THE FLORA OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 341 



for it goes without saying that these works of high 

 artistic finish must have been the work of people 

 already possessing an advanced, and therefore ancient, 

 pre-eminence in the arts and sciences. 



We shall have more to say presently about the 

 antiquities of Egypt, in our following chapter; mean- 

 while in taking our leave of the Great Bush Region 

 we shall merely observe that the whole of the evidence 

 thus far collected respecting the earth's antiquity, tends 

 more and more to establish the certainty of this great 

 and salient fact, that the development of life upon our 

 planet in its present highly organized condition, must 

 have been the work of chronological periods, practically 

 boundless in extent. 



Eternity is not to be measured, either in its future 

 or in its past, by any cycle of years, however numerous. 

 Man therefore, in speculating upon his own ephemeral 

 existence, and his position among infinities, may not 

 unreasonably regard himself as poised upon a mighty 

 centre, balanced midway between an infinite past, and 

 an Eternity of ages yet to come. 



