Details about  *1840*1st EDITION*GIBSON*CERTAINTIES OF GEOLOGY*FOSSILS*CREATIONISM*THEOLOGY*VG+

 

BY

WILLIAM SIDNEY GIBSON

[1st EDITION]

LONDON: SMITH ELDER

1840

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DESCRIPTION: Half leather, xxiii, 270pp, adverts (24pp) dated July 1842 (including adverts for Charles Darwin's works arising from the Beagle voyage).

CONDITION: VERY GOOD+.  An excelletn copy in a handsome half leather binding.  Gilt bright. Very little fading.  Some light wear to the extremities and a few minor marks.  Gift inscription from the author: John Jarvis, Esq. / with the author's kind regards. Text very clean throughout See below for photos.  Full preface and contents after photos.

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William Sidney Gibson (1814–1871) was an English barrister and antiquarian.  Born at Parson's Green, Fulham, Gibson was for some years on the staff of a Carlisle newspaper. He entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar the society in 1843. The same year he was appointed registrar of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne district court of bankruptcy.

When the Bankruptcy Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. 71) abolished this and other similar courts, Gibson retired on a pension, and concentrated on writing. He died at the Grosvenor Hotel, Belgravia London, 3 January 1871, and was interred in the disused burial-ground of the Old Priory, Tynemouth, by special permission. He was an honorary M.A. of Durham University, and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and other learned societies.

 

 

 

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PREFACE

The following Essay appears at a time when the
Science of Geology has fully established its claim to
occupy and does in fact possess a most brilliant and
remarkable distinction, and commands an increasing de-
gree of attention and regard ; when the public mind is
rapidly opening to the wondrous scenes it presents, and
to a sense of the surpassing interest that attaches to
its discoveries, and to every thing connected with the
geological history of the globe ; when none ought to claim
credit for a well informed mind, without possessing a know-
ledge of at least the subjects and leading results of geolo-
gical research ; and at a time, moreover, when intellects of
the highest order are zealously employed in its cultivation ;
and some of the most recondite conclusions and results of
science are familiarly added to the common stock of
popular information. Of a work written at such a period
of geological science — under such eminent auspices, and
highly scientific support, as the author has the honour
and good fortune to enjoy on this occasion — of a work
written too by a new author on the subject, and by one,
moreover, who is a member of the Society to which
Geology is known to be so greatly indebted for the
elucidation of its inherent merits, and for its present
exalted position in the range of natural philosophy, it
might fairly be expected that it should promise and afford
some original and highly scientific additions to geological
information, — additions which should be suited to so ad-
vanced a state of geological knowledge. At the same
time, however, it is to be recollected that treatises, ma-
nuals, and other institutional works of highly scientific
character and well merited reputation, being in the hands
of the public ; and the more modem of many of those works
well according with the actual state, and faithfully repre-
senting the great principles of geological science, much
would fairly be expected of the author who should now
venture to add another systematic treatise to such a store
of scientific information. And, therefore, having regard
to the different and less assuming character of the present
Essay, the Author may be allowed to flatter himself with the
hope that its particular object will relieve him from liability
to the charge of presumption, in placing it before the public.
The richness and diversity of scientific details must not
be looked for in the following Essay. Its want of those
distinctions — if not excused by the particular objects of
the work — ^will, the author hopes^ be thought to be com-
pensated in his endeavours to enforce^ as he has never
failed to recognize, the great result to which the pursuits
of science, in all " its vast survey," should ever lead, viz.
the illustration of the constant superintendence of an
Almighty Being, and the constant impress throughout
creation of an Almighty Hand, — demonstrated not only
through the vast range of existing nature, which it is the
province of other sciences to investigate ; but, throughout
those mysteriously remote and venerable monuments of
primeval ages, which Geology alone possesses the glory of
having restored, and of having exhibited, and even ren-
dered familiar to our comprehension, at this immeasurably
distant period of time.

The author can only claim credit for the motive which
has led to the composition of the following pages ; — for a
very enthusiastic admiration of the science of Geology ; —
and a sincere desire to see the value and importance of the
study, and the validity of its conclusions, unanimously
acknowledged, and by all persons justly esteemed and
understood ; and for the motive of his present endeavour
to extend the growing taste for the cultivation of geological
pursuits — to vindicate a science with a conviction of th«
importance, the useful relations, the interest, and the
exalting tendency of which, his own mind is most forcibly
impressed, and to contribute, however humbly, in placing
so great a subject on its proper footing before the world. —
And he cannot but feel gratefully sensible of the Vantage
ground bespoken for this endeavour^ by the fact of his
being permitted to make it in connexion with patronage so
flattering and eminent^ and to do adequate justice to
which he must inevitably feel his own inability.

