78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



many hundreds of thousands of years ago these different kinds 

 of beings lived on the earth ; but we know which is the elder 

 and the younger, which is far more important than the date, 

 which would only burden the memory with an immense num- 

 ber of high figures. If we were to know that the mastodon 

 lived so many hundreds of thousands of years ago, and the the- 

 saurus lived so many millious of years ago, and so on, that would 

 only burden the memory with a load of figures, which would 

 have no great value in reference to anything which should 

 express geological terms ; hut if we know that the thesaurus 

 existed before the mastodon, that is a thing easily remembered, 

 and gives us an idea of the sequence of the times when these 

 animals have been called into existence, and have lived upon 

 the earth. And let me say here, that it is a very interesting 

 fact to find that all those families of animals from which man 

 has received his most trusted companions, and the most useful 

 members of the agricultural community, are of recent date. 

 There is not one of them which belong to families that were 

 represented on earth, during the times when coals were formed, 

 or when the Jurassic mountains were accumulating ; neither is 

 there a trace of a plant, which is akin to those from which we 

 derive our grains, our fruits and our wines, before the coals. 

 All these plants arc nearly contemporaneous with man, in the 

 history of the earth ; and if there are a few which are somewhat 

 older, their antiquity is not much greater, and all point in that 

 way to the whole plan of creation — to a term bearing upon the 

 coming of humanity, and to the purpose for which man is upon 

 the earth — the progress and development of mind over matter. 

 But let me now return to the statement of Professor Hcakcl, in 

 reference to the order of succession of animals. I have taken 

 these tables of the order of succession for one class, and for the 

 other, and I have compared the relative dates of the appearance 

 of animals upon the earth, with these genealogical trees. And 

 what do I find ? Geolonw tells us that the grandchildren are 

 their own ancestors ! That is to say, that what this man, basing 

 his position upon his knowledge of affinities among animals, 

 pretends to be the descent of a certain time, geology knows to 

 have existed long before ; and that those which, according to 

 tliis doctrine, that affinity is identical with common descent, are 

 of very ancient date, have only come in at a very recent period. 



