268 Professor Pictet on the Distribution of Fossils. 



the degree of perfection rises in proportion as we approach the 

 most recent epochs. This law has long been considered a* 

 demonstrated, and it has been made a starting-point for nu- 

 merous theoretical notions. A more strict and rigorous 

 analysis has of late years greatly shaken its authority, and 

 we may now affirm, that it has been, at least, considerably 

 exaggerated. Its importance, whether viewed in itself or in 

 its consequences, requires that we should devote some space 

 to the discussion of it. 



Among the principal causes which have given rise to this 

 idea, and which have encouraged its development, may be 

 mentioned the agreement which seems to prevail between 

 it and the text of Genesis, as well as the support it affords 

 to certain theories which we shall afterwards explain and 

 refute. 



The account of Moses,* which divides the creation into 

 days, on the third of which vegetables were created, on the 

 fifth, aquatic animals and birds of the air, on the sixth, 

 reptiles and terrestrial mammifera, seemed to receive a 

 remarkable confirmation from the fact, that geology de- 

 termined the successive appearance of these beings, in an 

 order very nearly similar to that indicated by the Sacred 



* It is scarcely necessary to say here, that in refusing to admit, in the 

 narrative of Moses, an intimate connection with any geological theory, 

 we are far from entertaining any desire to weaken the authority of this 

 part of the sacred writings. The authenticity of the Old Testament, and 

 the credence due to it in all that it relates, rest on too substantial proofs 

 to have any need of constant support from geology. Human sciences 

 do not advance with a regular and uniform progress ; they often undo 

 to-day what they did yesterday. It is requisite, therefore, that their pro- 

 gress should be independent of all authority, and that the study of facts 

 should be their only guide. We have already seen, in the history of 

 palaeontology, that the same theories have by turns been considered as 

 conformable to the sacred writings, and as opposed to them. The case 

 is probably the same with regard to the agreement of the days of crea- 

 tion with the geological epochs ; science is so far from having explained 

 all respecting the origin of the world, that it is impossible to attach any 

 importance to this point. Moses' narrative is, moreover, too brief, and 

 not sufficiently precise, to comprehend all the geological considerations, 

 and to furnish arguments in favour of such and such a manner of ex- 

 plaining phenomena at once so lengthened, so vast, and so complicated. 



