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we are led to consider the loss of a part of the vegetable creation 
as far from improbable. This is a point which cannot, however, 
be said to be determined, whilst any part of the world, in which they 
may be concealed, has escaped the examination of the botanist; 
especially as some very good and learned men have regarded the loss 
of a single link, in the chain of creation, as inadmissible ; it implying, 
they say, such a deviation from the first plan of creation, as might be 
attributed to a failure in the original design. But such an inference 
does by no means follow ; since that plan, which prevents the failure 
of a genus, or species, from disturbing the general arrangement and 
economy of the system, must manifest as great a display of wisdom 
and power, as could any fancied chain of beings, in which the loss of 
a single link would prove the destruction of the whole. 
During the progress of our inquiries, one fact was discovered, 
which demands our particular notice in this place. During the nu- 
merous explorements of the strata containing the remains of those 
substances which existed in the world before the flood, not a single 
antediluvian piece of art has been ever found. This circumstance, 
alone, constitutes an argument of no small force against the eternity, 
at least, of the existence of man ; since had the earth, peopled by 
mankind, existed eternally, the number of human beings which would 
have existed at the time of the deluge would have been so great, and 
their spread over the face of the earth would have been so general, 
that their weapons, their various utensils, and articles of furniture, 
must necessarily have been frequently discovered among the ante- 
diluvian remains. This circumstance it must, however, be admitted, 
appears to prove too much ; since, as none of the remains of the 
labours of man have been thus discovered, we are without a proof of 
the existence of any human beings, at the time of the deluge; and 
therefore have more reason to suppose, that man had not been cre- 
ated, at the period at which this event occurred, than that the whole 
species, cxcej)ting a very few individuals, were destroyed with it. 
