250 THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS 



James Hall ; basaltic columns rose for the future wonder of 

 man, according to tlie principle which Dr Gregory Watt 

 showed in operation before the eyes of our fathers ; and hoi- 

 lows in the igneous rocks were filled with cr}'stals, precisely 

 as they could now be by virtue of electric action, as shown 

 within the last few years by Crosse and BecquereL The seas 

 obeyed the impulse of gentle breezes, and rippled their sandy 

 bottoms, as seas of the present day are doing ; the trees grew 

 as now, by favour of sun and wind, thriving in good seasons, 

 and pining in bad : this while the animals above fishes were 

 yet to be created. The movements of the sea, the meteoro- 

 logical agencies, the disposition which we see in the gene- 

 rality of plants to thrive when heat and moisture were most 

 abundant, were kept up in silent serenity, as matters of sim- 

 ply natural order, throughout the whole of the ages which 

 saw reptiles enter in their various forms upon the sea and 

 land. It was about the time of the first mammals that the 

 foi'est of the Dirt-Bed was sinking in natural ruin amidst the 

 sea-sludge, as forests of the Plantagenets have been doing 

 for several centuries upon the coast of England. In short, 



foxes, bears, and other ani- to expect that the vital phenomena 

 mals, produced by the earth in their presented to our eyes should mainly, 

 perfect state. The reason why we if not entirely, be limited to a re- 

 are backward in admitting it is, gular and unvarying succession of 

 that it happens in retired places, races by the ordinary means of 

 and never falls under our view ; generation. This, however, is no 

 and, never seeing rats but such as more an argument against a time 

 have been produced by other rats, when phenomena of the first kind 

 we adopt the opinion that the earth prevailed, than it would be a proof 

 never produced any." {Fenelon's against the fact of a mature man 

 I ives of the Ancient Philosophei's. having once been a growing youth, 



that he is now seen growing no 

 longer. * ♦ * Secondly, it is 

 far from being certain that the pri- 

 mitive imparting of life and form to 

 inorganic elements is not a fact of 

 our times." (Vestiges of Creation.) 



