ON GEOLOGIC HISTORY. 285 



mediate character, in which, though it sometimes re-echoes 

 the groans of suffering nature, life is, in the main, enjoyment. 

 And so, — save in a few exceptional cases, that, while they 

 establish the rule as a fact, serve also as a key to unlock that 

 principle of the Divine government on which it appears to 

 rest, — no sooner was the reptile removed from his place in 

 the fore-front of creation, and creatures of a higher order 

 introduced into the consolidating and fast-ripening planet of 

 which he had been so long the monarch, than his bulk shrank 

 and his strength lessened, and he assumed a humility of form 

 [and aspect at once in keeping with his reduced circumstances, 

 and compatible with the general welfare. But though the 

 reason of the reduction appears obvious, I know not that it 

 jcan be referred to any other cause than simply the will of the 

 all-wise Creator. 



There hangs a mystery greatly more profound over the fact 

 of the degradation than over that of the reduction and dimi- 

 nution of classes. We can assign what at least seems to be 

 a sufficient reason why, when reptiles formed as a class the 

 highest representatives of the vertebrata, they should be of 

 imposing bulk and strength, and altogether worthy of that 

 post of precedence which they then occupied among the ani- 

 mals. We can also assign a reason for the strange reduction 

 which took place among them in strength and bulk imme- 

 diately on their removal from the first to the second place. 

 But why not only reduction, but also degradation ? Why, 

 as division started up in advance of division, — first the rep- 

 tiles in front of the fishes, then the quadrupedal mammals in 

 front of the reptiles, and, last of all, man in front of the quad- 

 rupedal mammals, — should the supplanted classes, — two of 

 them at least, — fishes and reptiles, — for there seem to have 

 been no additions made to the mammals since man entered 

 upon the scene, — why should they have become the recep- 

 tacles of orders and families of a degraded character, which 



