244 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [xii. 



be reckoned devonian or carboniferous, silurian or devonian, 

 cambrian or silurian. 



This truth is further illustrated in a most interesting manner 

 by the impartial and highly competent testimony of M. Pictet, 

 from whose calculations of what percentage of the genera of 

 animals, existing in any formation, lived during the preceding 

 formation, it results that in no case is the proportion less 

 than one-third, or 33 per cent. It is the triassic formation, 

 or the commencement of the mesozoic epoch, which has 

 received the smallest inheritance from preceding ages. The 

 other formations not uncommonly exhibit 60, 80, or even 94 

 per cent, of genera in common with those whose remains are 

 imbedded in their predecessor. Not only is this true, but the 

 subdivisions of each formation exhibit new species character 

 istic of, and found only in, them ; and, in many cases, as in the 

 lias for example, the separate beds of these subdivisions are 

 distinguished by well-marked and peculiar forms of life. A 

 section, a hundred feet thick, will exhibit, at different heights, a 

 dozen species of ammonite, none of which passes beyond its 

 particular zone of limestone, or clay, into the zone below it or 

 into that above it ; so that those who adopt the doctrine of 

 special creation must be prepared to admit, that at intervals of 

 time, corresponding with the thickness of these beds, the Creator 

 thought fit to interfere with the natural course of events for the 

 purpose of making a new ammonite. It is not easy to transplant 

 oneself into the frame of mind of those who can accept such a 

 conclusion as this, on any evidence short of absolute demonstra 

 tion ; and it is difficult to see what is to be gained by so doing, 

 since, as we have said, it is obvious that such a view of the 

 origin of living beings is utterly opposed to the Hebrew cos 

 mogony. Deserving no aid from the powerful arm of Bibliolatry, 

 then, does the received form of the hypothesis of special creation 

 derive any support from science or sound logic ? Assuredly not 

 much. The arguments brought forward in its favour all take one 

 form : If species were not supernaturally created, we cannot 

 understand the facts x, or y, or z ; we cannot understand the 



