PALEONTOLOGY. 



The stratified rocks forming the surface ^crust of our globe are 

 very frequently found to contain petrified corals, shells of mollusks, 

 bones of vertebrates, vegetable remains, or impressions thereof. 



The ancients were already well acquainted with this fact, but up 

 to the eighteenth century naturalists and philosophers were greatly 

 troubled in seeking for a satisfactory explanation of the origin of 

 these peculiar forms, so similar to living organisms, yet made of 

 stone. 



One of the first theories on the subject was, that fossils were a 

 lusus nattirce, or play of nature — that is, an effort of nature to pro- 

 duce organic forms, a moulding of life shape from inanimate mate- 

 rial, without fully accomplishing the task to the final act of the in- 

 spiration of life. The Mosaic account of creation is in full accord 

 with such views, and it is not at all improbable that Moses, 

 or whoever was the writer of the biblical accounts of creation, de- 

 rived his first thoughts upon the process of creation from the ob- 

 servation of fossils and meditation concerning their origin. It no 

 doubt appeared to him more reasonable to accept them rather as 

 half-iinished work than as the remains of once living bodies, whose 

 position within the rock was inexplicable to him ; and in analogy 

 with this conception, he imagines man created by the double pro- 

 cess, first, of moulding his form from earth, and then of the divine 

 inspiration of life. 



During the fourteenth century the hypothesis of the origin of 

 iossWshy lusus natures heg2in\.o lose credit, and it became generally 

 recognized that they were the veritable remains of once living or- 

 ganisms. This being acknowledged, the thought of ascribing the 

 origin of fossils to the scriptural deluge recommended itself as 

 plausible, and they were at once, without critical examination of 



