142 ON THE METHOD OF ZADIG [LECT. 



Spirula. But the accidental discovery of Belemnites 

 in due connection with black elongated masses which 

 were certainly fossilised ink-bags, inasmuch as the 

 ink could be ground up and used for painting as well 

 as if it were recent sepia, settled the question ; and it 

 became perfectly safe to prophesy that the creature 

 which fabricated the Belemnite was a two-gilled 

 cephalopod with suckers on its arms, and with all the 

 other essential features of our living squids, cuttle- 

 fishes, and Spirulce. The palaeontologist was, by this 

 time, able to speak as confidently about the animal of 

 the Belemnite, as Zadig was respecting the queen's 

 spaniel. He could give a very fair description of its 

 external appearance, and even enter pretty fully into 

 the details of its internal organisation, and yet could 

 declare that neither he, nor any one else, had ever 

 seen one. And as the queen's spaniel was found, so 

 happily has the animal of the Belemnite; a few 

 exceptionally preserved specimens having been dis- 

 covered, which completely verify the retrospective 

 prophecy of those who interpreted the facts of the case 

 by due application of the method of Zadig. 



These Belemnites flourished in prodigious abun- 

 dance in the seas of the mesozoic or secondary age of 

 the world's geological history ; but no trace of them 

 has been found in any of the tertiary deposits, and 

 they appear to have died out towards the close of the 

 mesozoic epoch. The method of Zadig, therefore, 

 applies in full force to the events of a period which is 

 immeasurably remote, which long preceded the origin 

 of the most conspicuous mountain masses of the 



