OF CREATION. if 



whole series of strata which make up its crust. It is 

 these organic remains called sometimes fossils* as 

 being, of all things that are dug out of the earth, those 

 of greatest interest to man in his efforts to penetrate 

 into the past, that afford most clearly and distinctly 

 the information required concerning the history we 

 need; and it is from them, and from studying the lan- 

 guage they speak, that sound conclusions are arrived 

 at in matters of the most interesting detail, as well 

 as in the broadest generalities obtained in our history. 



Fossils have sometimes been called the Medals of 

 Creation, and to a certain extent the simile is a 

 just one ; for as medals serve to mark either an 

 actual occurrence, or at least the view taken of a 

 supposed occurrence by contemporary authorities, so 

 fossils bear the impress of their date ; they mark the 

 condition of the earth at the time and place of their 

 deposit, and in so far therefore at least they are ma- 

 terials for history. 



But fossils are much more than mere indications of 

 the history of the time to which they refer. They 

 themselves express the very language of nature ; they 

 bear actual, direct, and unquestionable testimony to 

 the course of nature ; and when properly considered, 

 and investigated with a view to those analogies which 

 the study of existing nature teaches, they exhibit 

 distinct proof of a long series of successive creations, 

 characterizing different epochs in the earth's progress. 

 They are also found to be, in a very distinct and 

 important sense, characteristic of formations; by which 



* From the Latin fossilis, that which may be dug out of the earth. 

 The word was originally used in English as synonymous with mineral, 

 but has gradually become limited to its present meaning. 



B 3 



