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INSTITUTES OF MENU. 



led till after iliose great revolutions which buried many different or- 

 ders and entire genera of animals deep under the present surface of 

 the earth. That man is the latest tenant of the globe, is confirmed 

 by the oldest records or traditions that exist of the origin of the hu- 

 man race. 



The great convulsions which have, at distant periods, changed the 

 ancient surface of the globe, and reduced it from a chaotic to its 

 present habitable state, were not, it is reasonable to believe, effected 

 by the blind fury of tumultuous and conflicting elements, but were^ 

 the result of determined laws, directed by the same wisdom which 

 regulates every part of the external universe. Compared with the 

 ephemeral existence of man on the earth, the epochs of these chang- 

 es may appear of almost inconceivable duration; but we are express- 

 ly told, " that with the Creator a thousand years are as one day, and 

 one day as a thousand years." 



