PRIMARY STRATIFIED ROCKS. 59 
structure of those beings affords, carry with them 
a more forcible conviction of an intelligent 
Creator, and the hypothesis of an eternal suc- 
cession of causes, is thus at once removed. We 
argue thus : it is demonstrable from Geology 
that there was a period when no organic beings 
had existence ; these organic beings must there- 
fore have had a beginning subsequently to this 
period ; and where is that beginning to be found 
but in the will and Jiat of an intelligent and all- 
wise Creator?" 
The same conclusion is stated by Cuvier, to 
be the result of his observations on geological 
phenomena : '* Mais ce qui etonne davantage 
encore, et ce qui n'est pas moins certain, c'est 
qui la vie n'a pas toujours existe sur la globe, 
et qu'il est facile k I'observateur de reconnoitre 
le point ou elle a commence a deposer ses pro- 
duits." — Cuvier, Ossemens Fossiles, Disc. Prelim. 
1821, vol. i. p. ix. 
