490 Archaia. 



and if in this step we include the whole secondary or Mezozoic 

 period we have multitudes of great Saurians : 



" Hydras and Gorgons and Chimeras dire." 



With these we find allied in the vegetable kingdom, Conifers, 

 Cycads and Ferns. Here too we first discover the lowest forms 

 of Mammals in the Stonesfield and Purbeck marsupials. 



A fifth step brings us to the highest developed forms of both 

 plants and animals, — to genera and species in all the departments 

 of organic life nearly allied to those existing at present. 



A last and final step brings us to the remains of our present 

 fauna and flora with those of recently extinct species, superim- 

 posed upon which we find human remains and works of act. 



These six steps indicate a gradual progression in creation from 

 lower to higher forms of organic life. In the vegetable kingdom 

 we rise from the lowest Thallogens up to the highest forms of 

 Exogens and in the Animal from the Protozoa up to the highest 

 Mammal — man. 



These steps also indicate certain epochs of life, — certain periods 

 in which peculiar forms of life were predominant. 1. A Silurian 

 period of Marine Molluscus and Radiate life. 2. A Devonian 

 period of Vertebrate fish life. 3. A carboniferous period of vegetable 

 Cryptogamic life. 4. A Mezozoic period of great Batrachian serpent 

 life. 5. A tertiary period of monster Mammal life, to which there 

 is closely allied, the genera and species of the present day. 



These steps further indicate with a fullness and certainty of 

 illustration that there has been a gradual disappearance of old 

 species and a continuous creation of new up to the age of man. 

 Along with well marked epochs of creation of special forms of life 

 there has been a much more marked continuity of creation in all 

 the forms of organic life. If we could suppose the period of special 

 creation to be represented by horizontal lines placed at wide intervals 

 then the facts of continuous creation might be represented by vertical 

 lines crossing the others continuously up to the introduction of 

 man. It was at first supposed by geologists, as may be seen in the 

 writing of Hugh Miliar, that there were great breaks or chasms 

 in the upward lines of organic creation ; that at several of its stages 

 certain chaotic periods intervened and cut off forms of life above 

 from forms of life below ; but the more recent dissoveries have 

 shown this view to be quite untenable. Gaps have been filled 

 up and those that remain are in process of yielding up their links 

 of organic forms. 



