402 COAL. 



Animals followed their prey, the plants, from the 

 water to the land and became adapted for terrestrial 

 life. At that period the atmosphere was thickened 

 with carbonic acid gas, and was more pestilential than 

 the Black Hole of Calcutta. Only reptiles, with slug- 

 gish and imperfect respiratory organs, could breathe 

 in such an air. But that fatal gas was bread to the 

 vegetable world, which took the carbon into its body, 

 and thus the atmosphere was purified in time. The 

 vast masses of carbon which the plants took out of the 

 air in order to allow a higher class of animal to appear 

 upon the stage, were buried in the earth, hardened 

 into coal, and were brought in by the Author in the 

 second act — now on. 



The coal-matter being thus removed, the air was 

 bright and pure : the sun glowed with radiance and 

 force ; the reptiles were converted into birds and 

 quadrupeds of many kinds ; insects rising from the 

 land and from the water hummed and sparkled in the 

 air : the forests were adorned with flowers, and cheered 

 with song. And as the periods rolled on, the inhabit- 

 ants of the earth became more complex in their struc- 

 ture, more symmetrical in form, and more advanced 

 in mental power, till at last the future lord of the 

 planet himself appeared upon the stage. The first 

 act of the drama is here concluded : but the division 

 is merely artificial ; in Nature there is no entr'acte ; 

 no curtain falls. Her scenes resemble dissolving 

 views ; the lower animals pass into man by soft, slow, 

 insensible gradations. 



We must now consider the question, How and Why 

 have these marvellous changes taken place ? How 

 and Why did the primeval jelly dots assume the form 

 of the cell or sphere ? 



