NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. 47 



much in subsequently formed rocks, find tell so v/ondrous 

 a tale of the past history of our globe. They simply 

 contain, as luis been said, mineral materials derived from 

 the primitive mass, and which appear to have been 

 formed into strata in seas of vast depth. The absence 

 from these i^ocks of all traces of vegetable and animal 

 life, joined to a consideration of the excessive tempera- 

 ture which seems to have prevailed in their epoch, has 

 led to the inference that no plants or animals of any 

 kind then existed. A few geologists have indeed en- 

 deavoured to show that the absence of organic remains 

 is no proof of the globe having been then unfruitful 

 or uninhabited, as the heat to which these rocks have 

 been subjected at the time of their solidification, might 

 have obliterated any remains of either plants or animals 

 which were included in them. But this is only an 

 hypothesis of negation ; and it certainly seems very un- 

 likely that a degree of heat sufficient to obliterate the 

 remains of plants or animals when dead, would ever 

 allow of their coming into or continuing in existence. 



