54 



GENERELLTS TREATISE ON 



[Cii. III. 





strata must have been soft when such exuvise were inclosed 

 in them. Vegetable productions are found in different states 

 of maturity, indicating that they were imbedded in different 

 seasons. Elephants, elks, and other terrestrial quadrupeds 

 have been found in England and elsewhere, in superficial 

 strata, never covered by the sea. Alternations are rare, yet 

 not without example, of marine strata, with those which con- 

 tain marshy and terrestrial productions. Marine animals 

 are arranged in the subterraneous beds with admirable order 

 in distinct groups, oysters here, dentalia or corals there, &c, 

 as now, according to Marsilli,"^ on the shores of the Adriatic. 

 We must abandon the doctrine, once so popular, which denies 

 that organised fossils were derived from living beings, and 

 we cannot account for their present position by the ancient 

 theory of Strabo, nor by that of Leibnitz, nor by the universal 

 deluge, as explained by Woodward and others : ' nor is it 

 reasonable to call the Deity capriciously upon the stage, and 

 to make him work miracles for the sake of confirming our 

 preconceived hypothesis/ — ' I hold in utter abomination, 

 most learned Academicians ! those systems which are built 

 with their foundations in the air, and cannot be propped up 

 without a miracle ; and I undertake, with the assistance of 

 Moro, to explain to you how these marine animals were trans- 

 ported into the mountains by natural causes/ 



A brief abstract then follows of Moro's theory, by which, 

 says Generelli, we may explain all the phenomena, as Vallis- 

 neri so ardently desired, ' without violence, without fictions, 

 without hypothesis, ivithout miracles.'l The Carmelitan then 

 proceeds to struggle against an obvious objection to Moro s 

 system, considered as a method of explaining the revolutions 

 of the earth, naturally. If earthquakes have been the agents 

 of such mighty changes, how does it happen that their effects 

 since the times of history have been so inconsiderable ? This 

 same difficulty had, as we have 



seen, presented 



itself to 



i 



Saggio fisico intorno allaStoria del 



Mare, parti, p. 24. 



t * Abbomino al somno qualsivoglia 

 sistema, che sia di pianta fabbricato in 

 aria } massime qnando e tale, die non 



possa sostenersi senza un miiacolo,' &c. &c. 1749. 



IV Crostacei e di altre Produz. del 



Mare, &c. 1749. 



I < Senza violenze, senza finzioni, 

 senza supposti, senza miraooli.'— De 

 Crostacei e di altre Produz. del Mare, 





