THE BOOK OF THE GREAT SEA-DRAGONS. 
3 
Chronicles require no emendator, that the Thing with 
Life began to be, not before the visible Sun, but a long 
while after he first shone forth upon and rejoiced our 
rising Planet. It is impossible to explain certainly this 
primal Light, but, judging from the gigantic proportions 
and crowded Population of the co-existent vegetable 
World, it scarcely admits of a doubt, that it was invested 
with a degree of Caloric, which no Creature, native, or 
even as fossil, known to the Adamic System, could 
possibly endure. And, with respect to the fact, of the 
occurrence of organic exuvise in certain Coal basins; it 
argues only the Comparative Continuance of the Old 
Regime, after the evolvement of Animal life in types and 
conditions, which, to this day, imperiously require the 
most intense temperature of the Tropics. Thus again is 
the Inspired Volume championed by the very Judges to 
whom Philosophy appeals. The Slimy Marshes of the 
embryo Earth, rich and overflowing with leafy life, 
sweltered in genial heat, and “ Light” continuous through¬ 
out a long nightless Epoch, differing from our own. 
No creeping thing harboured the illimitable plain; no 
sound save the low whisperings of the tideless Deep, 
and of the Brooding Winds, ruffled the lone, the awful 
Expanse: Above, around, and about the inchoate Para¬ 
dise, fell the Pall of Soulless, Mortal, Mechanical Matter, 
irradiate, glowing insensibly, and rounded in glossy dream. 
The Thread of the Divine argument, by which only we 
can safely traverse the Cretan Labyrinth of the Natural 
World, is henceforth liable to but little interruption, for 
but few cavil at the Letter of the remaining Mosaical 
History, seeing that it recognizes the Laws by which we 
now stand : and the Archives of Earth growing more 
and more legible, leave the Sceptic no subterfuge but 
Vanity from the two-edged sword upborne by Revela¬ 
tion. That beasts followed fishes, and that Man is one 
of the last and most recent creations of all things, is of 
necessity admitted, the fossil contents of the ascending 
Strata indisputably substantiating the facts. But, Know¬ 
ledge, rashly declining the Chart of Heaven, at the com¬ 
mencement of his Travel over the boundless Wastes and 
Regions of Time, still wanders he knoweth not whither, 
mistaking one Land for another, and choosing the baby- 
toys of his own workshop, before the priceless Jewels 
which lie everywhere at his feet. His Carnality hun- 
gereth alway, and the flesh of his lean famishing body 
is in his, as it was in Sinbad’s desperate eye, more pre¬ 
cious than all the living diamonds within his reach. 
Hence the Chronology with which, negligent of the 
Elements of Morals, he has been pleased to invest the 
several Systems of Matter, is as incorrect as a geogra¬ 
phical degree, taken without Line or Quadrant. Arguing 
a hundred kindred Issues from an absurd premise, like 
Almanasar, he builds up a glittering theory, as easily de¬ 
molished as the poor visionary’s basket of glass. Casting 
the little plummet of a Child into the Bottomless Gulf of 
Wisdom, and thinking that her Depths are sounded, he 
hastens to inscribe a New Testament on triple brass, and 
palm it upon a doting world. In despite of every de¬ 
duction legitimately obtained from the Books of Nature 
and of God (which point to a large unharvested store in 
which sickle has been never thrust), Man, it is still per¬ 
sisted, was originally a Savage, and the Biblical Flood 
Chimaerical as Itself. Thus the Hydra multiplies his 
head, and hopes to escape alive, though compassed with 
the Artillery of Heaven. 
Observe, further, the striking analogy which holds 
Earth and Heaven, ages after the former perfected, was 
devised a goodly inheritance unto Man: They ask, 
“ Where was Eden, his habitation ?” I demand, “ Where 
was the Monster that could mar it ?” Go, O Geology, 
unto the whole Secondary Series of Hieroglyph Monu¬ 
ments, and bring thence one solitary Image of a Land- 
born, red-blooded, twain-hearted Terrestrial: Betake 
thee to the frowning CEningen, and the Red-Sand-stone 
of Wales, and Connecticut Valley, and to the Weald, 
and the Stonesfield Slate; to all, all, from the Coal 
Measures to the Chalk inclusive ; examine them all: 
In exact coincidence with the Inevitable Word, they 
yield a myriad Molluscs, and impressions of a mil¬ 
lion gelatinous Monads of Life, and perchance, the sea 
serpent which devoured them withal. And from the 
brackish Waters, slowly emerge cold-blooded Amphibia, 
Batrachus, Saurus, Salamandra, and the insect food of 
the Dragon-birds which swam both above and below the 
Billows that nourished and brought them forth : Sharp 
fanged and murdering Creatures of the Deep abundant. 
But the prodigious whole betray not one Symbol that 
we require. Proceed, and search diligently the eloquent 
Annals of the Older Members of the Great Tertiary 
Family; there, a million of Land Animals are on the 
Record, but no mention made of one Land destroyer,— 
he came not before the Fall of Adam. “ Ecce dedi 
vobis omnem herbam afferentem semen super terram.— 
Viditque Deus Cuncta, quae fecerat, et erant valde 
bona.” 
And Astronomy, watching at Heaven’s Gate, attests 
that, until after this Jubilant Sabbath of the Globe, it 
knew no Evil Day, reluctant Geology admitting the 
same fact. That “ in the Beginning” the Earth sprung 
forth round in all proportion, a fluid Sphere, and was 
finally moulded and ripened when the dry Land uprose 
from the fostering Waters: No obliquity of Axis ex¬ 
posed to the alternate Tropic and Chill which now pre¬ 
vail, no sudden Storm, or treacherous tide invaded her 
peaceful Borders, no malignant Comet propagated Death; 
but the refreshing Wing of the Spirit of Jehovah show¬ 
ered upon her beautiful head the Oil of Gladness, “ the 
Morning Stars singing together, and the Sons of God 
shouting for joy.” And the Principle of Life, pure from 
the Elysian Fount, throbbed through all her Frame, 
quivering with love: Her Reeds were sturdy trees, her 
Ferns umbrageous Forests, sheltering and subsisting ten 
thousand Colossal Mammifers, a fauna that would eat up 
the present lapsed and sterile World, and strip it utterly 
bare. The Primal Ocean, held through all his swelling 
breast with the same Silver Chord, sparkled in the Sun, 
rocking playfully to and fro, like a young Lion fat with 
his mother’s milk. Nor do the Apocryphal Traditions of 
Men survive in vain; the Vedas of Brama, the Sybilline 
Lore of Roma, Javanese, and Indian, and Mexican Story 
maintain correlative evidence of the great Scriptural 
Truth, that Man, created perfect in the Image of his 
Maker, ruled awhile his Temporal Dominions in the 
fruition of all peace, righteousness, and joy. 
Thus come we to that blessed Period, which the Earth 
and all that inherited it then enjoyed; the Sabbatical 
Rest, typical of that Future State, in which alone the 
long banished and pining Spirit of Man shall find his 
own dear Fatherland. Our eyes are dimmed with tears, 
whilst contemplating the glorious patrimony about to 
