CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



PA OK 



Interest attached to the study of the PAST in natural as in human 

 history. Fossils, or petrified remains of plants and animals, 

 the medals and records of Creation. The unerring certainty of 

 the record. Palaeontology, or the Science of Extinct Life. Its 

 scope and bearings, as founded on a knowledge of the present 

 life of the globe. Its importance, abstract and practical. 

 The task it has yet to accomplish, . . . .17 



THE PRESENT. 



Characteristics and classification of living plants and animals as 

 established by the Botanist and Zoologist : 1. Plant- Life. Its 

 governing conditions in space. Its typical forms and charac- 

 ters. Its primal plan and patterns. Systematic arrangement 

 of its forms. Their apparent functions. Persistency of plan 

 in time past. 2. Animal Life. Its distribution or governing 

 conditions in space. Its typical forms and their functions. 

 Its primal plan and patterns. Higher and lower. Systematic 

 arrangement of its forms. Identity of plan and design in 

 time past. 3. Co-adaptation of plants and animals in one great 

 Life-Scheme, 27 



THE RECORD. 



Chronology of geology, or the arrangement of the world's past into 

 Rock-formations and Life-periods. Principles and methods of 

 this arrangement. Continuity of natural law. Provisional 

 and negative state of geological knowledge as influencing our 

 comprehension of the successional order of organic being. 

 Palaeontology so based. The problems it has to solve. Its 

 progress and prospects, . . . . .69 



