466 ON THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS 



have been said by certain writers, no difficulty can 

 arise on this subject. Hence then I have drawn the 

 further conclusion, that there was one terraqueous 

 globe, one earth divided into sea and land, even prior 

 to that last named ; containing mountains to furnish, 

 and an ocean to receive those materials which formed 

 the second set of mountains whose fragments are now 

 imbedded in our primary strata, or in those of a third 

 order. Geologists may perhaps be startled at con- 

 clusions which they have hitherto overlooked, obvious 

 as they are, and clear as the reasoning is : how they 

 should not have been seen by those who have shown 

 such anxiety to maintain the antiquity of the globe, 

 it is not for me to explain. 



Thus I have traced a world, the fourth at least in 

 order backwards from the present : how much more 

 distant from this, I shall inquire hereafter, that I may 

 give the reader a resting place for that which requires 

 reflection. But at this point all evidence fails. Be- 

 yond it we cannot now go ; and, beyond it, can 

 perhaps never hope to ascend. Fragments may in- 

 deed be imagined, imbedded in our primary strata, 

 of so complicated a character as to be capable of ex- 

 tending this evidence even one stage further ; but it 

 is scarcely to be expected that any thing of this kind 

 should have been preserved through such a series of 

 destruction and renovation. 



Whether that most antient of all the Earths, which 

 is thus marked out by these delicate, yet unques- 

 tionable evidences, contained animals, we cannot de- 

 termine. It is a question that would be decided in 

 the affirmative, if organic remains were to be found 

 in the fragments which enter into the primary strata. 

 We cannot hope for such evidence as this ; but, 

 from its absence, we have no right to determine on 



