402 PICTURESQUE SKETCHES 



deed, but slow, and acting by successive and repeated 

 hitches, each of small amount, the effect produced 

 being chiefly on the northern and western districts, 

 but affecting the whole coast irregularly, not only with 

 regard to England and Scotland, but even through 

 Scandinavia up to the Arctic Circle. 



Throughout the changes which have acted to make 

 England what it is, we see no evidence in any part 

 of its long history which can render probable any 

 sudden modifications either of the earth's crust, or 

 of the animals and vegetables by which the land 

 and sea have been peopled. There is, in other 

 words, no evidence to show that the whole of 

 created beings have been at any one time swept off 

 from the earth by the action of laws imposed upon 

 matter from the beginning. The natural and neces- 

 sary action of these laws does not seem to involve 

 any great and general catastrophe. 



Neither is there evidence of such interruption of 

 the general system, as should at any one epoch have 

 required a fresh creation of the whole series of organic 

 beings. The ordinary method of succession of spe- 

 cies, as of individuals, seems to have been during all 

 time strictly adhered to, and this is a point of no 

 slight interest and importance, since we can hardly 

 otherwise comprehend any system, at least we can- 

 not understand any general harmony to have existed, 

 exhibiting the uniform action of a wise and perfect 

 plan. 



Nor can it be understood as a less noble or less 

 striking proof of creative power, that in this great 

 plan, according to which our globe was created, every- 

 thing should be foreseen and provided against, that 



