XXX 



INTRODUCTION 



If (and I think the point must be conceded) creation is a progressive work, a strong argument is furnished 

 for separate creative acts. If, moreover, separate creative acts follow changes in the earth's crust and climate, the 

 inference is that the creation of plants and animals, and modifications thereof, go on in the present day as in past 

 ages, all which means that the Creator or First Cause is at work now as He has always been and will continue to be 

 while the world lasts. The Creator, in this sense, is to be regarded not only as the Framer but also as the Upholder, 

 Regulator, and Sustainer of the Universe. This, on the whole, is the most comforting and sensible view to take of 

 creation, as it guarantees to plants and animals a home, food, and constant supervision ; and to man security both 

 as regards the here and the hereafter. Creation as a progressive work differs from evolution in the sense that the 

 different types of plants and animals which prevail now and which prevailed in the past are produced separately, 

 and are not manufactured the one from the other in endless sequence by infinite modifications in infinite time. 



Animals. 



Systems of Formations. 



Plants. 



Age of Man and Mammalia Kainozoic . 



Age o£ Reptiles 



Age o£ Amphibians and Fishes ) 

 Age of lu vertebrates i 



Age of Protozoa 



Mesozoic 



Palseozoic 



Bozoic 



Modern 

 Pleistocene 

 Pliocene 

 Miocene 

 , Eocene 



Cretaceous 



Jurassic 



Triassic 



Permian 



Carboniferous 



Erian 



Silurian 



Ordovician 



Cambrian 



Huronian (Upper) 



Huronian (Lower) -i 



Upper Laurentian \ 



Middle Laurentian j 



Lower Laurentian J 



Angiosperms and Palms domi- 

 nant. 



Cycads and Pines dominant. 



Acrogens and Gymnosperms 

 dominant. 



Protogens and Algfe. 



Dana estimates " that the time-ratios for the first three great ages may be as one for the Kainozoic to three 

 for the Mesozoic and twelve for the Palaeozoic, with as much for the Eozoic as for the Palaeozoic. . It is further 

 held that the modern period is much shorter than the other periods of the Kainozoic, so that our geological table may 

 have to be measured by millions of years instead of by thousands." Geological time, there can be little doubt, " has 

 been vastly long in comparison to that covered by human history." One of the most astonishing circumstances con- 

 nected with the Laurentian period is the appearance of protoplasm, chlorophyll, and cells as pointed out by Sir 

 William Dawson. He writes,^ " In any case we have here presented to us the strange and startling fact that the 

 remarkable arrangement of protoplasmic matter and chlorophyll, which enables the vegetable cell to perform, with 

 the aid of solar light, the miracle of decomposing carbon dioxide and water, and forming with them woody and corky 

 tissues, had already been introduced upon the earth. It has been well said that no amount of study of inorganic 

 nature would ever have enabled any one to anticipate the possibility of the construction of an apparatus having the 

 chemical powers of the living vegetable cell. Yet this most marvellous structure seems to have been introduced 

 in the full plenitude of its powers in the Laurentian age." 



As indicating the very close connection which obtains between the organic and inorganic kingdoms it need only 

 be stated that plants and animals require light and darkness, heat and cold, moisture and drought, and a great 

 variety of cosmic conditions of a give-and-take, rhythmic character which physics, and the movements of the 

 heavenly bodies, can alone supply. But (and this is the remarkable circumstance) plants and animals, as indicated, 

 exhibit give-and-take, rhythmic movements of their own. The cosmic rhythms are repeated, and, as it were, per- 

 petuated in plants and animals. Without them plants and animals could not possibly exist. Plants and animals 

 of necessity take in pabulum and give off waste products at intervals. The intake and output movements are 

 essentially interrupted rhythmic movements. Plants and animals feed and evacuate at intervals, they work and 

 rest at intervals, they reproduce themselves at intervals. Everything about them is of the give-and-take order. 

 Even in plants and animals consisting of single cells the give-and-take movements occur. In these rudimentary 



' " (ieological History of Plants," ji. 18. 