To those persons who have made Geology their study,
and to most of those eminently scientific patrons who
honour the Author with their support for the present
work, he feels that the arguments it brings forward can
hardly present any features with which their studies have
not already acquainted them, nor establish for Geology
any merits which they do not fully award to it, or any
claims which they do not already know it to possess. The
arguments brought forward in the present Essay need not
be addressed to the geologist already acquainted with the
testimonies of his science to natural religion, but to the
noviciate inquirer; — nor need they be addressed. to the
theologian, skilled in the deduction from scientific investi-
gations, of evidence to the Being, the Wisdom, and the
Perfections of G od. Those persons, however, who know, and
can best appreciate the exalted merits of geological studies,
desire to see that knowledge extended also to those, whose
want of previous acquaintance with Geology, or whose
too ready credence of the misrepresentations of its few,
but actively mischievous opponents, has led them to
doubt the exalting tendency of its truths, and has de-
barred them irom participation in the peculiar, the sur-
passing interest and satisfaction which every rational and
every sincerely religious mind must experience in the
cultivation of this noble science.

The author is sensible that far more than his efforts
can accomplish, must be expected from an author who shall
presume to write on the subject of Geology, and particu-
larly who shall consider it in its Theological relations,
after the publication of the Bridgewater Treatise, and the
other able works recently added to the common stock of
scientific knowledge, and to the arguments for design in
creation, as deduced in the living world. The magnificent
and inexhaustible department of inquiry, to which the
name of Palaeontology is applied, has been so ably investi-
gated, and so admirably described by the Rev. Professor
Buckland, and some other eminent authorities, that a brief
resum6 of the theological evidences derived from it, is all
that appears suitable to the plan of the following Essay.
And two highly accomplished authors in particular, have
lately so ably, and so fully considered and airanged the
arguments which prove that the discoveries of Geology, —
startling as they appear, — perfectly accord with the state-
ments of the inspired Record, properly understood, that
those arguments need not be gone through in the following
Essay — ^which on this point will be confined to the con-
sideration of their nature and general results, and it will
be a fundamental principle in the argument, that Scripture
does not interpose any bar to the inferences of Geology,
or prescribe any limit to the deductions of science.

While the attractive department of geological inquiry
which relates to fossil organic remains has been so satisfac-
torily considered with reference to the arguments for
Design in Creation^ and to the illustration of the Creator's
Beneficence and Power as exhibited in these monuments
of systems immeasurably anterior to our own^ it is to be
lamented that the mineralogical structure of the globe has
not equally been appealed to for evidences of this exalting
kind — evidences of which that vast department of geolo-
gical inquiry furnishes so inexhaustible, so instructive,
and so interesting a source. The Author of the present
Essay would gladly have directed his humble endeavours
to aid in supplying the deficiency which must be acknow-
ledged to exist in this respect«-a deficiency which he
fears will be too apparent in his own work; — ^but his
opportunities for gratifying an inherited and deeply-
implantod taste for natural science, and for cultivating
the splendid department of research which forms the
subject of the present Essay, are too limited and too few
to give him the means of treating those arguments as they
deserve. The subject of the following work has been
studied, and its pages have been composed by him, in
moments appropriated with zeal, but stolen with difficulty
from the severer studies and duties of a profession which
of itself calls for almost exclusive devotion — a profession,
to advancement in which, the possession of a taste for the
ennobling pursuits of science is fortunately no longer a
bar ; but in which, nevertheless, the author, as a young
student who has his own fortune yet to make, is called on
to renounce, for at all events the earlier years of its pursuit,
that practical cultivation of the varied and extensive
objects of geological inquiry to which his inclinations and
his conviction of its importance would otherwise lead. In
these circumstances therefore, he hopes that a claim will
be presented on his behalf for the indulgent reception to
which he respectfully commends this little work.

