SINCE the preceding article has been in type, our attention has been called to one of Mr. Renouf's arguments which we have not explicitly met. That gentleman alleges (p. 60) that S. Leo II. classed Honorius among the "inventors" of Monothelism; a fact which would of course be inconsistent with our allegation, that he did not regard his predecessor as having been infected with the heresy at all. We reply confidently by denying the assumed premiss. Undoubtedly S. Leo drew a distinction, between the original promoters of the heresy, who were all dead when he wrote; and their subsequent "imitators and accomplices," many of whom were still alive. But he included among its original promoters, not only its "inventors "-Sergius, Cyrus, &c., &c.-but also the contemporary Pope; who, instead of promptly repressing it as was his bounden duty, "permitted the immaculate to be polluted"; contended against the phrase "two energies"; and "died" without repenting his "error. We maintain that S. Leo's words, even taken by themselves, are utterly incapable of the sense which Mr. Renouf gives them; because to say that Honorius "permitted" the heresy to grow, is to deny by the very force of terms that he was one of its inventors. What man in his senses would say, that Luther permitted Protestantism to infect the Church? But over and above this, it is flagrantly inconsistent with the most obvious historical facts-and so S. Leo must necessarily have known-to represent Honorius as co-inventor of the heresy with Sergius and Cyrus. Even Mr. Renouf must admit, that their system was completed before they brought it in any way under the Pope's notice.

"

As we have added to our article, we may as well make a different remark. The "Pall Mall Gazette" of March 7th makes the astounding statement, that "it would be impossible to describe in too emphatic language the equanimity with which the ordinary" Catholic layman of the day would endure being called a Monothelite"; and that even Papal controversialists take much the same view of the accusation." We cannot be surprised that this sagacious and well-informed scribe should regard the Ultramontane arguments on the Honorius case as showing "the utmost audacity of historical assertion": though that description in truth rather applies, to the incredibly impudent reasoning which Gallicans base on that Pontiff's condemnation. Such however are the blind leaders of the blind in this "enlightened" Protestant country. "Populus vult decipi et decipitur.

ART. V. DR. MOLLOY ON GEOLOGY AND

REVELATION.

Geology and Revelation; or, the Ancient History of the Earth, considered in the light of Geological Facts and Revealed Religion. With Illustrations. By the Rev. GERALD MOLLOY, D.D., Professor of Theology in the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth.

HE very first sentence in the Introductory chapter of Dr. Molloy's book startled us not a little :-" Among the various pursuits that engage the human mind, there are few so attractive as Geology." When, many years ago, we first addressed ourselves to the study of this science-if science it could then be called-it was to us anything but attractive. We had not, however, proceeded far in our perusal of the work before us until we discovered that Geology, though at first sight, and in its naked details and strange nomenclature, dry and repulsive enough, could, by the touches of a master-hand, be made not only a tolerable, but a pleasant and even fascinating study.

The main object of the work is, as the title sufficiently indicates, purely theological; but of the matter, not more than one-fourth bears the slightest trace of reference to theological discussion. In this arrangement the author has, we think, shown excellent judgment; for from it is derived the peculiar value as well as the singular charm of the volume.

There are two records of the creation of the world: one contained in the book of Genesis, and written by the inspired author many long ages ago; the other, which has come to light only in latter days, is derived from varied and extensive examinations-so far as examination can go of the component elements of the earth itself. These investigations have been carried on by land and sea in every quarter of the globe; they have been prosecuted with unfailing ardour and marvellous success down to the present day; and their results constitute what is called the science of geology. Now, on one hand, the apparent as well as more commonly-received interpretation of the inspired record would comprise within a few natural days the whole period intervening between the first creation of matter

* At first sight. For there is no subject of human study which, however dry and unattractive in itself, may not become pleasing and even absorbing by long familiarity with it.

and the introduction of man upon the now completely furnished scene of his great trial and mighty destiny; whereas, on the other hand, "geologists maintain that the crust of the earth has been slowly built up by means of a long series of operations, which would require hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years for their accomplishment; whereas the Bible narrative, it is alleged, allows but the short lapse of six or eight thousand years from the creation of the world to the present time. The geological record, then, seems to contradict the Mosaic; and the question is, how this apparent contradiction is to be explained?"

Some, continues Dr. Molloy, have ventured to solve the problem by rejecting the historical narrative of the Bible; others by ignoring the plain facts of geology. But there is a third class of writers, including many names of the highest eminence and authority, who contend that we may admit the extreme antiquity of our globe, which geology so imperatively demands, without compromising in the smallest degree the truthfulness of the Mosaic story. They say that the chronology of the Bible stops short with Adam, and does not go back to the beginning of the world. By means of the data which the Bible supplies we may calculate, at least roughly, the lapse of time from the creation of Adam to the birth of Christ. But from the first beginning of all created things, when God made the heavens and the earth, to the close of the sixth day, when Adam was introduced upon the scene, there is an interval which, in the Bible narrative, is left altogether undefined and uncertain. This is the view which we hope to develope and to illustrate in the course of the following pages (p. 5).

