which he assigns to the phenomena of changes in shells viz. " corresponding changes in the che"mical nature of the sea, which would have ren"dered it almost impossible for the same kind "of animals to continue to live;" and also, of the overweening confidence with which he peremptorily asserts in conclusion-" nor did they do so in fact1." We now perceive, how he has been drawn into the conjectural and arbitrary conclusion, of the necessity of numerous revolutions. On the other hand, we have found, that all the phenomena were apprehensibly effected by one and the same revolution; so that the hypothesis of different revolutions, is neither required nor sustained by the phenomena. It is not, therefore, by endeavouring to deduce geological theories from fossil animal remains, that the illustrious comparative anatomist who has devoted so much genius and zeal to the investigation of the latter, will serve the cause of true knowledge; it is, by applying his anatomical and zoological skill and experience to discriminate between the extinct and the preserved genera and species, and thus, to bring us acquainted with those animal races which the Author of Creation thought fit to exclude from His renovated earth. But yet, even here, the temperance of science must restrain the impetuosity of system. In the opening of his " Theory," M. Cuvier sanguinely declares: -" I shall unfold the principles 1 Theory, § 5. 66 on which is founded the art of ascertaining these bones, or, in other words, of discovering a genus "and distinguishing a species by a single fragment 66 of bone--an art, on the certainty of which depends "that of the whole work." Nevertheless, he afterwards finds himself constrained to acknowledge, "that there are still some doubtful species of "these fossil bones; which must occasion some "uncertainty in the result of our researches, until they have been clearly ascertained." What then becomes of the art of ascertaining, or of commanding certainty by a single fragment of bone, proclaimed in the first instance? The uncertainty pleaded in the latter passage, was categorically excluded by the certainty unreservedly asserted in the former. From hence we may collect, how uncertain is often the alleged certainty of the mineral geology; and from thence we may further learn, to be cautious and wary in the measure of confidence which we are tempted to repose in its conclusions. CHAPTER IX. AGAIN, the mineral geology, pursuing the same fallacious course of reasoning, demands more revolutions to enable itself to unriddle certain phenomena intimately connected with the preceding, which are presented to it in penetrating into the different strata of the globe. "If," it says, "we examine with greater care these re"mains of organised bodies, we discover, in the "midst even of the most ancient marine strata, "other strata filled with animal or vegetable productions pertaining to land and fresh water: and, amongst the most recent strata, that is to 66 say, those which are nearest to the surface, "there are some in which land animals are buried "under heaps of productions of the sea. Thus, the different catastrophes of our planet have not 66 only caused the different parts of our continents "to rise by degrees from the bosom of the sea, "but it has also frequently happened, that lands "which had been laid dry have been again "covered by the waters, either by the sinking "of those lands, or, only by the waters being brought upon them; and the particular portion "of land which the sea disengaged in its last retreat, had already been dry once before, and "had at that time nourished quadrupeds, birds, 66 66 66 66 plants, and terrestrial productions of all kinds; "it had, therefore, been inundated by the sea which afterwards quitted it. The changes which have taken place in the productions of the shelly "strata have not, therefore, depended only on one gradual and general retreat of the waters, but on successive irruptions and retreats; the "final result of which, however, has been an uni"versal depression of the level of the sea1.-By "extraneous fossils alone we are enabled to ascer 66 66 tain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth "has not always been covered over by the same "external crust; because we are thoroughly as"sured, that the organised bodies to which those "fossil remains belong must have lived upon the surface, before they came to be buried, as they now are, at a great depth.-In regard to quadru peds, every thing is precise. The appearance of "their bones in strata, and still more of their entire "carcasses, clearly establishes, that the bed in "which they are found must have been previously laid 66 66 dry. Their disappearance, as clearly announces, that this stratum must have been inundated, or "that the dry land had ceased to exist in that state. It is from them (terrestrial fossils), there 66 66 66 fore, that we learn with perfect certainty the important fact, of the repeated irruptions of the sea upon the land, which fact fossils of marine origin "could not of themselves have proved; and, by a "careful investigation of them, we may hope to "ascertain the numbers and epochas of those irrup"tions of the sea1.” The most careful investigation in a false track, can never ascertain the object sought. The fossil remains of quadrupeds can, indeed, reveal to us what animals once lived, by shewing us what animals have perished; and from these we may therefore collect, what genera or what species are become extinct. But, this is the utmost extent of the instruction imparted by fossils extraneous to the sea. The strata in which they are found, can only indicate to us (as we have seen in the last chapter) the order of their immersion into the plastic soils of the primitive sea, which can only prove their successive subjection to the immersing cause. In the foregoing over-confident and temerarious conclusions of our great mineral geologist, we plainly perceive the consequence of attempting to navigate an unknown ocean without card and compass. Had he corrected his "morbid eagerness to separate his "reasoning from Scripture, and to seek no sup"port or confirmation from that quarter 2;" had he piloted his course by the Mosaical card, he would have pursued a direct and simple track, conducting him to the haven which he sought; but, having left his card behind him, he traverses and counter-traverses the same ocean in all directions; sees the same head-lands over and over |