2 FANCIFUL SYSTEMS. 



fellows to declare the truths which they had observed 

 or discovered ; but such lights were rare, and soon put 

 aside they could not be extinguished by the race 

 over which a busy dulness reigned supreme. 



The writers of the middle ages had built up in their 

 own minds a perfect system, as it was supposed ; and 

 this they imagined to be the system of the universe. In- 

 stead, therefore, of seeking out, by patient observation, 

 the facts of Nature, and reasoning upon them, they em- 

 ployed themselves in cutting down to their own notions 

 of propriety every fact which seemed to contradict what 

 the schoolmen considered a law of Nature. A glaring 

 instance of such prejudiced explanation is found in the 

 theories gravely put forward by learned men to explain 

 the existence of organic fossils. Marine petrifactions 

 fishes, shells, corals were found imbedded in rocks, or 

 in the soil, in places far removed from the existing sea, 

 and at a considerable height above its level, in the up- 

 land country, and even on the tops of mountains. The 

 wise men of those days (so late as the year 1680) ex- 

 plained the phenomenally supposing a "plastic power" 

 in Nature, which was exerted in moulding the living rock 

 into mimic representations of animals and plants, for no 

 better purpose, seemingly, than to puzzle and amuse the 

 vulgar. This was cutting the knot of difficulty after a 

 strange fashion. It was contrary to their theory to be- 

 lieve that the sea had ever occupied the places in which 

 the marine productions were found. If it had not, how 

 could these have got there ? There was no reply but the 

 resolute denial that the fossils were really the relics of 

 marine creatures ; and this, in spite of the evidence of 



