SUCCESSION AND STANDING OF ANIMALS. 159 



disturbances, without any of these altering in any way 

 the progressive character of that succession of organized 

 beings. Truly this shows that the important, the leading 

 feature, of this whole drama, is the development of life, 1 

 and that the material world affords only the elements for 

 its realization. The simultaneous disappearance of entire 

 faunae, and the following simultaneous appearance of 

 other faunae, show further, that, as all these faunae consist 

 in every formation of a great variety of types 2 combined 

 into natural associations of animals and plants, between 

 which there have been definite relations at all times, 

 their origin can never be attributed to the limited influ- 

 ence of monotonous physical causes, which always act 

 in the same way. Here, again, the intervention of a Crea- 

 tor is displayed in the most striking manner, in every 

 stage of the history of the world. 



SECTION XXIV. 



PARALLELISM BETWEEN THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ANIMALS 

 AND PLANTS AND THEIR PRESENT RELATIVE STANDING. 



The total absence of the highest representatives of the 

 animal kingdom in the oldest deposits forming part of 

 the crust of our globe, has naturally led to the very 

 general belief that the animals which have existed during 

 the earliest period of the history of our earth w r ere inferior 

 to those now living, nay, that there is a natural gradation 

 from the oldest and lowest animals to the highest now in 

 existence. 3 To some extent, this is true ; but it is cer- 

 tainly not true, that all animals form one simple series 



1 'DANA, (J. D.,) Address, q. a., p. p. 35. 



142, note 1. 3 See the palseontological works 



2 AGASSIZ, (L.,) Geol. Times, q. a., quoted in Sect. 21. 



