CHAPTEE II. 



DESCENDING SCALE OF TEEBESTEIAL FOEMS. 



AMONG the systems of forms which surround man in the 

 outer world, that most immediately related to him, and next 

 below him in the scale of creation, is the Animal Kingdom. 

 Immediately beneath this, serving as a substratum on which 

 it rests, and the source from which it derives its subsistence, is 

 the Vegetable Kingdom. This, again, rests upon the Mineral 

 Kingdom, from which, as the next degree . below it in the 

 scale of existence, it derives 'its nourishment and physical 

 support. 



Then, beneath all these kingdoms, as an anterior condition 

 on which their physical developments, as complete systems, 

 necessarily depend, is the system of Geological Formations. 

 These consist of various gradations, or of lower and higher 

 stratifications, which were developed by degrees, and in suc- 

 cessive periods of time. Each geological formation above the 

 primary, contains petrifactions of plants and animals of a de- 

 gree of organization corresponding to the degree of progression 

 in the earth's crust marked by the particular stratification in 

 which they are found, the lowest organizations being associated 

 with the most ancient fossiliferous rocks, and the highest with 

 the most recent, showing a coincident progress in the inorganic 

 and organic developments. Let us now trace downward the 

 various geological stratifications, from highest to lowest, in 

 order that our minds may, by successive steps, be conducted 