Writers of the third class, so far as we have seen, are all more or less chargeable with one or other of the following mistakes. They give too much hard, dry, geological details, and thereby repel the uninitiated reader; or they give too little, and suppose what is omitted to be already known; or they mix up the geological and theological, so as to create a certain confusion and vagueness of conception in the mind. Dr. Molloy must have noticed these faults, for he has succeeded to perfection in keeping clear of them all. He divides his essay into two distinct parts. In the first part he confines himself exclusively to the statement and explanation of the geological phenomena; and in this, though at the outset distinctly professing to give nothing of his own, he really shows great originality-for original mental power is often displayed just as much in the manner of treating the discoveries of others as in discovering for oneself. In the first place, he puts aside all mere theories, and confines himself entirely to facts, and inferences fairly deducible from these facts-to those "general conclusions upon which all geologists are substantially agreed, and which, they assure us,

are established by evidence that is absolutely irresistible " (p. 10). Secondly, he selects from the highest and latest authorities, chiefly Sir Charles Lyell, a number of details, and groups and classifies them. He gives quite enough for the purpose he has in view, and gives not one too much; so that a student who merely wishes to acquire such a knowledge of geology as is necessary for the clear and full understanding of the subject, as it bears on the Mosaic narrative, will find all he wants in this book, and need not open any other. Indeed, quite irrespective of that question, it contains all the information that general readers, not engaging in the study as a specialty, would care for having. Then the author so explains terms and phrases, and so simplifies and illustrates as he goes along, that a person of ordinary intelligence, though previously quite ignorant of the subject, can read on without pause, taking in the clear and full meaning as he reads. But what imparts to the book its principal attraction, at least for ordinary readers, is the happy skill which the author displays in the selection of his facts and illustrations. It is not an exaggeration to say that the book combines the accuracy and reality of a purely scientific exposition with much of the charm of a romance.

In the first chapter Dr. Molloy gives a brief but lucid statement of the elementary facts of geology and of the general theory by which these facts are accounted for. The crust or shell of the earth, so far from being one round mass of homogeneous matter, is, on the contrary, composed of a number of substances entirely different in quality and varying in their arrangement; all of which, however, whether soft or hard, are in the technical language of geology called rocks. These rocks are arranged in three divisions, which have also their subdivisions. First, there are the Stratified rocks, so called because they are found to lie one over the other in successive strata or layers-strata of clay, chalk, sand, &c. They are also called Aqueous rocks, because, according to the geological theory, they had been originally formed under water-the process of their formation extending through many thousands of years or of ages. The next division comprises the Igneous rocks, so called, because, according to the same theory, owing to the action of intense subterraneous heat-the actual existence of which, even at the present day, is admitted by all *—they had once been in a state of fusion; and in the cooling lapse of time

"Upon one point all are agreed, that within the crust of the earth an intense heat very generally prevails-a heat so intense that it would be quite sufficient, acting under ordinary circumstances, to reduce all known rocks to a state of igneous fusion" (pp. 16, 17).

had gradually settled into their existing indurated condition. The rocks of this class most commonly known are the granite. To the third division belong the Metamorphic rocks. "In some respects they resemble the Aqueous rocks, while, in others, they are more nearly allied to the Igneous. Like the former, they are stratified in their outward arrangement; like the latter, they are more or less crystalline in their internal texture. As to their origin, we are told that they were first deposited under water like the Aqueous rocks, and that afterwards their internal structure was altered by the agency of subterranean heat. Hence the name Metamorphic, first suggested by Sir Charles Lyell, which conveys the idea that these rocks have undergone a change of form. To this group belong many varieties of slate, and also the far-famed statuary marble of Italy" (pp. 14, 15).

But, besides the component materials and the structure of these rocks, there is another and most extraordinary class of phenomena displayed in them. For of this mighty rock-system "we are told by geologists that it is a vast sepulchre, within which lie entombed the remains of life that has long since passed away. Each series of strata is but a new range of tombs; and each tomb has a story of its own. Here a gigantic monster is disclosed to view, compared to which the largest beast that now roams through the forest is puny in form and contemptible in strength; there, within a narrow space, millions of minute animal frames are found closely compacted together, each so small that its existence can be detected only by the aid of a powerful microscope. In one place whole skeletons are found almost entire, imbedded in the bosom of the solid rock; in another we have a boundless profusion of bones and shells; and again in another, neither the skeleton itself appears, nor yet its scattered bones, but simply the imprint of footsteps once left upon the sandy beach, and still remaining engraved on the stone, into which the fine sand has been converted chiefly by the agency of pressure . . . . These remains of animals and plants imbedded in the crust of the earth are called Fossils; and geologists maintain that the fossils preserved in each group of strata represent the animals and plants that flourished on the surface of the earth, or in the waters of the ocean, when that group of strata was in process of formation. There they lived, and there they died, and there they were buried, in the sand, or the shingle, or the mud that came down from the waters above. Their descendants, however, still lived on, and new forms of life were called into being by the voice of the Omnipotent Creator, making, as it were, a connecting link between the new age of the world that was coming in and the