266 NATURAL HISTORY. 



solar system, and of other astronomical considerations 

 which bear upon geology, an outline is given of the 

 known facts as to the life-history of the earth, and as to 

 the general succession and progression of organic types in 

 past time. With regard to the purely geological history 

 of the earth, the writer of the ' Vestiges ' concludes, with 

 Lyell, that 'there is nothing in the whole series of 

 operations displayed in inorganic geology, which may not 

 be accounted for by the agency of the ordinary forces 

 of nature.' 



On the other hand, the past history of the earth is 

 not a mere record of physical changes. * Mixed up with 

 the geognostic changes, and apparently as a final object 

 connected with the formation of the globe itself, there is 

 another set of phenomena presented in the course of our 

 history the coming into existence, namely, of a long suite 

 of living things, vegetable and animal, terminating in the 

 families which we still see occupying the surface. The 

 question arises In what manner has this set of phe- 

 nomena originated? Can we touch at and rest for a 

 moment on the possibility of plants and animals having 

 likewise been produced in a natural way ; thus assigning 

 immediate causes of but one character for everything 

 revealed to our sensual observation ; or are we at once to 

 reject this idea, and remain content, either to suppose 

 that creative power here acted in a different way, or to 

 believe, unexaminingly, that the inquiry is one beyond our 

 powers ? ' 



In answering this question, the writer of the ' Vestiges ' 

 decides unhesitatingly, as every naturalist would at the 

 present day decide, that we cannot consistently accept 



