tended then, that the actual position of the Romanists is, on Catholic principles, identical in both cases, we are at a loss to conceive. All that can be said is, that the schism in this country has been supported and patronized by the Roman Catholic Church generally; and therefore that we must consider the whole communion identified with it; and must, in consistency, either justify or condemn the whole body.

This wears, undoubtedly, some appearance of reasoning; but we must take leave, in the first place, to deny that the whole Roman Catholic communion is to be involved in a charge of schism, because the See of Rome and some of the bishops extend encouragement to the schismatics of these countries. Doubtless all those who do actually communicate with them are, to a certain extent, involved in the responsibility of their position; but it would be difficult we think to prove, that the whole body of the Roman Catholic Church does thus actually communicate. Probably hundreds of their bishops, and millions of their clergy and people, may never have had opportunities of holding any such communion. Supposing it, however, to be really as universal as it is assumed to be, we should still not be obliged to involve the whole of the Roman Church in the guilt of encouraging manifest schism; for it is quite certain that the facts of the Reformation, and the history, principles, and doctrines of the English Church are generally most imperfectly and therefore unfavourably known to Roman Catholics in other parts of the world; and the opinion which is generally entertained on the subject of the Papal supremacy, leads, of course, to inferences destructive of the claims of our Church. While, therefore, on Church principles many Roman Catholics are highly blameable for the encouragement they hold out to schism, justice and charity oblige us to exempt the generality of them from any such a charge. As far as the question of the theory of the Church is concerned indeed, there would be no insurmountable difficulty in admitting that the Roman communion generally is involved in schism: this would not affect in any way the position of our Church. The Catholic Church would be still preserved in our communion, and in that of the Greek Church, and elsewhere; so that we are not in any way obliged to defend the Roman communion from the imputation of schism; our position does not depend on establishing this point.

We have said this, because we cannot well conceive a greater evil, than the prevalence of a persuasion, that the vindication of the real claims and position of the Irish and the English Church leads necessarily to the patronage and encouragement of Romanism.

ART. III.-Travels in North America; with Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. By CHARLES LYELL, &c., F.R.S. 2 vols. London: Murray, 1845.

WE have here, for once, a book on America which we trust may circulate throughout the Union, without causing the slightest insurrection of the national bristle. "There is no offence in it :" unless, indeed, there should be found, here and there, among the race of Jonathan, a specimen so sensitively organised, as to be disturbed by Mr. Lyell's failing to proclaim, that even the very stratification of American earth is incomparably more perfect than that of any other region of this terraqueous globe. Every thing above the surface there, without exception, we well know, surpasses all that has ever been seen, or heard, or read of, in the history of man. And who can doubt that, if the "bowels of the land" were but impartially explored, all its subterranean arrangements would turn out to be equally matchless and transcendent? The malcontent, however, we hope, will benevolently_recollect that, after all, geology is as yet but in its infancy. In the course of time, as the science advances, the most ample justice will, no question, be done to the superior excellence of the minerals and fossils of the transatlantic world!

But there is another cause for satisfaction at the appearance of this little work. We find that Mr. Lyell's expedition was undertaken chiefly with scientific views. His main object evidently was to examine the geological structure of the western continent, and to augment, with the result of his observations, the scientific riches of his native country. Now this is as it should be. The science of geology is, at this time, fairly launched; and it will hold on its course, in spite of protest or remonstrance on the part of certain timorous theologians; those, namely, who are in sore dismay lest the ark of the Mosaic cosmogony should be rudely shaken by the hand of modern curiosity. Under these circumstances, it is infinitely important that the process of discovery should be conducted by men who, like Mr. Lyell, are passionately devoted to the work, and at the same time are patient of the toil exacted by the austere genius of the inductive philosophy. Through the exertions of such men, geology is now occupied, and will be occupied for many a generation to come, in collecting,

:

and recording, and classifying, its phenomena. And so long as this noble task shall remain in the hands of hard-working, soberminded, well-disciplined, enthusiasts, so long may the Christian world continue free from all apprehension lest the book of nature should eventually be found at variance with the book of Revelation. And for these reasons it is that we augur well for the cause of truth, when we see inquirers like the author of these volumes going forth upon a pilgrimage in pursuit of facts, and prepared to undergo the severest labours of registry and tabulation. The spectacle is one which affords us some security against the mischief and confusion incident to a spirit of rash and hasty generalization. It is fatal to all hope of a revival of the ancient tyranny of hypothesis. Not that Mr. Lyell is altogether free from the influence of any fixed idea. His favourite notion is manifestly this that, as the Supreme Demiurgus has infinite space to work in, so also has he infinite time. The depths of space, throughout which the miracles of the physical creation are dispersed, are so stupendous, that, although calculation may exhibit them to the eye in the symbols of infallible arithmetic, no effort of thought can bring them within the compass and capacity of any human conception. And even so, the march of creative energy may be traced backward into the unfathomable abyss of time, till understanding and imagination are utterly bewildered and lost in the greatness of their way." But although this notion evidently pervades the whole region of his speculations, it does not, that we can perceive, tyrannize over his mind. With him, it serves all the legitimate purposes of an hypothesis. It animates him to an encounter with the heaviest drudgery of investigation it does not absolve him from a minute attention to phenomena: it does not tempt him to say, as was once said by some one who was in a state of idolatry to his own opinion, “If the facts be against me, I cannot help that so much the worse for the facts.' On the contrary, it only prompts him to indefatigable industry in the collection of all attainable evidence. He himself warns us to "remember how small a portion of the earth's crust is accessible to human observation; three-fourths of the globe being submerged beneath the ocean, and a fraction only of the remainder being, as yet, investigated by geologists.”—vol. ii. p. 127. And this same cautious and laborious spirit, we trust, will never cease to actuate and to direct the magnificent literature which geology is now, and long has been, gathering round itself.

