464 On the Creation, Diffusion, and 



species might receive, during the latter period from birds, 

 and not until the sixth, and last period, when man him- 

 self was created, and by which time the earth would have 

 become a perfect wilderness, would the vegetable world 

 have been restrained by the ravages of mammalia, insects, 

 and all the other terrestrial classes. 



It is evident also that if such were the order of creation, 

 those members of the feathered tribe whose food consists 

 of insects alone could not have had existence at all, for 

 the insects which constitute their food were not created 

 until the succeeding period of years, or sixth day ; so 

 that supposing, with some theorists, that each day was an 

 indefinite period of thousands of years, we shall perceive 

 that if the insectivorous species of the present time were 

 then in existence, we are reduced to the absurdity of believ- 

 ing that they must have been constituted to endure the 

 pangs of hunger, and to live without food for thousands 

 of years. 



It would seem therefore from the above line of reasoning, 

 that if creation occupied only six periods, each of the same 

 duration as one of our present days, and each of those periods 

 produced its peculiar events, — a single pair, or even several 

 pairs of each species of animals would have been insufficient 

 to stock the earth, because many, both among birds and mam- 

 malia, being carnivorous, would have destroyed the weaker 

 to satisfy the cravings of their appetites, and in like manner 

 the large herbivora would have destroyed the vegetation. 



On the other hand, if we admit the six days of creation 

 were so many period of years, and that according to the 

 Sacred Records one period produced vegetables, another 

 birds and aquatic animals, and a third, mammalia and other 

 terrestrial creatures, — we shall still overthrow the doctrine 

 of progressive creation and diffusion ; because the lapse 

 of years between the creation of the vegetable and ani- 

 mal kingdoms would be so great, that the former being 



