MAILLET. 



109 



it is true, common in France, but frequently observed 

 in Scotland ' (a country which the Mayor evidently 

 considered so remote that his observation would 

 probably not be gainsaid) ; from this tree leaves are 

 falling; upon one side they strike the water and 

 slowly transform into fishes, upon the other they 

 strike land and turn into birds. Father Bonnami 

 was another writer of similar comedies. In the 

 latter part of the century appeared the Mundus 

 Subterraneus of Father Kircher ( Amsterdam, 

 1678, 2 vols.) ; this is full of ' authentic observations ' 

 of the same stamp. The worthy priest describes 

 orchids giving birth to birds and even to very small 

 men ; this occurs when they touch the ground where 

 a sort of fecundation occurs by the spej'niaticus 

 humor superfluus liumo sparsus — ubi congressus 

 factus est. 



Benoit de Maillet (1656-1738) did not pause 

 long over the dry facts within the reach of contem- 

 porary natural science in his famous Tclliamed. Tn 

 his earlier years, before this book was written, we 

 learn that he was a careful student of Geology and 

 Paleontology, and that he perceived the true nature 

 and origin of fossils. This in itself entitles him to 

 considerable credit, when we remember that at the 

 time there were wide differences of opinion regard- 

 ing fossils. Natural theology found in them proofs 

 of the universal Deluge, while such an acute 

 thinker as Voltaire, who scoffed alternately at relig- 

 ion and science, claimed that the shells on the 



