100 
ARGUMENT FOR DESIGN. 
from the existing state of things, are yet 
far nearer to present conditions than the 
more uniform vegetation and high tempe¬ 
rature of the carboniferous era. The palm 
groves of the tertiary yield to their succes¬ 
sors the pines of the peat-moss, as the tapir 
gives way to the ox ; and the low hills of 
the Pleiocene are succeeded by lower alluvial 
plains. 
The strata now under consideration, by 
their disposition and contents, exhibit just 
so much similarity to the present order of 
things, as entitles them to the character of 
heralds of the approach of man, the dele¬ 
gated monarch of this lower world. They 
shew the preparations of the theatre, the 
arrangement of the instruments, which 
ought to have been by him at once and for 
ever made resonant with the Creators 
praise. 
The seeds of the argument for design are 
sown as deep as our researches have pene¬ 
trated: like the indigenous flowers which 
spring up from long buried soil, the proofs 
of divine plan alid purpose arise and grow 
wherever the student explores the depths of 
the material universe. 
