SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
127 
satisfactory. The compound eye possessed by a trilobite 
is only known amongst the articulates. 
It appears also worthy of especial remark, that animals 
of all the structures, even the highest or vertebrate, existed 
anterior to the deposition of the greater portion of the 
first or earliest series of stratified rocks; and, therefore, 
that the improvements which have taken place during 
successive milleniums, evince improvements on certain 
plans in existence from the first, rather than the introduc¬ 
tion of other plans, and seem always to have been attendant 
on corresponding improvements in the surface of the earth. 
In the beginning “ the earth was without form and void, 
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The earth 
was a chaotic mass of-those unstratified rocks which dis¬ 
close to the geologist no trace of life. The first fiat of 
creation appears to be contained in the emphatic words — 
“ Let there be light! ” The earth being divided into land 
and water, furnished with light, and thus fitted for the re¬ 
ception of animals and plants, the creative fiat again went 
forth, and the land was covered with vegetables and the 
water swarmed with animals: among the former, botanists 
find a preponderance of cryptogamic vegetation; among 
the latter we have zoophytes, bivalve shells and other mol- 
lusks, trilobites, and fishes of both classes, the osseous and 
cartilaginous. These appear the result of many creations, 
or perhaps a single act of creation continuing through un¬ 
numbered years. It will doubtless occur to the reader, 
that these creations of the transition series very nearly cor¬ 
respond with the groups of animals which I have supposed 
to be under the influence of an aquatic or natant radius. 
During the next great geological period, termed the se¬ 
condary series of stratified rocks, the earth was adapted 
