80 THE FAR PAST. 



of the abnormal. The " Antediluvian" and " Pre- Adamite 

 monsters," of which, we occasionally hear, are the mere 

 creations of the platform orator, who would rather excite 

 the marvellous for the chance of a little applause, than 

 appeal to the reason of his audience hy a simple statement 

 of the truth as it occurs in nature. And yet, after all, the 

 works of God are in themselves sufficiently wondrous to 

 arrest the attention, and never more so than when arranged 

 in that simplicity and perfection of design which it is the 

 aim of legitimate science to detect, and the pride of the 

 philosopher to explain. 



In treating, then, of the Extinct Life of the globe, it shall 

 be our aim to assimilate its forms, as far as the facts will 

 permit, with those still living around us ; to assign to them 

 their places in the scale of being; to note their incomings 

 and outgoings in point of time; and, above all, to discover 

 their functions in the great economy of nature. Important 

 as facts and specific distinctions are to the botanist and 

 zoologist, the discovery of the functions and ultimate de- 

 sign of being is, to our apprehension, a more exalted pur- 

 suit ; so true is it (in the impressive words of Coleridge) 

 that " a man may be a chaos of facts, and yet lack the 

 knowledge that God is a God of order." As the establish- 

 ment of Law appears to be the highest effort of creative 

 energy, so the expression of that law must ever constitute 

 the noblest attainment of created intelligence. And this 

 law is operating everywhere. The force that directs the 

 drifting of a grain of sand is as fixed as that which guides 

 the revolution of a planet ; the tiniest blade of grass that 

 turns itself to the sun is but obeying the same law that 

 regiilates the growth of the lordliest oak ; and the monad, 

 invisible to the naked eye, is the creature of instincts and 

 appetites as imperative as those that impel the actions of 

 man. Nay, not a shower that falls, nor a breeze that blows 



