286 |ajr Smraims, (Cssags, anb flebictos. [xii 



itself; and it is curious to remark that the inventors of 

 the opposing views seem to have been led into them 

 as much by their knowledge of geology, as by their 

 acquaintance with biology. In fact, when the mind has 

 once admitted the conception of the gradual production 

 of the present physical state of our globe, by natural 

 causes operating through long ages of time, it will be 

 little disposed to allow that living beings have made 

 their appearance in another way, and the speculations of 

 De Maillet and his successors are the natural complement 

 of Scilla's demonstration of the true nature of fossils. 



A contemporary of Newton and of Leibnitz, sharing 

 therefore in the intellectual activity of the remarkable 

 age which witnessed the birth of modern physical 

 science, Benoit de Maillet spent a long life as a consular 

 agent of the French Government in various Mediter- 

 ranean ports. For sixteen years, in fact, he held the 

 office of Consul-General in Egypt, and the wonderful 

 phsenomena offered by the valley of the Nile appear to 

 have strongly impressed his mind, to have directed his 

 attention to all facts of a similar order which came within 

 his observation, and to have led him to speculate on the 

 origin of the present condition of our globe and of its 

 inhabitants. But, with all his ardour for science, De 

 Maillet seems to have hesitated to publish views which t 

 notwithstanding the ingenious attempts to reconcile 

 them with the Hebrew hypothesis contained in the 

 preface to " Telliamed," were hardly likely to be received 

 with favour by his contemporaries. 



But a short time had elapsed since more than one of 

 the great anatomists and physicists of the Italian school 

 had paid dearly for their endeavours to dissipate some of 

 the prevalent errors ; and their illustrious pupil, Harvey, 

 the founder of modern physiology, had not fared so well, 

 in a country less oppressed by the benumbing influences 



