260 



being only to be traced in their entombed mineralized 

 remains. We thus also learn, that, in the succeeding waters, 

 new and totally different beings filled the deficiencies which 

 had been thus occasioned. These circumstances, observed 

 in all, is more distinctly manifested in the later formations 

 of the chalk and blue clay. Of the genera of fossil shells 

 which exist in the chalk, hardly an individual can be 

 detected in the blue clay ; but in their places are found 

 the remains of shells not known to exist in any of the 

 preceding strata. Investigation has ascertained them to be 

 the remains of an entirely new series of animals ; not 

 formed by the gliding of one genus into another, or by 

 changes induced in the structure of the animals by the 

 gradual and continued agency of external circumstances ; 

 but, as far as the state of our knowledge will allow us to 

 judge, by a new creation, adapted to the nature of the fluid, 

 for the peopling of which it was decreed ; and to the espe- 

 cial purposes which Providence had destined it to accom- 

 plish in future ages. 



Links varying from each other by minute determinate 

 characters and secured in their integrity, and in their con- 

 nection with each other, by certain laws decreed at the 

 beginning, are, in all probability, the notions which are in 

 general conveyed by the figurative expression of the chain 

 of creation ; the loss of a single link being supposed to be 

 productive of disturbance, and ultimately of the annihilation 

 of the whole. By those who have been misled by this figure to 

 the adoption of the idea of a concatenation of beings depen- 

 dent on each other for their existence, the opinions now pro- 

 posed must be rejected. They are, however, it is hoped, most 

 accordant with a reverential idea of the great Creator ; who 

 is thus supposed to have conducted from the beginning, and 

 to be still directing, the affairs of the world, by a special care 

 and providence, to the termination of some certain period, and 

 for the accomplishment of great and important purposes. 



