# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 07 08_S180
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

180

Here follow some specimens of how the new heathen assert with the greatest assurance what they have not duly investigated and known.

Toward the end of the last century an Englishman named Brydone published a work under the title of a Journey through Sicily and Malta, which was soon afterwards translated into German. One of the most attractive pieces in it was the description of Aetna, the well-known fire-spouting mountain on the island of Sicily. Brydone relates how he ascended the mountain, and what all he saw and observed there. To make it more intelligible to one or another of our dear readers, what we are now about to quote from Brydone's narrative, we permit ourselves to give the following brief explanation. The lava which breaks forth from fire-spouting mountains, when an eruption takes place, inundates and lays waste whole tracts of land, so that blooming gardens and fields are changed into deserts, on which at first not a green blade is to be found; yet it is wont in the course of time to form a covering of earth again upon the old lava streams, which gradually increases in thickness, so that after long years the land at length stands once more in its old fruitfulness and splendor. Then perhaps a new eruption of the fire-spouting mountain follows, a new inundation of lava and a new devastation, whereupon, however, as the first time, a gradual formation of a layer of earth upon the lava stream and a return of the tract to its former fruitfulness takes place again. And this change may repeat itself often. Brydone now relates that he found on one side of the mountain Aetna a lava stream upon which no layer of earth had yet formed, but which was still quite bare. Of this Brydone conjectured, in consideration of a certain passage in an ancient author, that it proceeded from an eruption of the mountain which had taken place 1700 years before. He relates further that if one drives a shaft into the earth at the foot of the mountain, one passes through 7 layers of earth and just as many layers of lava, each layer of lava being covered by a layer of earth. What conclusion now does the clever man draw? "That lava stream, which is still bare and uncovered, has (according to my conjecture) an age of 1700 years. It requires, therefore, at the very least 2000 years to cover a lava stream with a crust of earth. Now at the foot of the mountain there are found 7 lava streams with such crusts of earth, the one above the other. For the formation of each, therefore, 2000 years were required. Seven times 2000 years makes 14000 years; let no one refute me in that. Therefore the first eruption of Aetna took place 14000 years ago. According to the Bible the earth is scarcely half so old. I, Brydone, cannot err, therefore the Bible must be false." And hundreds received his report with the conclusion drawn from it with exultation. The poor people did like a man who is drowning, and catches at a straw to save himself. They knew, for the Bible testified it to them in agreement with their conscience, that if they did not repent they must be lost forever; therefore, because they would not repent, they sought from anguish and terror to hide themselves thereby, that they imagined, because Brydone had seen a lava stream which was still bare, and which yet according to his conjecture had an age of 1700 years, etc., therefore the Bible also was not true.

Since then it has become known that over Herculaneum and Pompeii, two cities at the foot of the fire-spouting mountain Vesuvius in the Kingdom of Naples, which in ancient times were buried by an eruption of that mountain, there are found in places 6 beds of lava, each with a layer of earth upon it. When these cities were buried is known quite exactly, and is to be found in every history of the world. It happened, namely, in the same year in which the Roman general Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem, became Roman emperor, namely A. D. 79. It is therefore not yet fully 1800 years ago. Since those lava streams with their layers of earth are found over the houses and streets of the cities, there is no doubt that they were formed within 1800 years. But if 6 lava streams with their layers of earth were formed in 1800 years, then 7 at the foot of Aetna may also have been formed in 2100 years, of which Brydone says that 14000 years were required for their formation.

The age of the lava stream at the side of Aetna Brydone had not investigated at all; he had only conjectures, that it amounted to 1700 years. Further, he did not perceive that, granting 1700 years were also the age of that lava stream, it by no means follows therefrom that elsewhere 7 lava streams, each with its layer of earth, must be also seven times as old, as could be deduced from rational grounds, and as can be established from facts. But although he had neither duly investigated nor known the matter, he nevertheless asserted it with such assurance that the Bible must rather be false than that he should be wrong. Just as light-minded, and unworthy of the name of serious and sober men, show themselves also all those who gave applause to Brydone on this point.

Some decades after Brydone a German book appeared, which had for its author indeed a preacher, but, to judge by that very book, one whose god was his belly. The title was "Die Urwelt, oder Beweis von dem Dasein und Untergange von mehr als einer Vorwelt von Ballenstedt." He has apparently set himself a similar aim as Brydone on the point cited, namely to prove from certain observations in nature that the world must be much, much older than it is according to the Bible, so that therefore the Bible deserves no faith.

He says among other things: Granite is a durable kind of stone; the Egyptian pyramids*), over 3000 years old, are not weathered **); the granite on the Brocken, however, is weathered. "What follows now from this? Judging by the degree of weathering of the granite blocks exposed to the air, the earth must already be 40 to 60,000 years old! — Away, then, with the Jewish reckoning of the creation of the world, which was suited only to the childhood of the world, but at which every better-informed and intelligent person must now smile and shrug his shoulders." That Ballenstedt found applause, as did Brydone, may be imagined, and appears from this, that his book went through several editions. Now the following is a report founded upon the most reliable accounts concerning the pyramids: "They consist of enormous blocks of limestone —; in antiquity they were so covered with marble or granite that they had a smooth surface."†) So that is how matters stand. The world must be 40 to 60,000 years old, and the Bible false, for the pyramid granite, which exists nowhere else than in the head of Ballenstedt and of some other equally ill-informed people, is not yet weathered. In addition, it has been found that an obelisk††) which in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, lay overturned among rubbish, was quite weathered on the upper side, but well preserved on the under side, protected against the weather. And this obelisk is really of granite.†††)

It repeats itself, then, in Ballenstedt, and in those who gave him applause, what we saw in Brydone and his disciples. He had not investigated of what the pyramids consisted, further had taken no notice of such facts as the weathering of the obelisk granite, and nevertheless asserted, just because he was in error as to the one and in ignorance as to the other, thus on the ground of error and ignorance, with the greatest assurance in the world, that the earth was 40 to 60,000 years old, and the Bible false. Certainly a light-minded man, and unworthy of the name of a serious and sober man, even according to the judgment of the old heathen. No more favorable judgment falls upon those who gave him applause.

*) The pyramids here meant are still existing enormous tower-shaped, four-sided structures in Egypt on the left bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Cairo, and erected by ancient Egyptian kings.

**) That is, from the surface inward, by the destructive influences of the weather changed into a crumbling or earthy mass.

†) The passage is found in Blanc's Handbuch des Wissenswürdigsten aus der Natur etc., which in this respect has as its warrant travel descriptions such as that of Niebuhr and others.

††) Obelisks are hewn blocks of rock of a form similar to the pyramids, but smaller than they.

†††) According to Dr. Clarke's account of his travels, a writer of recognized conscientiousness, of comprehensive knowledge and great care in his observations.