THE NEOZOIC AGES. 281 



of the Post-pliocene were the ploughshare of God 

 preparing the earth for the time when, with a flora 

 and fauna more beautiful and useful, if less magni- 

 ficent than that of the Tertiary, it became as the 

 garden of the Lord, fitted for the reception of His 

 image and likeness, immortal and intelligent Man. 

 We need not, however, with one modern school of 

 philosophy, regard man himself as but a descendant 

 of Miocene apes, scourged into reason and humanity 

 by the struggle for existence in the Glacial period. 

 We may be content to consider him as a son of God, 

 and to study in the succeeding chapters that renewal 

 of the Post-pliocene world which preceded and 

 heralded his advent. 



In the meantime, our illustration,* borrowed in part 

 from the magnificent representation of the Post- 

 pliocene fauna of England, by the great restorer of 

 extinct animals, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, may serve 

 to give some idea of the grand and massive forms of 

 animal life which, even in the higher latitudes, sur- 

 vived the Post-pliocene cold, and only decayed and 

 disappeared under that amelioration of physical con- 

 ditions which marks the introduction of the humau 

 period. 



Page 301. 



