174 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



some measure, dispel the darkness of the preced- 

 ing times. 



It would certainly be exceedingly satisfactory to 

 have the fossil organic productions arranged in 

 chronological order, in the same manner as we now 

 have the principal mineral substances. By this 

 the science of organization itself would be improv- 

 ed ; the developements of animal life ; the succes- 

 sion of its forms; the precise determinations of 

 those which have been first called into existence; 

 the simultaneous production of certain species, 

 and their gradual extinction; all these would 

 perhaps instruct us fully as much in the essence of 

 organization, as all the experiments that we shall 

 ever be able to make upon living animals : And 

 man, to whom only a short space of time is allotted 

 upon the earth, would have the glory of restoring 

 the history of thousands of ages which preceded 

 the existence of the race, and of thousands of 

 animals that never were contemporaneous with his 

 species. 



END OF THE ESSAY. 



