PREFACE. 



Three important subjects of inquiiy in Natural Theology 

 come under consideration in the present Treatise. 



The first regards the inorganic Elements of the Mineral 

 Kingdom, and the actual dispositions of the Materials of the 

 Earth : many of these, although produced or modified by 

 the agency of violent and disturbing forces, afford abundant 

 proofs of wise and provident Intention, in their adaptations 

 to the uses of the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms, and 

 especially to the condition of Man. 



The second relates to the Theories which have been enter- 

 tained respecting the Origin of the World ; and the deriva- 

 tion of existing systems of organic Life, by an eternal suc- 

 cession, from preceding individuals of the same species ; or 

 by gradual transmutation of one species into another.- I 

 have endeavoured to show, that to all these Theories the 

 phenomena of Geology are decidedly opposed. 



The third extends into the Organic Remains of a former 

 World the same kind of investigation, which Paley has pur- 

 sued with so much success in his examination of the evi- 

 dences of Design in the mechanical structure of the corporeal 

 frame, of Man, and of the inferior Animals which are placed 

 with him on the present surface of the Earth. 



The myriads of petrified Remains which are disclosed by 

 the researches of Geology all tend to prove, that our Planet 

 has been occupied in times preceding the Creation of the 

 Human Race, by extinct species of Animals and Vegetables, 

 made up, like Hving Organic Bodies, of " Clusters of Con- 

 trivances," which demonstrate the exercise of stupendous 



