54 MODEKtf DATE OF MAK. 



series of aqueous deposits are crowded with fragments of 

 plants, corals, shells, Crustacea, fish, reptiles, birds, and mam- 

 malia ; but no fossil remains of man have been discovered, 

 except in those accumulations of silt or mud, which belong 

 to the modern era the yesterday, as it were, in the history 

 of the past. It is only in these accumulations that we 

 discover the remains of even the most ancient races ; that in 

 this country we meet with the implements of our British 

 ancestors, or the coins and weapons of their Roman invaders ; 

 that in Italy we find the Cyclopean structures and works of 

 art of the Etruscans, while vestiges of the Pelasgi are alike 

 discoverable in similar deposits in Greece ; and in the New 

 "World, traces exist of the Tulteques, a people who were the 



Eredecessors of the Mexicans, and their superiors in know- 

 idge. Had man existed in primeval times, his remains would 

 have been found scattered through the varied deposits from 

 the oldest to the most recent. No impediment exists to their 

 conservation ; his bones, composed of the same elements 

 as those of animals, are equally capable of being kept 

 from destruction; the same battle-field has preserved the 

 bones of the horse and his rider ; the same cavern which, 

 in earlier eras, gave shelter to the hyena and the bear, has 

 retained their skeletons, and alike preserved the remains 

 of those human occupants who, at a later period, found in 

 this retreat a refuge and a tomb. Still stronger proof of the 

 modern origin of our species exists in the fact, that if man 

 had been an inhabitant of the earth during its early history, 

 his skeleton would have constituted the least of those relics 

 which he would have bequeathed to the soil. "We should 

 have discovered his works of art, which so far transcend in 

 duration his own ephemeral existence: we should have 

 found his cities overwhelmed in the waters of ancient seas, 

 or buried beneath the ejections of primeval volcanoes ; his 

 majestic pyramids sunk in the bed of early rivers ; his moun- 

 tain-temples, hewn on the surface of the oldest rocks : we 

 should have encountered his bridges of granite and of iron ; 

 his palaces of limestone and of marble ; the tombs which he 

 reared over the objects of his affection ; the shrines which 

 he erected in honour of his God ! But in the absence of 

 these, in any save the most superficial deposits, we recognise 

 the complete accordance of science with Kevelation. It is 



