ON THE MOKPHOLOGICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 249 



and by the fossil remains of extinct organic creations, pre- 

 sented on the surface of our earth. " What is certain," 

 says Cuvier at the close l of this celebrated discourse, " is 

 that we are now at least in the middle of a fourth 

 succession of terrestrial animals, and that after the age 

 of reptiles, after that of the palseotheria, after that of 

 the mastodons, the megatheria, there has come the age 

 when the human race, supported by some domestic animals, 

 peaceably rules and cultivates the earth, and that it is only 

 in the countries formed since this epoch in the recent 

 alluvial deposits, peat-bogs, and concretions, that we find 

 in a fossil condition those bones which belong to animals 

 known and now living." Such is the rtsumt of the ideas 

 which had followed nay, even tormented 2 Cuvier 

 during his researches into fossil remains, and which led 

 him to the conclusion 3 " that it required great events 

 to bring about the important differences which he recog- 

 nised " differences which the slow " influence of weather, 

 or of climate, or of domestication," could not explain, 

 but which required the violent action of sudden " catas- 

 trophes," 4 which frequently " disturbed the life on this 

 planet by frightful events," 5 " broke off the thread of 

 operations," 6 "none of the present agencies of nature 

 sufficing to produce her bygone works." 7 



1 "Discours sur les revolutions 

 de la surface du globe et sur les 

 changemens qu'elles ont produits 

 dans le regne animal," reprinted in 

 the 3rd ed. of the ' Recherches sur 

 les ossemens fossiles,' 1825, vol i. 

 p. 172. 



2 " Ces idees m'ont poursuivi, je 

 dirai presque tourmente", pendant 

 que j'ai fait les recherches sur les os 

 fossiles, dont j'ai donn6 depuis peu 



au public la collection, recherches 

 qui n'embrassent qu'une si petite 

 partie de ces ph^nomenes de 1'avant- 

 dernier age de la terre, et qui 

 cependant se lient & tous les autres 

 d'une maniere in time " (' Discours,' 

 &c., p. 140). 



3 Ibid., p. 3. 4 Ibid., p. 8. 



5 Ibid., p. 9. 6 Ibid., p. 14. 



7 "Ainsi, nous le repetons, c'est 

 en vain que 1'on cherche, dans les 



