simplest less absurd than to call finite inelements which chemistry is capable finite, or temporal eternal. For every of evolving is a compound of distinct individual has had a beginning: but atoms. All vegetable and animal as Atheism necessarily implies Men substances, without exception, and from eternity, it implies Men without by far the greatest number of mine- a beginning, for such is eternity. ral bodies, are proved by chemical As any quantum of space and the experiments to be compounds." body which fills it are of equal diThe eternity, therefore, of the world, mensions, so Atheism teaches the in its present or any other organization, is impossible and absurd.

existence of non-commencing men, as occupying or filling a non-commencing eternity. In other words, nonumber of finites can constitute an infinite; no number of human lives can occupy eternity, no number can be infinite; and therefore, there cannot have been an eternal succession of Men.

2. Infinites are equal, because incapable of any augmentation, and there can, therefore, be no diversity in point of magnitude between them. But according to the final hypothesis of the Atheist, against which we are contending, there are several infinites widely disproportionate. The If every modification of Atheism, Atheist must believe in an eternal, if its last and most plausible hypothat is, infinite number of Men: thesis be incompatible with the Now each man has ten fingers, and existence of organized matter, in its as there have been an infinite num- present or any other form, the only ber of Men, so also an infinite num- alternative, the existence of an inber of fingers; but as the latter are telligent First Cause necessarily to the former as 10 to 1, we have and incontrovertibly follows. Noone infinite ten times greater than thing compounded, divisible in another, or a ten-fold disproportion point of magnitude, can fill the imbetween two equals !-Again, the mensity of space; nothing divisible diurnal revolutions of the earth are in point of duration, or each of to its annual 365 to 1. Now the whose acts implies a beginning, can earth, according to Atheism, hav- fill eternity or be eternal; hence ing been eternally revolving, matter cannot be infinite, and nothing

there have been an infinite num- in the visible universe can be eterber of days and of years, con- nal. But, as has been already shown, sequently, the former infinite to the we must believe the eternity of latter as 365 to one! All which is something; that something is a simperfectly absurd and self-contra- ple, indivisible essence; that somedictory. Motion necessarily im- thing is distinct from every thing plies commencement and a mover, with which we are conversant; that or, in other words, a beginning, and something is—GOD! E. Y. an intelligent agent by whom motion was given. And as there are motion and diversities of motion, number IN Dr. Simmons' Life of Milton, and diversities of number, in the uni- he has given some strictures upon verse, the eternity of the last is im- the construction of the Sonnet; possible, and the atheistic hypothesis and in an interesting and affecself-destructive. ting note, after eulogizing two who excelled in

3. The notion that there has been authoresses

THE SONNET.