100 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



to mould the plastic clay into animal forms, and plant in 

 them ethereal fire. How reverently do we turn up the 

 cleaving stone, and gaze upon a little coral, a Lingida, or a 

 trilobite, and think that these were the forms which God 

 first exerted his skill upon, and placed first in possession 

 of our round and verdant planet ! And how different those 

 beings from all we know upon the earth to-day ! What an 

 infinite range of aptitudes between that humble Lingula 

 and the majestic mien of man ! Such is the exhaustless 

 fertility of God's conception. 



We place ourselves, then, upon the threshold of animal 

 existence, and inquire what course creative Power will 

 pursue. Shall we witness a series of experiments for the 

 slow perfection of a plan — models and methods tried and 

 abandoned — detached essays, having no intelligent connec- 

 tion with an ultimate or central scheme ? With a finite 

 intelligence such experiments would have been unavoida- 

 ble ; but Nature has served no apprenticeships; the end 

 has been contemplated from the beginning. 



There are two things which strike the attention of every 

 one who studies the history of the ancient populations of 

 our globe. First, their forms and features, their habits, 

 and the details of their living, are often in wide contrast 

 with any thing we behold at the present day. Secondly, 

 while so peculiar in their details, their fundamental feat- 

 ures are identical with those of existing animals, so that 

 we call them by the same generic titles — corals, shells, 

 crustaceans. And if we scan the long line of being from 

 the Laurentian to the present, we shall find nothing which 

 may not be embraced under the most general designations 

 which we apply to existing animals. 



Now which of these two features of the fossil world is 

 most instructive? Their wild and extravagant forms as- 

 tonish us, and attract the curiosity of the marvel-loving 