In conclusion, it remains for the author to make an
observation which he feels to be necessary, in consequence
of the similarity apparent between the recently published
work of the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith on the ** Relation between
the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science,"
and the present Essay, in regard to some features of the
design, to some of the arguments employed, and to some
of the points taken in the discussion. The author begs
leave therefore distinctly to state, that nearly the whole
of the following pages had been written before the publica-
tion of Dr. Smith's work, which the Author had not the
good fortune to read until within the last few weeks, nor
did he ever attend or read reports of the Rev. Dr. Smith's
lectures on the subject. He might be justly proud of any
community of thought with so learned, so pious, and so
able an authority. Without however presuming to flatter
himself that any such analogy has in any point existed,
he cannot but perceive that the prior appearance of the
able Treatise of the Rev. Dr. Smith, would be very likely
to injure the recognition of the author's own claim to the
merit of any originality in his plan, and mode of treating
the subject of the following pages, were he not to impress
this statement on the reader's attention. It is at the
same time a grateful duty to acknowledge, that from
the perusal of that work he has derived considerable
pleasure and instruction, and has, as it will be seen,
availed himself, on the final revision of the manuscript, of
the advantage also of introducing many appropriate ex-
tracts from that highly talented author.



London, 1840.



CONTENTS.



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

Exalted nature of Geological study — Its results compared
with those of Astronomy — Curiosity and interest attached
to Geological research — Statement of the question at-
tempted to be raised between Geology and Scripture —
The effect of an adherence to the received doctrine of the
Creation, compared with the results of scientific discovery
— Magnificent views of creation unfolded in geological
research — Reasons for entering on a defence of its culti-
vation, and an exposition of the arguments by which its
consistency with Scripture and its value to religion are
proved 1 — 15



CHAPTER II.

General View of the Nature, the Objects, and the
Relations of Geological research.

The province and results of the inquiry — The facts and
conclusions to which it leads — Its theological tendency —
Geology viewed in relation to Astronomical Science and
to other branches of physical inquiry — Its practical value
urged — The peculiar interest attached to Fossil Organic
Remains — ^and remarkable conclusions resulting from
their study ....... 16 — 27



CHAPTER III.

Summary of the Geological Discoveries which establish
THE HIGH Antiquity of the Earth ; and General
View of the Evidences presented by the varied
Strata and Organic Fossils, and of the Reasons for
assigning to its Duration a far more remote Anti-
quity THAN the Era supposed to be fixed by the
Sacred Narrative.

Page.
Nature of Geological Evidence — Validity of its conclusions
— Inconsistency and injustice of their opponents — State-
ment of the Evidences of Terrestrial duration — 1st,
Evidences from Stratification — In the Silurian System —
The Devonian or Old Red Sandstone — In the Superior
formations — In the Tertiary formations — In the antiquity
of Volcanic districts — The discoveries and arguments
from analogy adduced by Dr. MaccuUoch as decisive of
antiquity — Alluvial deposits — General mineralogical cha-
racters of the Strata — Cleavage of Slate Rocks — Strata
derived from older formations — Crystalline Rocks —
Interchange of land and sea — Evidences of repetition of
change — Geological revolutions — The Rev. Dr. Pye
Smith's arguments — The slow elevation of land — High
antiquity of raised Beaches — 2nd, Evidences of Terres-
trial duration drawn from organic remains — Duration
and extinction of species — Remarkable phenomena dis-
closed by geological research as to the distribution of
Fossil organic remains and the boundary lines marked by
certain great formations between the distinct classes of
organic life which successively inhabited the globe —
Earliest forms of life — In the Slate system — Fossils of
the Silurian system — Of the Carboniferous series — Of the
New Red Sandstone and Oolite — Evidences of the distinct
successions of organic life — Predominance of certain
orders — Recent creation of Man — Statement of pro-
portions in recent and fossil species — Lines of separation
of recent and fossil genera — Proportions between recent
and fossil kinds — Summary of the evidences to the
profound antiquity of the Earth .... 28 — 68

CHAPTER IV.

General Considerations on the bearing of certain Con-
clusions IN Geology, upon the Doctrine which the
Mosaic Text has been commonly represented to teach

IN REGARD TO THE AnCIENT HiSTORY AND DURATION OF

THE Globe.

