their people have banished themselves from communion with God-For any thing he can tell, many a visit has been made to each of them on the subject of our common Christianity, by commissioned messengers from the throne of the Eternal-For any thing he can tell, the redemption proclaimed to us is not one solitary instance, or not the whole of that redemption which is by the Son of God, but only one part in a plan of mercy, equal in magnificence to all that astronomy has brought within the range of human contemplation-For any thing he can tell, the moral pestilence, which walks abroad over the face of the world, may have spread its desolations over all the planets of all the systems which the telescope has made known to us-For any thing he can tell, some mighty redemption has been devised, to meet the disaster in the whole extent and malignity of its visitation-For any thing he can tell, the wonder-working God, who has strewed the fields of immensity with so many worlds, and spread the shelter of his omnipotence over them, may have sent a message of love to each, and re-assured the hearts of its despairing people, by some overpowering manifestation of tenderness,'

Fossils. These stony masses are of great importance in geology; they are the lights of the science; they serve the same purpose with medals in history. They explain the revolutions of the globe, and the epochs at which they occurred. They convince us that the various strata wherein they are found were successively formed; that though found at a great depth, they once existed near the surface; that they were contained in a fluid, and that that fluid has ebbed away and left them bare. They intimate, also, that this has occurred repeatedly. They also afford proof that the chemical nature of the fluid has been various; that the sea has changed its bed; that the present continents and high land were once covered by the ocean.

Some of the limestone rocks of England are above 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and they contain stores of zoophytes and the fossil habitations of animals, once tenants of the ocean. They are found in Mount Perda, the highest summit of the Pyrennees; and Humboldt has observed them at the height of 14,000 feet in the Andes. In the earthy limestone of the upper strata are found fossil flat-fish, the impression of their scales and bones being distinct; the fossil remains of the alligator and of zoophytes, different from those of the lower strata. In the clay above the slate are found the bones of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and elephant.— Many of these fossil species are not now found existing among the beasts of the forest; and many of the marine species are also declared to be extinct, no traces of them being now found in the ocean.

The much and justly reputed author, in the passage above quoted, seems to admit all that the cunning and arch gainsayer Paine suggests. But, as it has been well remarked, though such representations as he has given, in answer to such objections, may amuse, please, and flatter the believer, they will never make any salutary impression on the sceptical mind. No; they must be entirely of a different nature, and such as to lay hold of the heart.-Nor ought it to be granted without better proof, that moral evil has contaminated and made its way into so many worlds, as these authors would suppose. It is much more like the truth, that God is an object supremely beloved by the most of his intelligent creatures; that the great majority are for him, and not against him; and that the redemption of this insignificant spot, is not so small an affair as some would affect to The fossil relics of marine animals represent it; but that it is commensu- incorporated with the densest rocks, rate with the vast extent of creation, shew there was a period when the and is calculated to preserve all intel- highest mountains were washed by ligent creatures in obedience to the the sea, and demonstrate one of two laws of Him whose character of holi-things, either that the ocean.has re

ceded and fallen below its former level, or that the continents, islands, mountains, &c. now existing, arose out of the bosom of the waters.

the testaceous tribes. Those that are not readily observed may be supposed to be no more; but no one can decidedly tell, whether they do not flourish in the lower parts of the deep. Hence, from this probability, belemnites, cornu ammonis, &c. have been called oceanic or kelagic shells.

Geologists say, that every stratum was once the uppermost rock, and therefore the lowest is the most ancient, and their contemporaneous formation is denied, because the al- It may be objected, that as new and ternate rocks contain abundance of extraordinary species of animals have the reliquiæ of dissimilar species and been found in modern times-in Ausgenera. Hence they infer, also, the tralasia-as the ornithorynchus, kanseniority or juvenility of the several garoo, flying opossom, &c. so the dismarine animals. No human skeleton- covery of other lands, and the explorno human bone-has been found fos- ation of vast deserts, yet untried, silized in the lower or in undisturbed | may lead us to an acquaintance with alluvial ground; which seems to prove animals of the same species with those most decidedly, that man is what our now said to be abolished. Islands of most sacred records teach us, that he a moderate size, and remote from is a tenant of the earth of not very large continents, have very few aniremote antiquity. mals, and these have been transported from other countries. Cook and Bougainville found no quadrupeds in the South Sea islands besides hogs and dogs. And when the West India islands were discovered, the largest quadruped found was the agouti, an animal smaller than the rabbit.

Whether the orders of more imperfect beings were of antecedent date to himself, is to my mind not so convincingly proved, by their being found in situations where no traces of man exist, since it is not an improbable supposition that the sepulchres of the antediluvian population have at present the ocean superincumbent on them, and are for ever hid from discovery. Cuvier has, with a talent peculiarly his own, applied the fossil remains of quadrupeds as chronometers of strata and rocks.* The relics of marine animals are not so much to be depended upon; they are probably changed by the chemical nature of the fluid containing them. Those inhabiting particular spots, may have been driven away by other species and genera. The skeletons of quadrupeds shew certainly that dry land existed in their vicinity, and they also clearly denote inundations, and those, too, repeated.

