TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 433 



tory of the Primary rocks, which composed the first sohd 

 materials of the Globe, to a probable condition of universal 

 Fusion, incompatible with the existence of any forms of 

 organic life, and saw reason to conclude that as the crust of 

 the Globe became gradually reduced in temperature, the 

 unstratified crystalline rocks, and stratified rocks produced 

 by their destruction, were disposed and modified, during 

 long periods of time, by physical forces, the same in kind 

 with those which actually subsist, but more intense in their 

 degree of operation ; and that the result has been to adapt 

 our planet to become the receptacle of divers races of vege- 

 table and animal beings, and finally to render it a fit and 

 convenient habitation for Mankind. 



We have seen still farther that the surface of the Land, 

 and the Waters of the Sea have during long periods, and at 

 distant intervals of time, preceding the Creation of our 

 species, been peopled with many different races of Vegeta- 

 bles and Animals, supplying the place of other races that 

 had gone before them; and in all these phenomena, con- 

 sidered singly, we have found evidence of Method and 

 Design. We have moreover seen such a systematic recur- 

 rence of analogous Designs, producing various ends by 

 various combinations of Mechanism, multiplied almost to 

 infinity in their details of application, yet all constructed on 

 the same few common fundamental principles which pervade 

 the living forms of organized Beings, that we reasonably 

 conclude all these past and present contrivances to be parts 

 of a comprehensive and connected whole, originating in the 

 Will and Power of one and the same Creator. 



Had the number or nature of the material Elements 

 appeared to have been different under former conditions of 

 the Earth, or had the Laws which have regulated the pheno- 

 mena of inorganic matter, been subjected to change at 

 various Epochs, during the progress of the many formations 

 of which Geology takes cognizance, there might indeed have 

 been proofs of Wisdom and Power in such unconnected 

 VOL, I. — 37 



