418 GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ANIMALS. 



himself, whose aim, in forming the earth, in allowing it to un- 

 dergo the successive changes which geology has pointed out, 

 and in creating successively all the different types of animals 

 which have passed away, was to introduce Man upon its sur- 

 face. Man is the end towards which all the animal creation 

 has tended, from the first appearance of the first Palaeozoic 

 fishes. 



691. In the beginning the Creator's plan was formed, and 

 from it He has never swerved in any particular. The same Being 

 who, in view of man's moral wants, provided and declared, thou- 

 sands of years in advance, that " the seed of the woman shall 

 bruise the serpent's head," laid up also for him, in the bowels 

 of the earth, those vast stores of granite, marble, coal, salt, and 

 the various metals, the products of its several revolutions ; and 

 thus was an inexhaustible provision made for his necessities, 

 and for the development of his genius, ages in anticipation of 

 his appearance. 



692. To study, in this view, the succession of animals in 

 time, and their distribution in space, is therefore to become ac- 

 quainted with the ideas of God himself. Now, if the succes- 

 sion of created beings on the surface of the globe is the reali- 

 zation of an infinitely wise plan, it follows that there mus- 

 be a necessary relation between the races of animals and the 

 epoch at which they appear. It is necessary, therefore, in 

 order to comprehend Creation, that we combine the study of 

 extinct species with that of those now living, since one is the 

 natural complement of the other.* A system of zoology will 

 consequently be true, in proportion as it corresponds with the 

 order of succession among animals. 



* In investigating the " Ages of Nature," much lasting and invaluable 

 information will be derived from an earnest study of the magnificent col- 

 lection of fossil remains contained in the palaeontological department of 

 the British Museum. The arrangement and naming of these monuments 

 of nature, which mark the past revolutions of the earth, are now so far 

 advanced by the great talents and zeal of Messrs. Waterhouse and Wood- 

 ward, the present curators, that it has become a national educational 

 saloon for this branch of natural history. In his visits to the gallery of 

 organic remains, the student will obtain much aid and useful knowledge 

 from Dr. Mantell's recent work, " Petrifactions and their Teaching ; or, a 

 Hand-book to the Gallery of Organic Remains of the British Museum." 

 Bohn's Scientific Library, 1851. EDITOR. 