If these overflowings had been general, the entire class of land animals must have been destroyed, and their races have become extinct. Millions of marine animals may have been cast up, but their races may have dwelt securely in their peaceful retreats, at the bottom of the ocean. Extinct species of quadrupeds may be more easily discovered than those of marine animals, for their number is more limited, and we are more ignorant of

* It will be seen from what follows, that I have made free use of Cuvier's work-indeed, there is no other source of information on fossil quadrupeds.

The astonishing and unexpected forms of animals discovered in New Holland, might support such expectations, if any great continent remained to be discovered; but navigators well know that no great tract of land can now be discovered, unless towards the Antarctic Pole, where living beings could not be expected to exist. Cuvier has well remarked, that although men may not have penetrated very far into the interior of many regions; yet nothing prevents animals from roaming. And though mountains cross their path, yet they are broken through by rivers; and in these fervid countries, animals will follow the course of the streams.

Hence it was that the ancients, who never passed beyond certain limits, were well acquainted with all the most remarkable animals of the then known world.

Cuvier enumerates many of the animals well known to the ancients, some of which were as well described by Aristotle as by Buffon. Some may suppose that many animals described by the ancients may now be found by careful search, such as the Pegasus, of Thessaly; the Minotaur, of Crete; or the Chimera, of Epirus.

But Cuvier has admirably shewn these ridiculous stories to be fables,

parous or oviparous classes, and 49 are entirely unknown.

by applying the tests of comparative | mity moving in the socket must have anatomy. The carnivorous bull, for a certain form; that the resistance, example, devoured every other ani- the moving power, and the fulcrum, mal in its way. But who would be- should be proportioned to each other. lieve that this was more than a fable, The temporal muscle must be of a cerwhen it would require such an unna- tain size, but then the cavity in which tural combination of organs, as cloven it is lodged must be of a certain depth, hoofs and horns, with teeth for tear- and the zigoma, or arch, under which ing and cutting flesh. The oryx is it passes, must be suitably convex, said to have had one horn situated in and must be strong enough to sustain the middle of the forehead; but this the action of the masseter muscle. animal was ruminant, and cloven foot- Hence the principle of discrimination ed. Now Camper has shewn, that if is evident, by which naturalists are this were the case, the frontal bone enabled to ascertain the genus and would be divided by a suture, and species of an animal by a careful exatherefore the horn must have been mination of one or more parts of its placed on this longitudinal division of bony structure. A bit of bone, a the bone; which is an impossibility. mere apophysis, enables the sagaThere are certain difficulties in de- cious Cuvier to describe the class, termining the general species of order, genus, and species, of the aniquadrupeds, as they are usually mal to which it belongs. In this way drawn from the hair, colour, or other he has classed the fossil remains of peculiarities, which are destroyed pre-78 different quadrupeds, in the viviviously to their incrustation. But Cuvier has employed comparative anatomy extensively, and has found invariably certain conformations of the bony structure, which accord with the habitudes and peculiarities of the individual quadruped. Every animal is possessed of organization for certain purposes, and there is a natural accordance and connection of parts. These several parts, examined separately, indicate the forms and properties of other parts, as they are made to concur to the production of the same object. Hence, if the viscera of an animal should be fitted for the solution and digestion of recent flesh, it could be most assuredly affirmed that the jaws of the animal were so constructed as to tear and devour its victim,—that there were peculiarities of the teeth, for lacerating and separating it. The limbs or organs of progression being adapted for pursuit, there must be instinct of smell for discovering, of the brain for concealment, and for planning to catch its prey. Thus one part clearly indicates the nature and form of other parts of the organized body, having a certain determinate and mutual relation one to another.

One or two points more, and we must leave this interesting subject, referring those who wish for more information to Cuvier's unrivalled work. In order that the jaw may be enabled to seize and lay hold on objects, the condyle or rounded extre

The oviparous quadrupeds are found in more ancient strata than the viviparous. The monitors of Thuringia would be senior still, if the copper slate, wherein they are found, is allowed to be the earliest of the secondary formations. The great alligators and crocodiles, and tortoises, of Maestricht, are found in the chalk, being both marine animals. This discovery of fossil bones enables us to conclude, that dry land and fresh waters existed before chalk; but there are not found at this early period, nor even in the chalk posterior to it, the fossil remains of any mammiferous land quadrupeds. The bones of the mammiferous sea animals, viz. the lamantin and seal, are first observed in the vicinity of Paris, in the coarse shell limestone covering the chalk strata; and Cuvier, who has examined the circumstance with indefatigable ardour, has never been able to discover any mammiferous land quadrupeds, but immediately on reaching the formations lying above the coarse shell limestone, abundant stores of them are opened. Cuvier suggests, that oviparous quadrupeds began to exist along with the fishes, and that the land quadrupeds did not appear until a period considerably later than the chalk formations.

The races supposed to be extinct are always lower, and accordingly lie in the more ancient strata, while the

mised by those who had never been THE MAHOMETAN CAPITAL, IN A LETsuspected of fraud-and families long at variance were reconciled during the common calamity. Father Kircher describes his own sensationhis own reflections. On every side ruin! Whither should I fly? At that hour, O how vain was every sublunary happiness-Wealth, honour, empire, wisdom, all were useless sounds, and as empty as the bubbles of the deep I recommended myself to God, as my last great refuge.