FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 39 



What an immense field for reflection is opened to the mind 

 of the philosopher, by a survey of the discoveries to which 

 fossil osteology has conducted us ! We read, in the successive 

 strata, the successive efforts of creative energy, from the sterile 

 masses of primitive formation, up to the fair and fertile super- 

 ficies of the globe, enriched with animal and vegetable decompo- 

 sition. We find that there was a time when life did not exist 

 on this planet ; we are enabled clearly to draw the line between 

 inanimate and organised matter, and to perceive that the latter 

 is the result of a distinct principle, — of something superadded 

 to, and not inherent in, the former. We also contemplate a 

 progressive system of organic being, graduating towards per- 

 fection through innumerable ages. We find the simplest ani- 

 mals in the earliest secondary formations ; as we ascend, the 

 living structure grows more complicated — the organic develop- 

 ment becomes more and more complete, until it terminates in 

 man, the most perfect animal we behold. And shall we say 

 that this march of creation has yet arrived at the farthest limit 

 of its progress? Are the generative powers of nature exhausted, 

 or can the Creator call no new beings from her fertile womb ? 

 We cannot say so. Revolution has succeeded revolution — 

 races have been successively annihilated to give place to others. 

 Other revolutions may yet succeed, and man, the self-styled 

 lord of the creation, be swept from the surface of the earth, to 

 give place to beings as much superior to him as he is to the 

 most elevated of the brutes. The short experience of a few 

 thousand years — a mere drop in the ocean of eternity — is in- 

 sufficient to warrant a contrary conclusion. Still less will the 

 contemplation of past creations, and the existing constitution 

 of nature, justify the proud assumption that man is the sole 

 end and object of the grand system of animal existence. 



In surveying the different species whose remains are found 

 in the fossil state, it will be expedient to deviate from the order 

 of the Animal Kingdom, and to follow that which the Baron 



