SUMMARY OF PRECEDING PAGES 



rence, and are inadequately accounted for by the 

 secondary metamorphoses of coral ine, sea shell and 

 infusorial growths. 



The consideration of the anterior geognosy of the 

 earth, as well as its later geological evolution and 

 changes, to fit it for the progressive development of 

 higher and higher forms of life, is a subject so vast 

 in its scope and so infinite in its details as to lie 

 beyond the limits of our purpose. 



In concluding our view of inorganic nature a short 

 resume" of what thus far has been said of the PATH 

 OF EVOLUTION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, may be of 

 service. We have tried to show : 



1st. That before and during the time of scholas- 

 ticism the efforts and time of learned men were 

 almost exclusively spent in arguing upon and en- 

 deavoring to reconcile the discordant views of the 

 followers of Plato and Aristotle. 



2d. The Church had adopted the Aristotelian 

 Philosophy (which was a mixture of the Platonic 

 and Aristotelian doctrines) practically as a matter of 

 faith, and rejected as heretical all theories that were 

 discordant with or that even discussed the truth 

 thereof. 



3d. As early as the Fifteenth Century, the theory 

 that the Sun was the centre of the solar system was 



maintained by some Philosophers. In the Sixteenth 



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