Of the mischiefs arising from an ignorant meddling with this branch of knowledge-especially while in its state of growththe world has recently had before it one most portentous instance. Many of our readers will immediately understand that

we allude to a late publication, which under the solemn title of "Vestiges of the Creation" has done what could be done by such a puny effort, to consign the Creator to a dishonourable banishment from his own universe. They who have seen the work, (and its circulation has, unhappily, been considerable,) will recollect that the author, in an evil hour, has had the hardihood to call in the science of geology to the aid and support of one of the most monstrous-we might add, one of the most disgusting theories, which ever insulted the dignity of man, or outraged the sacredness of revelation. According to this hypothesis, all organic life commences in a monad: and the monad, in the course of ages, and under the influence of appropriate conditions, developes itself successively, through all the intermediate forms of life, till it reaches the highest type of organized existence. The Mosaic account of the origin of the human race is, therefore, a mere legend. The Creator had no need to trouble himself with the formation of an Adam or an Eve. The only real Adam and Eve were but specimens of the latest and most perfect development of the monad. The monad, in due lapse of time, had expanded itself into the ape: and under some peculiarly happy combination of circumstances, the ape became the progenitor of the male and female Homo. It is true, that since the promotion of the ape into the man, the man has made no further advances on the scale of physical and organic perfection. But who can tell what may happen? For some 6000 years, the Homo has been undisputed lord of the terrestrial creation. But still, who knows but that, by virtue of certain genial and felicitous influences of temperature and diet, a race may spring up, which shall be to the man, what the man now is when compared with the baboon, or the chimpanzee? In the mean time, what remains for us, but to glorify ourselves in our illustrious genealogy; and to contemplate the monkey department in all zoological collections, with feelings of profound and almost filial veneration?

Now this is the hypothesis which has rashly appealed to geology as its voucher. We are told that the organic remains. which are found embedded and fossilized in the bowels of the earth, exhibit an order of physical development, which corresponds precisely with the alleged progress of the simple germ or monad, through all successive stages, up to the most perfect and complicated structures. By this time, the public are pretty well acquainted with the utter and ignominious failure of this attempt. It has recently been shown', beyond all further controversy, that

1 We here allude to the masterly essay on this subject, which has lately appeared in the Edinburgh Review, and which common report ascribes to one of the most accomplished and indefatigable geologists of our day.

the science of paleontology refuses to countenance the audacious theory in question; and, in many particulars, gives the direct lie to it. This it is for shallow sciolists, or solitary dreamers, to rush in, where none but the hardy and laborious pioneers of science ought to tread. If the author had prosecuted his researches, like Mr. Lyell and his brethren, in the arduous and rugged school of induction, this odious manifesto of Pantheism would, in all probability, have never seen the light. It is to be hoped that the visionary adventurer will never again hazard an illustration drawn from any region of human knowledge which he has not himself thoroughly explored. Let him go forth from his seclusion, and examine with his own eyes, the records of bygone cycles of time, as engraven on the monumental relics which every hour is disclosing to our view. Let him listen to the responses which nature gives to those, and to those only, who patiently and reverentially inquire of her. He may be quite assured that her oracles will never be found at variance with those of revealed truth. He may, indeed, find himself utterly unable to reconcile them with each other. But this is a task which may be very safely left to minds of a much higher order than his own. Wisdom was not born with him; and assuredly wisdom will not die with him. One thing, above all others, he should bear constantly in mind, -that, in England at least, the nineteenth century is an age by no means patient of mere reveries. It is a prosaic, utilitarian, unimaginative age. It may, indeed, have too much tendency to play the wanton, now and then, with the sordid genius of materialism; and this propensity may have tempted the author to promise himself a triumphant reception for abortive fancies, which degrade human nature without solving any one difficulty adhering to its condition. But let him not be deceived by a transient gust of popularity, blowing, as it does, from the regions of capricious curiosity, and busy idleness. There is at work in higher quarters, a spirit of stern and rigorous inquiry, which must, eventually, prove fatal to the pretensions of all rickety and misbegotten theories. There is no more mercy now for middling philosophers, than there ever was for middling poets. The "Investigator of Creation" has received one shrewd lesson to this effect; and we heartily hope that he will never need another.

But to return to Mr. Lyell. His business being principally with subterranean matters, he was anxious to avoid all needless distraction from the hospitalities and recreations of the upper world. He did not go to America as a lion, or a diner-out. He accordingly solicited of his friends in England that their letters of introduction should be such as to secure for him, not