254 On the Question — Is there Identity between the 



able and sudden, they have exterminated the species, which 

 were not sufficiently strong and vivacious to withstand these 

 new impressions. 



The vigorous species have alone been able to pass from 

 geological to historical times, if it be indeed the case that 

 species exist common to these two periods. We have already 

 said, that recent observations tend to prove the contrary. 

 If the fact of the survival of certain species, and the extinc- 

 tion of others, had been extricated from the uncertainty which 

 still envelopes it, a remarkable agreement would prevail be- 

 tween the physical data and the account given in the Bible. 

 We would no longer have to ask why one portion of organ- 

 ized beings have been destroyed, in the different phases 

 which the ancient creations have gone through, while others 

 have been spared during the modifications of the surface of 

 the globe, and have passed from geological to historical 

 times. 



The partial destruction of certain species of the ancient 

 world, and the survival of others belonging to the same pe- 

 riod, cannot well accord with the best established geological 

 facts. According to these facts, there has been a succession 

 in the appearance of living beings ; but this succession has 

 taken place in such a manner, that these beings have differed 

 from each other, not only from one period to another, but from 

 one period to that which preceded or followed it. Now these 

 epochs, admitted solely for the purpose of rendering the study 

 of the ancient generations more easy, are less real and dis- 

 tinct than such as exist between the creations of geological 

 times and those of the present period. It is therefore pro- 

 bable, according to the general tenor of the best established 

 facts, that the two grand phases through which the earth 

 has passed, have witnessed the appearance of creations 

 totally different, and having nothing in common between 

 them. 



The phenomenon of generations buried in the strata of the 

 earth gives rise to yet other difficulties ; we shall direct at- 

 tention to these, although it may be only to leave the argu- 

 ment without a reply. 



We may consider as belonging to the existing periods, 



