166 
ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part HI. 
conditions—that the different constitutions of plants 
and animals are the result of different physical 
conditions—that the different species are mere 
changes of form and organisation resulting from 
different physical conditions — and that man 
himself is merely the final result of these mani¬ 
fold changes from the zoophyte upwards. But 
the Great Artificer authoritatively and absolutely 
contradicts all this by having, possibly from all 
time, and apparently successively , and at distinct 
times, and in comparatively modern times, 
created distinct existences or species, and kept 
these distinct species separate under precisely 
similar physical conditions. This is the case 
with animals, vegetables, birds, reptiles, insects, 
fish, shell animals, and zoophytes, whether any 
of all these named are terrestrial, or aquatic, or 
amphibious, or peculiar to fresh, brackish, or salt 
water. And not only is this so now, but appa¬ 
rently through an indefinite number of ages the 
terraqueous globe has been thus gradually and 
in succession stocked and restocked with species 
entirely distinct from those existing in this or in 
any of the different periods. Indeed, supposing 
species to have originated from single stocks, the 
creation of existing species could not have been 
simultaneous. Had it been simultaneous, all 
animals, herbivorous or carnivorous, must have 
