82 RELATIONS OF THE EARTH 



Every comparative anatomist is familiar with the beauti- 

 ful examples of mechanical contrivance and compensations, 

 vi'hich adapt each existing species of herbivora and carni- 

 vora to its own peculiar place and state of life. Such con- 

 trivances began not with living species : the geologist de- 

 monstrates their prior existence in the extinct forms of the 

 same genera which he discovers beneath the surface of the 

 earth, and he claims for the Author of these fossil forms 

 under which the first typos of such mechanisms were em- 

 bodied, the same high attributes of Wisdom and Goodness, 

 the demonstration of which exalts and sanctifies the labours 

 of science, in her investigation of the organizations of the 

 living world. 



CHAPTER X. 



Relations of the Earth and its Inhabitants to Man. 



From the statements which have been made in the pre- 

 ceding chapters, it appears that five principal causes have 

 been instrumental in producing the actual condition of the 

 surface of our globe. First, the passage of the unstratified 

 crystalline rocks, from a fluid to a solid state. — Secondly, 

 The deposition of stratified rocks at the bottom of the an- 

 cient seas. — Thirdly, The elevation both of stratified and 

 unstratified rocks from beneath the sea, at successive inter- 

 vals, to form continents and islands. — Fourthly, Violent in- 

 undations ; and the decomposing Power of atmospheric 

 agents; producing partial destruction of these lands, and 

 forming, from their detritus, extensive beds of gravel, sand, 

 and clay. — Fifthly, Volcanic eruptions. 



We shall form a better. estimate of the utility of the com- 



