TERRESTRIAL ADAPTATIONS. 581 
such an infinity of future uses under future sys- 
tems, in the original groundwork of his Creation. 
In an early part of our Enquiry, we traced 
back the history of the Primary rocks, which 
composed the first solid materials of the Globe, to 
a probable condition of universal Fusion, incom- 
patible with the existence of any forms of or- 
ganic life, and saw reason to conclude that as 
the crust of the Globe became gradually reduced 
in temperature, the unstratified crystalline rocks, 
and stratified rocks produced by their destruction, 
were disposed and modified, during long periods 
of time, by physical forces, the same in kind with 
those which actually subsist, but more intense in 
their degree of operation ; and that the result has 
been to adapt our planet to become the recep- 
tacle of divers races of vegetable and animal 
beings, and finally to render it a fit and conve- 
nient habitation for Mankind. 
We have seen still further that the surface of 
the Land, and the Waters of the Sea have during 
long periods, and at distant intervals of time, 
preceding the Creation of our species, been 
peopled with many different races of Vegeta- 
bles and Animals, supplying the place of other 
races that had gone before them ; and in all 
these phenomena, considered singly, we have 
found evidence of Method and Design. We 
have moreover seen such a systematic recurrence 
of analogous Designs, producing various ends by 
