76 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



race, as great and as marvellous as some of those 

 which geology points out as having already oc- 

 curred. The gradual progress from the lowest to 

 the highest orders of creatures which the investi- 

 gations of geology establish, may be considered as 

 supporting the hypothesis that such changes as 

 we refer to, and accompanied by still higher ad- 

 vancement, may still constitute a part of the 

 system of the divine administration as regards 

 this portion of the universe. 



We shall close the review thus taken of the 

 fossil remains of the various formations with a 

 passage from an eloquent writer, in which he 

 supposes some being of high intelligence from 

 another sphere to describe the series of muta- 

 tions which have occurred from the period of the 

 Wealden formation to the present time. (< Count- 

 less ages ere man was created," he might say, 

 " I visited these regions of the earth, and beheld 

 a beautiful country of vast extent, diversified by 

 hill and dale, with its rivulets, streams, and mighty 

 rivers, flowing through fertile plains. Groves of 

 palms and ferns, and forests of coniferous trees, 

 clothed its surface ; and I saw monsters, of the 

 reptile tribe, so huge that nothing among the 

 existing races can compare with them, basking 

 on the banks of the rivers, and roaming through 

 its forests ; while in its fens and marshes were 

 sporting thousands of crocodiles and turtles. 

 Winged reptiles of strange forms shared with 

 birds the dominion of the air, and the waters 

 teemed with fishes, shells, and Crustacea. And 



