432 SKETCH TOWARDS A 



former conditions of the Earth, it is perfect, wherever 

 we find their remains ; whatever other difficulties may 

 subsist on collateral questions. But I know not how 

 to treat the entire subject, without commencing with 

 that presumed fact, being rny own belief, that every 

 limestone has originated in animals, and all coal, if 

 not all carbon, in vegetables. I cannot now repeat the 

 reasons : they have preceded, under all the arguments 

 that I possessed : and those who will not accept of 

 this subsidiary theory, can therefore cut off from what 

 follows, all that depends on this supposition ; while, if 

 they rank it with the blanks of the Theory of the 

 Earth, all else, founded on the presence of organic 

 fragments themselves, will still remain. 



The micaceous schist of the primary strata contains 

 fragments of limestone ; and there ought therefore to 

 have been an animal creation as early as the fourth 

 state of the Earth or, in the very first terraqueous 

 globe, in which there were only igneous rocks. We 

 may believe them purely marine; while if there is 

 no analogous evidence of some vegetable creation, the 

 peculiar circumstances leave that negative of no weight. 

 To many, I fear the argument from Final causes will 

 possess no force in support of this view: but if the 

 very purpose of the Earth, in the plans of the Deity, 

 was to be the habitation of Life, we ought to expect 

 some inhabitants, as soon as this new planet was ca- 

 pable of receiving any; and these proportioned, in qua- 

 litv and numbers, to its capacity for supporting them. 

 With myself, I confess, this argument always carries 

 great weight, wherever it is applicable: I need not tell 

 the metaphysician when and why it fell into discredit; 

 and I would rather not say why there are philosophers, 

 philosophers in all but their views of a Creator and 

 Governor of the world, who will not receive it now. 



