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taming the remains of animal and vegetable life, difiering according to the times 

 and physical circumstances under which they had existed. 



He then described the Palaeozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Tertiary systems, 

 expatiating on the infinitude of ancient forms of life left close to our hand for 

 study, also remai-king on the submerging of portions of the earth's crust which 

 once were dry land, and the existence of ancient forests to an extent which defied 

 aU calculation, as proved by the immense beds of coal in various quarters of the 

 globe. 



The question then forced itself upou our consideration as to what could 

 have been the conditions of nature under which these changes of hfe had taken 

 place, and he proceeded to speak at some length on the nature of those changes. 

 The most ancient stratification on the west side of the Malvern Hills exhibited 

 no traces of mammals or of birds, and but few of fishes ; aud he pointed out, by 

 means of a diagram chalked on a board, the lowest strata, iu which no sigus of 

 life were visible (directing his hearers to the middle part of the Malvern range 

 for a specimen of this stratum), progressing upwards to the upper Silurian system, 

 where life abounded in various forms, and next to the famous " Old Red," 

 deposited just above the Silurian field. 



He spoke of the great researches of Sir R. Murchison in this branch of science, 

 the result of which proved that, in whatever part of the world the same kinds of 

 strata were met with, precisely similar features were apparent in them— namely, 

 the non-existence of life in the lower region, and its gradual increase and develop- 

 ment m superincumbent layers. It was a subject of anxious enquury as to how 

 and why these ancient specimens differed so specifically from now existing plants 

 and animals ; but he would here remark, that they were not found to differ in 

 such a manner as to prove that they had belonged to an entirely different creation, 

 or to a Providential plan not in harmony with that under which we ourselves lived ; 

 for we might readUy infer, from existing species, the character and habits of 

 extinct ones. Nature herein was one great book, and in her pages were 

 clearly recorded the various changes through which the system had passed. We 

 might interpret the most ancient things by those still existing ; for instance, 

 the Lmgula had been found in the earUest formations and likewise in the latest. 

 But this was not so with aU other species— the Trilobites for one class, not being 

 now in existence. On the west side of the Malvern HiUs, in.the Paleozoic strata. 

 Trilobites might be found, aud they were never found but in that strata in any 

 part of the world. Indeed, the specimens of Trilobites were a sort of coin, 

 struck in the Palaeozoic age of the world, just as the Belemnites indicated the 

 Mesozoic period. 



Now the knowledge of geological phenomena was decidedly necessary for 

 practical life as he showed by the futile attempts which had been made (especially 

 in the neighbourhood of Northampton) to obtain coal by sinking into strata 

 where that article could not possibly have been deposited ; and he censured the 

 evident contempt shown to geological science by parties who had preferred in 

 such cases the advice of comparative ignorant men to that of scientific geologists. 

 Their failures were a fit reward for such short-sighted conduct. 