Bearing of the proofs of Terrestrial Antiquity on the doc-
trine hitherto founded upon the Mosaic Text — Erroneous
hypotheses — Independent nature of Geological truths —
Science in harmony with Scripture properly understood
— Erroneous notions of Terrestrial history hitherto built
on the introductory portions of Genesis — Inconsistent
with Science — Triumph of Geology — Danger of insisting
on received interpretation of the text, the evidences
of Geology being paramount and infallible — Importance
of correct judgment on the subject — Presumption and
incompetence of anti- Geologists — Method of cultivating
Geology recommended by the Rev. Professor Sedgwick
— Sure foundation of Geological Science — Considerations
recommending an altered interpretation of the Mosaic
text to render it consistent with actual discoveries —
Comments on the misrepresentations advanced by anti-
Geologists — Arguments of the Rev. Mr. Harcourt — Mr.
Fairholme — Mr. Mellor Brown — His lamentable pretence
of humility — ^Dr. Pye Smith's character of adverse writers
— Digression on Special Pleading — The expedients
adopted by anti-Geologists not sanctioned by reason —
Paramount authority of natural phenomena, vindicated —
Comparative view of the Scientific and of the Popular
doctrines — The Rev. William Vernon Harcourt's Presi-
dential address — Geology and Scripture consistent, and
value of Geology to Religion .... 69 — 96

CHAPTER V.

Considerations arising on the Arguments which prove
THE Portion of the Mosaic Text in question to be

SUSCEPTIBLE OF ALTERED CONSTRUCTION, WITHOUT AF-
FECTING THE SANCTITIES OF REVELATION.

Distinct province of Scripture — The independent authority
of Scripture and of Science not recognized by anti-
Geologists — Consistent reconciliation rejected by preju-
diced readers of the Mosaic text — Opposition to the
Newtonian Philosophy — To the Huttonian System —
Geologists disclaim subjection to the received intepretation
of the text — ^Argument of Mr. Babbage as to the con-
clusion of reason in a parallel case — Concurrent testimony
of Geology to the fundamental announcements of Scrip-
ture — and definition of the point on which alone the
Mosaic text requires to be differently interpreted —
Requisitions of " Simple believers" — Their inconsistency
exposed — Inspired origin of the Mosaic text not questioned
by Geologists — The researches of Science are uncon-
trolled by received doctrines of Scripture — Geology en-
titled to prescribe the construction of the Text in regard
to the history of the Earth — The province of Natural
History foreign to Scripture — Philological reasons for
concluding that the text bears an altered meaning — the
necessity of a condescending style — simplicity of language
employed — Science an unfit subject for Revelation —
No actual revelation of Terrestrial history — The points
on which the discrepancy has arisen are extraneous
features of the Sacred record — Scripture unimpeached —
Value of the testimony of Moses — His veracity not called
in question — ^Documentary Sources of the narrative —
Evidences of Compilation — Dr. Pye Smith's opinion
thereon — Imaginative features probably added — Poetic
character — Object of the Mosaic narrative considered —
Means employed to effect it — Purposes of Revelation —
and sense in which originally received — Conclusion of
the arguments which justify the required change of
interpretation ....... 96 — 130


The Conclusions of Geology considered with reference
TO THE Doctrine which the Mosaic Narrative was

THOUGHT to TEACH AS REGARDS THE CrEATION OF THE

Earth and of Animated Nature.

The popular doctrine stated — Its contradiction by the
testimony of Geological discoveries — Resulting necessity of
an altered interpretation of the Text on which that doctrine
has been founded — Inconsistency of the Opponents of the
truth, and perverseness of prejudice — Hypotheses proposed
for establishing reconciliation of Geology and Scripture —
Insufficiency of those founded on supposed physical
appearances — Satisfactory nature of Philological expla-
nations — The interpretation recommended by the Rev.
Dr. Chalmers — That proposed by the Rev. Professor
Buckland — Dr. Pye Smith — Professor Phillips — Chrono-
logical sequence in the narrative fallacious — Considerations
arising on the fourth day's work of Creation and on the
necessity of the previous creation of other Planets of
Solar System — Resulting conclusion that the order of
narration is immaterial — The difficulty suggested as to
the Creation of Light obviated by a Philological expla-
nation — Reference to the proofs that the commencement
of organic life was long anterior to that of the existing
system — Consistent interpretation proposed — Its recom-
mendations on Philological grounds — The supposed objec-
tion founded on the institution of the Sabbath inapplicable
— Admission by anti-Geologists of the validity of Geolo-
gical doctrines — Creation incomprehensible but its records
easily understood — The occurrence of distinct periods in
Creation fullj consistent with Scripture — ^Arguments
establishing that consistency — Sanction of Hebrew criti-
cism — Interpretation of the " six days'* — Period of the
first Creation — Resulting consistency and satisfactory
reconciliation ISO — 167



CHAPTER VII.

