50 Astronomy and Geology compared. PT. i. 



entirely barren both of vegetable or animal life. 

 The present condition of the Earth in this respect is 

 known to us ; every portion of land, every depth of 

 the ocean is tenanted by swarms of living beings, 

 each jostling its neighbour, and the amount of life 

 is only limited by the quantity of aliment necessary 

 for its subsistence. Above all these creations of 

 different epochs towers Man himself, so incontestably 

 the monarch of the visible World. 



Now mere change may be the offspring of chance. 

 The change accomplishing ends and directed through 

 ages to purposes, dark perhaps in their origin, but 

 which are now revealed to us as having been ac- 

 complished, such change and such progress prove 

 intelligence and design. Under this aspect the Will 

 of the Great First Cause is as apparent through all 

 the mutations which the Earth has undergone as 

 it is in the fixity which reigns in the Solar System ; 

 only it may be inferred that, as the modes of action 

 are so dissimilar, the objects to be attained are 

 different. Geology displays the history and course 

 of Life, from its earliest birth to its present stage of 

 development. If we ask, what is Life? what its 

 principle ? or what is its essence ? we shall soon 

 discover that we have approached one of those 



