Strata Smith on the Reverend Joseph Townsend and The Character of Moses

Dear Mr. Roberts,

In reply to your question, I knew the Revd. Townsend very well; a fine, upstanding Gentleman, widely read, and much loved by his parishioners. He wrote a number of works, but the book to which you are referring is no doubt his "Character of Moses" which he published in 1813. In this work he announced his complete accordance with my tabulation of the English Strata, and had engraved 21 plates identifying the Organic Remains peculiar to each Stratum. These Fossils he had collected himself over a period of many years, and I had the great privilege of organizing them on stratigraphical principles so that in due course he became convinced of the correctness of my System.

In my own day, scientific men were beginning to challenge the agency of the Creator as set down in the Book of Genesis. Being a Pious but Practical man, and having now acquainted myself a little with the views of Geologists now living, I will not attempt to speculate on the influence that He has exerted on the arrangement and Organic Remains of the strata of the Earth, and how much we must allow to the workings of Nature.

I am most respectfully, Sir, your humble servant, Wm. Smith