178 NOMOS. 



is it not ? Has it, or has it not, been the seat of 

 repeated revolutions ? These are questions which 

 cannot be put aside, and which ought not to be put 

 aside any longer. And surely there can be no un- 

 certainty in the answers to questions such as these. 



The principal argument in favour of the great an- 

 tiquity and repeated metamorphoses of the earth is 

 found in the coal-strata. These strata are 

 strata? al" a regarded as the remains of forests which 



ha^e Si haVG lived and died OI1 tne S P 0t aild > tnUS 



formed with- considered, it follows that each stratum 



in a compa- in 



rativeiyre- must have been at the surface of the 



cent period, , f n i 



because they earth for ages upon ages, for no shorter 

 homd?fftf, time would serve for the growth of such 

 fo n rt s n tf groT- an amazing quantity of vegetable matter ; 

 Ipot?" the an(1 that > after Caving been at the surface 

 so long, it must have been submerged 

 under the waters, for without this the matter of the 

 sedimentary rock which lies above it could not have 

 been deposited. Each stratum is therefore the sign 

 of a revolution which occupied interminable ages in 

 its completion. All this appears to be perfectly plain. 

 If the coal-plants grew where they are found, there 

 can be no doubt as to the conclusion. But is it cer- 

 tain that the coal-plants grew where they are found ? 

 Surely there can be no difficulty about the answer, 

 and this for more reasons than one. If they grew on 

 the spot there must be relics of roots in the lower 

 parts of the stratum, and there must be relics of soil. 

 But as a rule there is neither soil nor root. In one 

 or two isolated instances as in the " dirt-bed " in the 

 Isle of Portland there is some trace of soil, but only 



