“The more you learn,” he replied, “of the structure of the earth, and of the prodigious thickness of the strata, which once must have lain horizontally, and which have been since torn up and thrown into every angle of inclination, the more readily you will form an idea of the stupendous power with which that cause must have operated. The changes which are now in constant progress are very limited in their effects, and are entirely confined to the surface. The action of frost in crumbling the rocky tops of the mountains; and of rivers in carrying the fragments to the sea, and thus altering the outline of the coasts, I have already mentioned. Considerable changes are also produced by avalanches, by inundations, and by the unceasing action of the waves of the sea. But these changes are slow, and can never be very extensive. “The effect of volcanoes is greater; and, though many countries bear the traces of having been overflowed by vast torrents of lava, they are now confined to a comparatively small portion of the globe. But if they were far more numerous or extensive, volcanoes could not have raised up or overthrown the strata through which their apertures pass, still less could they have acted upon those immense regions which are not volcanic. The mind, indeed, is lost in astonishment at the means employed by nature in feeding these enormous fires from such prodigious depths; but still we must perceive how inadequate they are to account for the revolutions which appear to have shaken the earth to its foundations. The same reasoning applies to earthquakes; their consequences are awfully great in the adjacent country, but very far from being equal to explain the subversions which appear to have occurred in every corner of the world that has been visited.
“In short, all the greatest possible efforts of those causes that can be supposed to have taken place since the creation, cannot have inverted the strata, nor inclosed great quadrupeds in solid stone, nor imbedded bones, shells, and vegetables, in the middle of compact rocks, nor have deposited complete strata of shell-fish at the tops of the highest mountains; nor could they have swept away whole species of animals which once inhabited the earth; causes, which evidently extend through a limited space, and whose effects are only partial, could never have operated throughout the globe, to produce the general and amazing changes that we observe in all parts of it. To produce such a universal effect, the cause must have been not only powerful, but general.
“Sacred history alone furnishes us with the knowledge of this general and powerful cause—the Deluge. What physical means Providence employed to produce this great convulsion, have not been revealed to us, but that the whole globe must have been involved in its fury is everywhere apparent. The former bed of the ocean must have been lifted up; former continents must have been sunk; and the entire crust of the earth must have been rent, shattered, and tossed into every variety of position.”
12th, Sunday.—‘And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place.’
“The place alluded to here,” said my uncle, “was his own country, Mesopotamia. His prophecies having been delivered, the design of heaven was answered, and the instrument was thrown aside. The wicked Balaam was now left to pursue the schemes of his ambition; and they were intended to be as destructive to the Israelites as if he had even succeeded in cursing them. Josephus tells us, that Balaam informed the king that he could never subdue the Israelites, unless they should be disobedient to their God; and he instructed him how to make them so. This seems to be confirmed in Sacred History by Moses, who says that Balaam ‘caused the Israelites to commit trespass against the Lord,’ and also by St. John, in the second chapter of Revelations. The consequence was a severe plague which was inflicted on them as a punishment, and which swept off many thousand people.
“The history of this obdurate Prophet furnishes a deplorable instance of the weakness of the human heart, and of the obstinacy with which it clings to sinful passions, in spite of the most solemn warnings. Balaam could not forego the tempting offer of Balak, nor the allurements of his own ambition: after having been refused permission to go to that king, and after having been obliged to bless the people instead of cursing them, he endeavoured, by his mischievous counsel, to seduce the Israelites into idolatry. He expressed indeed a hope of dying the death of the righteous, but for that purpose he should have lived the life of the righteous. He was cut off by the avenging sword; and his end furnishes an awful example of the gradual progress of sin, and proves that extraordinary ‘gifts of the Spirit’ are not always accompanied by the genuine ‘fruits of the Spirit.’ When we possess extraordinary talents, or any peculiar gifts from Providence, we should consider them as so many temptations or trials, and pray the more humbly and strenuously for assistance to use them virtuously.”
My uncle then explained that to tempt, is an old English word, which signifies to try; it is frequently so used in all our old works, as well as in the Bible. The forty years’ temptation in the wilderness evidently means trial. Forty years long did I tempt and prove thee—that is, did I try thee. Again, in the text, “to take him a nation from amidst another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders,” Deut. iv. 34. The word “temptations” is undoubtedly put for trials; for the miracles wrought in Egypt were real trials both to the Egyptians and to the Israelites, who were thereby given the alternative of obedience, or of obstinate resistance. And St. Paul repeatedly tells us, that even good men are allowed to fall into trying circumstances, for the exercise and improvement of their virtue.
13th.—My aunt has been shewing me various species of the aphis to-day.
There are two distinct sorts which belong to the plum tree, one of a yellowish green, with a round short body; the other oblong, of a bluish green, enamelled with white. The same kinds are found on the gooseberry and currant; and the rose tree supports three distinct species.
There are some amusing circumstances told of the singular friendship that appears to subsist between these little animals and ants, with whom they share the honey they obtain, and are in return assisted and protected. I met this morning with an entertaining account of these facts in the Dialogues on Entomology, which my aunt lent me last month.