CiiAP. I. EARLIEST TYPES OF ANIMALS. 23 



to which the difterent s^'stems of authors are successive approximations, more and 

 more closely agreeing witli it, in proportion as the human mind has luiderstood 

 nature better. This growing coincidence between our systems and that of nature 

 shows further the identity of the operations of the human and the Divine intellect; 

 especially when it is remembered to what an extraordinary degree many d priori 

 conceptions, relating to nature, have in the end proved to agree with the reality, 

 in spite of every objection at first offered by empiric observers. 



SECTION VII. 



SIMULTANEOUS EXISTENCE IN THE EARLIEST GEOLOGIC.U. TERIODS, OF ALL THE GREAT 



TYPES OF ANIMALS. 



It was formerly believed by geologists and palaeontologists that the lowest animals 

 first made their appearance upon this globe, and that they were followed by higher 

 and higher types, until man crowned the series. Every geological museum, repre- 

 senting at all the present state of our knowledge, may now furnish the evidence 

 that this is not the case. On the contrary, representatives of numerous families 

 belonging to all the four great branches of the animal kingdom, are well known to 

 have existed simultaneously in the oldest geological formations.^ Nevertheless, I weU 

 remember when I used to hear the great geologists of the time assert, that the 

 Corals were the first inhabitants of our globe, that Mollusks and Articulata followed 

 in ordei', and that Vertebrates did not appear until long after these. What an 

 extraordinary change the last thirty years have brought about in our knowledge, and 

 the doctrines generally adopted i-especting the existence of animals and plants in past 

 ages! However much naturalists may still difier in their views regarding the origin, 

 the gradation, and the affinities of animals, they now all know that neither Radiata, 

 nor Mollusks, nor Articulata, have any priority one over the other, as to the time 



I'organisation et de leurs pro?:res, Paris, 1847, 3 vols. seri-Ino, (Count Alex, vox.) The Gcolojr)' of 

 8vo. — PocciiET, (F. A.,) Ilistoire des sciences na- Russia in Europe, and the Ural Mountains, London, 

 furelles au moyen age, Paris, 1853, 1 vol. 8vo. 1845,2 vols. 4to. — IIai.l, (.Tames.) Pahvontology 

 Compare, also, Cliap. 11., below. of New York, Albany, 1847-52, 2 vols. 4t().— Bau- 

 ' MiucnisoN, (U. I.,) The Silurian System, Lon- rande, (J.,) Systeme silurien du centre de la Bo- 

 don, l.s;59, 1 vol. 4to. — MiRcnisox, (Siu R. I.,) htme, Prague and Paris, 1852, 2 vols. 4to.— Sei.g- 

 Siluria. The History of the Oldest Known Rocks wiCK. (A.,) an<l ISIcKoY, (Fr.,) British Pala-ozoic 

 containing Fossils, London, 1854, 1 vdl. Svo. — Mi it- Rocks and Fossils, London, 1851. 4to. 2 fasc. ; not 

 Ciiisox, (H. I.,) DE Vekxeuil, (Ki>.,) and Kai- yet complete. 



