earth....

"The two most interesting geological facts therefore, namely, that
distinct organisms are to be found in distinct formations respectively;
and secondly, _that no remains of man, and few or none of the other
races at present surviving, are to be found in any but comparatively
recent formations,_--these two grand facts of geology, we say, instead
of pointing back to vast cycles of ages before the creation, seem to
point merely to the peculiar physical circumstances of the fallen planet
in the interval between those two eventful stages in its history, the
Fall and Flood, and the natural consequences of these circumstances in
causing distinct divisions, and some of these of different elevations,
among the organic living creatures, during the interval." One other
circumstance completes this really original and beautiful hypothesis.
The cosmogonist holds that the Flood,--no mere tranquil rising of the
waters, as some suppose,--was accompanied by terrible convulsions, which
reduced to utter ruin the already shattered earth. The granitic dome
fell inwards upon the central furnace; and the fires, bursting outwards
under the enormous pressure, found vent at the surface, and made the
volcanoes. And this collapsed and diminished world,--scarce half the
bulk of the old one,--with no heating furnace under its polar regions,
nor aught save the merest tatters of an aurora flitting occasionally
over them,--greatly too dense in itself, and surrounded by a greatly too
dense atmosphere,--with its huge mountains, vast oceans, wide steppes,
and arid deserts, with its snows, its frosts, its drenching rains, its
horrible tempests, its terrible thunder storms, and devastating
earthquakes,--all alike frightful defects, not in the original plan,--is
not only unlike the primeval world, not very good, or, unlike the
antediluvian world, tolerably good, but not good at all. "On taking a
bird's-eye view of the geographical and hydrographical features or
superficies of the globe," says this bold writer, "any unprejudiced
person must at once admit, that in either of these departments there is
scarce a trace of that beautiful, tasteful, and economical design which
we have a right to expect from the admitted qualities of the great
Author, and his avowed object in the structure and report of it when
newly finished." It is added, however, that "its _present object_, as
the _Siberia_--the penal settlement--of expatriated rebels, it is in its
_pres