3 



06 



UNIFORMITY OF CHANGE. 



[Ch. XIV. 



convulsion, the former enduring for ages, and resembling the 

 state of things now experienced by man: the other brief, 

 transient, and paroxysmal, giving rise to new mountains, 

 eas, and valleys, annihilating one set of organic beings, and 



ushering in the creation of another. 



It will be the object of the present chapter to demonstrate, 

 that these theoretical views are not borne out by a fair inter- 

 pretation of geological monuments. It is true that, in the 

 solid framework of the globe, we have a chronological chain 

 of natural records, many links of which are wanting ; but a 

 careful consideration of all the phenomena leads to the 

 opinion that the series was originally defective — that it has 

 been rendered still more so by time — that a great part of 

 what remains is inaccessible to man, and even of that frac- 

 tion which is accessible nine-tenths are to this day unex- 

 plored. 



The readiest way, perhaps, of persuading the reader that 

 we may dispense with great and sudden revolutions in the 



him 



animate 



animate 



may 



and such unconformability of stratified rocks, as are usually 



j_ 



mi 



necessary to state, that the order of events thus assumed to 

 occur, for the sake of illustration, must be in harmony with 

 all the conclusions legitimately drawn by geologists from the 

 structure of the earth, and must be equally in accordance 

 with the changes observed by man to be now going on in the 

 living as well as in the inorganic creation. It may be neces- 

 sary in the present state of science to supply some part of 

 the assumed course of nature hypothetically ; but if so, this 

 must be done without any violation of probability, and always 

 consistently with the analogy of what is known both of the 

 past and present economy of our system 



Although the 



discussion of so com 



a subject must carry the 

 beginner far beyond his depth, it will also, it is hoped, 



stimulate 



him 



mentary treatises on geology with advantage, and teach him 

 the bearing on that science of the changes now in progress 



• 



< 





- 



• 



/ 



^ 



' 







