the Appearance of Man on the Earth. 53 



nicious effects of saltpetre when employed under the form of 

 gunpowder, it is impossible to do without it in the present 

 advanced state of society. The want of gunpowder would 

 prevent us from conducting roads through rocks and over large 

 mountains, and from building tunnels for the use of railroads. 

 Without saltpetre, chemistry, which so powerfully influences 

 our trades and commerce, would scarcely have existence. 



After all these reflections, is there still need of asking, why 

 were such multitudes of animals destined to live and to die 

 before man could make his appearance on earth \ 



What a miserable doom, one might exclaim, was imposed 

 on the extinct races of animals, to live merely in order to 

 perish ! But what other fate awaits the present race of ani- 

 mals ? What diff'erence is there between the slaughtered ox 

 and those monstrous reptiles which, millions of years ago, were 

 suffocated in mud ? Merely this, that the flesh of the former 

 .is directly used for food, whilst that of the latter was fit- 

 .tcd for our nourishment only after a series of metamor- 

 phoses. I have remarked, in my last lecture, that nothing on 

 earth exists for its own sake, but that every thing is created 

 for the attainment of higher objects. Even man himself is 

 but a link in the great chain of events. The moment he 

 begins to care for nothing beyond his own self, he ceases to 

 be a useful member of society. It is our duty to employ our 

 talents and our skill for the good of our fellow-creatures ; and, 

 as regards the lower animals, we consider them bound to serve 

 us with their physical strength, and with their body. 



III. Water— its Effects. 

 On casting another glance upon those long periods which 

 my colleague, Mr Goldfuss, has so well described, we cannot 

 but perceive, that when Divine Providence caused a vegeta- 

 tion to spring up for the subsequent deposition of coal-beds, 

 it was with the view of supplying us with fuel and the means 

 of preparing our food. Nature made use of the then superfluous 

 heat by expending it on the growth of a luxuriant vegetation, 

 and afterwards of a vigorous animalization. This was a very 

 wise arrangement in the economy of nature. She, in order 

 to store up a portion of the original heat for the benefit of the 

 future race of man, buried, in the bowels of the earth, the 



