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gate all that he can see around him in the earth and m the 
heavens Feeling sure that truth can only be arrived a 
through this one channel, he spares no research, and >s 
neglectful of no means likely to make his conclusions certain, 
and his inferences not to be disputed. He weighs these thing 
in the balance of induction, and he tests them there by them 
conformity to those laws which he has now discovered 
unchangeable. He penetrates the crust of the earth, and the 
very first object that presents itself to his mind, is one , 
while it confirms the conjectures which he has Lu-^ft o^elth 
at bv seeing that both man and animals are subject to deat , 
presents alsf a difficulty which he is unable to explain ^ 
law within his reach ; for the difficulty ^opposed to the ^ care 
ful and regular computation of time. He finds, for examp e, 
that not only whole genera and species of the living crea ion 
have been entombed in the earth, but that genera and species, 
nol now forming any part of the living creation have also been 
buried there. And from the space and order and other 
characteristics which these remains exhibit there, he ga er 
that the living creation was not the first creation, but only one 
of a series which have followed each other m s^cession durmg 
countless ages of the world. He discovers, further, that these 
acts oT creative power were manifested by slow and varied 
degrees, so that they took many thousands of years for their 
completion. Further, he discovers that man was created at 
comparatively recent period of the earth, only P ara ^ w ^ 
those animals we now see alive upon 1 s su , , ' _ os :*j 0 n of 
truth of all these deductions rests alone upon the positio 
these remains in a certain relation to others, and m t ° r the ’ 
that the inference cannot otherwise be drawn, than that t y 
occupied in time a regular and independent place m the order 
Sequence of creation. That is, he recognizes severa 
distinct creations, which had no more connection with the one 
that went before, than what was to be implied m the supposed 
fitnesTof each for a condition of things then existing on the 
pnrth wliicfi bad not previously existed. 
That these difficulties, unfolded by the investigation of the 
earth as the natural philosopher explored her interior for the 
discovery of truth, ought to have led him to conclusions so 
vast and 7 so important, with greater caution, can only &irl y 
admitted They should have led him to examine the g r0 " nd * 
on which he sought to establish so wide and so high ^andm 
of truth, upon a basis so limited and unsustained. whereas 
a fair amount of reasoning should have satisfied the natur^L 
philosopher, who joined in this hyphothesis, « ™ ^ 
inference could justly be drawn; that because a laige port 