The Conclusions of Geology considered with reference
TO THE Scriptural Doctrine of the Noachian Flood.

Statement of popular errors as to the Deluge — Geological
evidences that the Mosaic Deluge was not the only event
that has affected the globe ~ Proofs of anterior changes —
Summary of those Evidences — Resulting inferences
drawn — Reasons for concluding that the Deluge was not
identical vrith any of the Geological revolutions of the
Globe — No Fossil remains of Man — Their absence ad-
duced as corroborating testimony of Scripture — Fossil
Organic remains are not due to the Deluge — Mosaic
Flood insufficient for production of Geological phenomena
— Theory of interchange of Land and Sea at the period
of the Deluge shewn to be untenable — Land and Sea did
not change places at the Deluge — The Universality of
the Flood not questioned by Geology — Other considera-
tions disprove the assumed Universality of the Deluge
— Arguments by which its Universality is positively con-
tradicted — The Universality of the Deluge not affirmed
by Scripture — Is contradicted by the known laws of nature
—By Geological appearances — By aged Trees and Vol-
canic products — Traditionary testimony to its Univer-
sality unavailing — Credibility of the Sacred Historian also
unavailing — General result . . . 168 — 205



CHAPTER VIII.

General summary of the considerations which form the
subject of the three last preceding chapters; and
of the reasons which have been held by able com-
mentators for admitting the consistency of the re-
SULTS ESTABLISHED IN GeOLOGY WITH THE DoCTRINES OF

Revelation.

Page
Summary of the Arguments by which the consistency of ^
Geology and Revelation is established — General conclu-
sion and deduced result .... 206 — 209



CHAPTER IX.

The NATURE AND TENDENCY OF GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES

considered in their relations to other branches of
Science.

The Relations of Geology to kindred Sciences — Re-animated
historians of the ancient Globe — Eulogium by Sir John
Herschel cited — Considerations of the results of Geolo-
gical inquiry — Evidences of designed adaptation — Privi-
leges of Geological inquiry — Importance of the study of
Organic remains— Inferences stated by Dr. Mantell 210 — 219



CHAPTER X.
The Study of Organic Fossils considered, and the proofs

THEY CONTRIBUTE TO THE EVIDENCES OF DeSIGN IN^

Creation briefly reviewed.

Considerations on the study of Organic remains — Facts
announced in its cultivation — Theological testimonies
thence derived — Retrospective proofs of Design — Peculiar
interest attached to the study of Organic fossils — Vast
amount of Fossil remains — Results of Anatomical inves-
tigation — ^Wonders of Geology — Principles of induction
applied — Identity of system evidenced in the structure of
ancient Fossil animals — Ammonites — Pachydermata —
Fossil Saurians — Interesting character of the study of
these remains — Resulting Evidences of Design — Those
displayed in the structure of the Icthyosaurus adduced —
Connexion of system displayed— Similar Evidences in
Fossil plants — General Conclusion and Theological result

219—238



CHAPTER XL

The Stody of the Mineral Structure of the Globe
recommended as furnishing additional evidences of

beneficent ADAPTATION AND DESIGN.

Evidences of Design a£forded in the Mineral structure of
the Globe, and the disposition or arrangement of its com-
ponent masses — Importance of the actual structure and
collocation of those formations to the welfare of Mankind
— Those relations particularly manifested in the Carbo-
niferous system— and displayed in all the phenomena of
Mineralogical structure — General result . 238 — 246



CHAPTER XII.

Theological Results contributed in the cultivation of
Geology, and more especially by the examination of
Fossil Organic Remains.

The argument of M. Baillie pursued — Considerations on the
Design evidenced in existing and Fossil structures — Pe-
culiar value of those evidences as derived in the Fossil



CONTENTS* XXlll

Page,
world — Identity of system displayed — Evidences of De-
sign from Fossil Plants reviewed — Theological value of
the derived results — Dr. Paley's argument applied — The
evidences of Designed adaptation further considered —
The immediate interest of mankind in those works of cre-
ation of which they cannot claim the exclusive use —
Comparison of the results deduced in Geological research,
with those established in our inquiries in existing Creation,
and arguments resulting from the coincidence of their
testimony to the Eternal Being, the Wisdom and the
Goodness of God — Conclusion . . . 247 — 268

Notes .......... 269

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