Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1870-09-21
The Lesson of the Cardiff Giant.


tidc principles that it must have been buried
there by some unknown race anterior TO the
history of the state, etc Now, after such sci-
entifc humbug as this, 10 the name Of common
sense, we would ike to ask those sage inspectors
Of fossils, if they expect US to throw away our
Bibles upon such testimony as their science
renders We happen to know one Of these
worshippors Of " inialliable science We have
looked at some pictures in his book, which arc
said 10 represent bits Of human skeletons fifty
or one hundred thousand years old. Now, from
their appearance TO our dull eyes, and from
the lesson of the Cardiff Giant we can but
question whether they were more human than
hc and whether their origin may not, after
all, have been almost as recent as His High
ness from Fort Dodge Natural science is
in It's incipieney. aud We may say Of it as the
Indian said to the white man, Il j. Mighty
uncertain" Thanks to the giant for this les
son, and let us keep our Bibles little longer.
Ever since the modern revival Of natural
science, the Bible has been the object Of Pc
riodical assault by the students Of nature, and
In the providence Of God the force Of these
attacts has always been broken by later dis
coyeries Of men in their own ranks Indeed,
natural science in lbs developments has proved
TO be a comedy Of errors Some new
thing is found in the bowels Of the earth
some high priest Of nature at once arises and
announces with proud assurance the uner-
ring law Of nature. and draws some amazing
conclusion, which overturns Moses account of
the recent creation and unity Of the human
race. Soon another sayan arises, institutes
fresh researches, exposes the fallacious ioun-
daton Of the former theory, and down comes
the whole superstructure, like the baseless
fabric of a vision Eighty theories Of natu-
raj science have from time to time been ap-
proved by the French Academy, all Of which
are now condemned By that association Of ma
ture's interpreters.
The Bible cannot tally with all the theories
Of natural science, and it is really one pre-
sumptive proof of its divinity, that it does
not perfectly tally with any. Some geolo-
rists hold that the universe at first consisted
Of matter in a gaseous or nebular state. 9th
crs as eminent, reject the theory. Some fill
the earth with molten matter in furious COM
bustion; others with gas; and still others
have lately assured US that granite, hitherto
considered Of gneOus formation and the old
est rock, is Of comparatively recent origin,
that it was elaborated with water, and that
there is no more heat at the centre Of the
earth than at the surface.
Graphite magnetic iron, and even fossils
have been found in granite, which could not
be il it were of igncous formation. More
over, it is found that the temperature dimin-
ishes as you approach the center Of the earih
in some places, as il. Chicago, which facts are
held to cyinco that though fire exists near the
surface in various parts, the great central por-
tion Of the earth is not IN state OF COM
bustiou If this be true, every modern sys-
TEN of geology must be modified or aban-
doued
Dr. Robert Patterson, of Chicago, has ad
duced large number of interesting bunders
Of geologists which bear upon the alleged an
tiquity Of man. He might now add that Of
the Cardiff Giant. He says
These men seem to be like men who
dream, or as if their imaginations have be-
come so accustomed to ages and milenniums
that they are incapable Of sober calculations
Of years and days When they venture on
such calculation for the future, they are al
most invariably disappointed. For instance,
when in 1870 the Russian philosopher, DR..
Hamel, and his party we're swept along the
Grand Plateau Of Mount Blanc by an ava
lanche of snow, carrying three Of his guides
into crevasse, where they perished, he allu-
ded to the possibility Of the re-appearance OIL
their remains, by the slow action Of the glacier,
after an interval Of some thousand Of years.
In August, 1851, they were discovered and
recognized upon the surface of the glacier.
From the correctness Of this calculation Of a
future date, we may infer the accuracy OF
geological chronology of the unknown past.
Peat bogs, in which human remains have
been found at the depth Of twelve feet, whence
great antiquity was inferred, have been
found to grow foot in five years In thirty
six hours a green tree is converted into tos-
sill in California, and into Ignite 10 week
while before your eyes you behold the hardest
porphyry converted into potter's clay, and
the hardest granite so soltened by the acldu-
lated atmosphere that you can crush 1t with
your hand, or cut it with knife as easi
" as unbaked bread. have seen this meta
morphic action affecting all the strata Of the
Nepa Valley. Vegetation runs riot amid this
excess of carbonio acid This discovery at
once aecelerates the formation Of the carbon
ferrous plants many millennums, besides
showing the folly of Lyell's calculations Of
the slow erasion of layas by streams in
Auyergne
On the coast of England ants have been
found, the stony covering of which has 50
completely the aspect Of ancient rock as to !
warrant the conclusion that they were the
growth of countless ages but on removing
the Ainty matrix you find coin bearing the
head of an Edward, James, or even a
George or bolt or an anchor bearing the
mark Of some existing firm. We have had
men counting the successive thin layers OF
delta and sedimentary deposits as indications
of 50 many floods but We know now that
these give no such traces, as mass OF hne
clay deposited in quiet water will stratlty, in |
few hours, into dozens OF layers.
The best modern geologists now prove that
the river beds were not excayated by the ex-
isting rivers, and some of them not by rivers
at all, but that they are earthquake ehasms.
Cyell and a score of other sayants, grayely
cite the researches of Hermer who bored
down seventy feet into the soil Of Egypt for
bits of brick and pottery, and calculated that
the Nile had been depositing that seventy
feet of mud over them during the last thirty
thousand years The matter was solemny
reported to the British Association and the
French Institute, and not one Of these learned
men had common sense enough to put the
question in its proper form, namely How
long will brickbat require to sink seventy
feet into mud bank2 The whole valley of
the Nile is only vast mud bed every year