this, which forces itself so strongly upon our notice, may be considered competent to have produced the effect. This conviction will be materially strengthened when we come to adduce the analogous fact, placed on clear, undeniable record, that the waters were commanded, and immediately did produce the more recent congenors of those testacea and zoophyta. For, upon the presumed principle that no secondary agent of the Creator was ever called upon to perform any part of the great work of creation without having the necessary materials placed at its disposal, we are led, by analogy, to conclude, in corroboration of our previous position, that the primitive waters of our sphere, before rotation was impressed on it, did contain those elements which, by the enduring, tranquil agency of the more simple forms of marine animal life, produced those vast and pervading calcareous coatings of the earth's mineral crust which, unless we knew the effects of persevering industry, we might be apt to consider entirely disproportionate to their puny powers.

The consideration of these wonderful facts, however, and of the well-authenticated circumstance of the prevalence at the bottom of the ancient ocean of innumerable living forms, which we know, from their exuviæ, did encrust themselves with carbonate of lime, will, when taken in combination, strengthen our belief as to the importance of the labour which they performed, and the danger of either undervaluing it, or of ascribing it to other origin; otherwise we shall not only overlook a very important and influential secondary cause, but omit to attribute to that cause a commensurate effect. In a subsequent part of this treatise we shall have occasion to show, in continuation of what has already been stated, that, in addition to the work assigned to these successive races and forms of apulmonic creatures-of encrusting the shell of the earth with carbonate of lime at the bottom of the primitive ocean— they were destined, all the while, by the wisdom of the Creator, to produce a peculiar animal secretion, required for the formation of the life-sustaining atmosphere, and designed to be associated in it with another, without which no air-breathing animal could, for one moment, have existed.

And that, however wonderful this arrangement may seem,

it is equalled only by the wise forethought which devised that this subtile and buoyant element should, in its primary form, have been produced and set free at the bottom of the ocean; its ascent, as it percolated in this state through the superincumbent waters, contributing very essentially to the work of precipitation which was then going forward throughout their whole expanse.

We trust it may not be out of place to endeavour, here, to generalize the evidence which we have gone through in detail as far as it bears upon the necessity-if we may be allowed so to express ourselves-for there having been a succession of sub-marine animal life, to ensure the success of the co-relative operation during the protracted process of encrustation with calcareous material and the purification of the waters.

The fact that the primitive earth was enveloped by a menstruum which, ab initio, contained the calcareous elements in chemical combination, when contrasted with that of the ratio. of encrustation having kept pace with the increasing power of the water to retain these elements in its grasp, necessarily implies a change in the inermediate living and operative agency.

As the work beneath went on increasing, just in proportion as the reluctance to part with the means went on augmenting above, from whence alone the necessary supply could be obtained, there appears to have been no other method, consistent with the laws prescribed for the creation, of bringing about the double effect then contemplated, short of a change in the agency, and an increase of its power of abstraction and assimilation; an increase of warmth in the containing medium being added as an essential auxiliary. While it ought to be borne in mind, as an additional reason for coming to this conclusion, that as the waters were undergoing a gradual change, as from Z to A, while the earth, benefitting thereby, was simultaneously altering its state, as from A to Z, the same living agency could not, during the whole intervening period, have effected the interchange which was necessary between the two mutating bodies.

In conclusion of this part of our discourse we have to express our hope of having, in the first place, shown the close

analogy which existed, during the primeval era, between the forms, the nature, and the functions of the living creatures which then encrusted its submerged surface, with the absence of light and of an atmosphere; and not only this, but also the object had in view, by their priority of existence; inasmuch as they appear to have been the instrumentality made use of to elaborate part of the material bases of which the light and the atmosphere are composed.

The precise wording of Scripture leaving no doubt on our minds, that whereas "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," so thereafter, nothing material was created; and, consequently, as the etherial fluid, however closely bordering on immaterialism is yet matter, it must, during the period of non-rotation, have, likewise, been created.

And, finally, we consider that by the exposition which we have given, we have established, as far as the state of information on the subject will permit, the position we assumed at the commencement of this section-namely, That before the rotation of the earth around its axis, or during the period called in Scripture "the beginning," the primitive, dark, and atmosphereless waters were the abode of innumerable races of living apulmonic creatures, independent alike of light or atmospheric air for life or motion. The greater part consisting of descriptions which either were entirely fixed, or moved but imperfectly; and that of these there were several successive generations. And, having done this, we have wrought out, as far as this particular branch of evidence is available for that purpose, the proof we have to afford. That during the same Scriptural period of indefinite duration, there was formed and forming, by the united instrumentality of animal and vegetable secretion and decomposition, of crystallization, and of ordinary deposition, the materials which were afterwards to constitute all the geological and meteorological phenomena; when they should, by the centrifugal impetus engendered by the protorotation of the earth, be placed in their respective positions. And that, by the same instrumentality, the primitive waters were, likewise, undergoing due preparation for

their present condition. And in effecting this we have manifested the dependence which philosophy ought to have on Scripture, our position being as consistent with the true meaning of the inspired narrative, given in Genesis, as it is accordant with the results of philosophical investigation, and of geological research.

SECTION III.

THE VEGETABLE ORGANISMS OF THE NON-ROTATORY PERIOD.

CHAPTER IV.

The subject of argument of this Section stated. The Vegetation of the Nonrotatory period neither flowering nor seed-bearing plants. Striking analogy in this respect to the Apulmonic Creatures which were the subject of the previous Section, pointing to a common cause; and, therefore, requiring to be treated in a similar manner. The Dicotyledonous class of plants fully described. The Monocotyledonous also minutely characterized, and both of these great divisions eliminated from the argument, as having been formed during the Mosaic week. These, however, not comprising the entire Vegetable Kingdom, leave the Acotyledons as a residue, which are considered to have been willed into existence during the period of non-rotation This latter class closely delineated, and their functions particularized.

IN following out the plan which has been laid down for the consideration of our subject, the attention must now, for a short time, be directed to an interesting group of natural objects, which contributed very materially to the formation of the stratified masses, as well by constituting, in themselves, the greater portion of the coal-measures, as by the influence which they exercised over the imperfect animal life then in existence; and also by occasioning depositions from the surrounding primeval fluid. We allude to the Flora of the ancient world, as represented by the FOSSIL VEGETABLE REMAINS found embedded in the strata.

It may be as well to understand, that we proceed upon the supposition that, during the protracted period when they existed and grew in succession, the circumstances of our planet