OF THE ORGANIC FOSSILS. 425 



occur in the primary schists and in almost every one 

 of the superior strata. Madreporites, terebratulites, 

 belernnites, and orthoceratites are found in the oldest 

 sandstone and in the chalk. I might fill a page with 

 such examples : but the reader can do this from the 

 catalogues of those who have asserted the very re- 

 verse. As far as such imaginary improvement con- 

 cerns terrestrial and large animals, the answer has 

 been already given. All the evidence is against the 

 hypothesis in the one case ; and, in the other, there 

 is no evidence but that which, as negative, is nothing. 

 The assertion as to a numerical increase of species 

 labours under the same want of correct evidence. We 

 do not possess the species : and the known compa- 

 rative destruction of the more antient ones is a fatal 

 ignorance as to any conclusions. If anyone supposes 

 a gradual and successive creation of species, he ought 

 to give reasons for that which is a metaphysical and 

 theological conclusion : it is a subject on which we 

 have no facts but the history of our own Creation, 

 and that does not countenance such a theory. We 

 can understand an increase after each revolution, and 

 this is highly probable ; but those augmentations 

 must be limited to these changes and new conditions 

 of the earth's form. As far as the visible facts exist, 

 there is an increase between the earliest and the latest; 

 but there is no evidence of a gradual one, since there 

 are more organic fossils in the primary schist than in 

 the red marl ; to adduce no other facts, quite familiar, 

 such as the Lizards of the lias, the vegetables of the 

 Coal strata, and so on, wanting in every stratum 

 beyond these. The increase of numbers, which is a 

 fact, on the whole series, though not a fact as gra- 

 dation is concerned, is understood from what has 

 been formerly said. 



