4*12 Geological Society. 



supplied by palaeontology are less complete; but they are never- 

 theless abundantly sufficient to establish a very close analogy be- 

 tween extinct and recent species, so as to leave no doubt on the 

 mind that the same harmony of parts and beauty of contrivance 

 which we admire in the living creature has equally characterized 

 the organic world at remote periods. If this be granted, it is 

 enough ; the geologist can then bring new and original arguments 

 from fossil remains to bear on that part of natural theology which 

 seeks to extend and exalt our conceptions of the intelligence, 

 power, wisdom, and unity of design manifested in the creation. 



It can now be shown that the configuration of the earth's surface 

 has been remodelled again and again ; mountain chains have been 

 raised or sunk, valleys have been formed, again filled up, and 

 then re-excavated, sea and land have changed places, yet through- 

 out all these revolutions, and the consequent alterations of local and 

 general climate, animal and vegetable life has been sustained. This 

 appears to have been accomplished without violation of those laws 

 now governing the organic creation, by which limits are assigned to 

 the variability of species. There are no grounds for assuming that 

 species had greater powers of accommodating themselves to new 

 circumstances in ancient periods than now. The succession of 

 living beings was continued by the introduction into the earth from 

 time to time of new plants and animals. That each assemblage of 

 new species was admirably adapted for successive states of the 

 globe, may be confidently inferred from the fact of the myriads of 

 fossil remains preserved in strata of all ages. Had it been other- 

 wise, had they been less fitted for each new condition of things as 

 it arose, they would not have increased and multiplied and endured 

 for indefinite periods of time. 



Astronomy had been unable to establish the plurality of habitable 

 worlds throughout space, however favourite a subject of conjecture 

 and speculation ; but geology, although it cannot prove that other 

 planets are peopled with appropriate races of living beings, has 

 demonstrated the truth of conclusions scarcely less wonderful, the 

 existence on our own planet of many habitable surfaces, or worlds 

 as they have been called, each distinct in time, and peopled with its 

 peculiar races of aquatic and terrestrial beings. 



Thus as we increase our knowledge of the inexhaustible variety 

 displayed in living nature, and admire the infinite wisdom and 

 power which it displays, our admiration is multiplied by the reflec- 

 tion that it is only the last of a great series of pre-existing crea- 

 tions of which we cannot estimate the number or limit in past 

 time. 



All geologists will agree with Dr. Buckland, that the most per- 

 fect iSnity of plan can be traced in the fossil world throughout all 

 the modifications which it has undergone, and that we can carry back 

 our researches distinctly to times antecedent to the existence of 

 man. We can prove that man had a beginning, and that all the 

 species now contemporary with man, and many others which pre- 

 ceded, had also a beginning ; consequently the present state of the 



