" The Permian was succeeded by the S3'stems ofthe Trias and Oolite, whose fossil remains attest an ad- vance in animal as well as in vegetable organization. Trees of the palm, pine, and cypress species were min- gled with the diminished ferns, calamites, and coni- fers ofthe coal rera ; and with this improved vegeta- tion, a higher order of insects appears to have come into existence to feed on and enjoy the increasing bounties of Providence. But the peculiar and most striking feature of the age was the extraordinary in- crease, in number and magnitude, of the Saurian rep- tiles which then peopled the earth. The Saurians wore divisilile into three distinct classes- — the terres- trial, or Dinosaurians; the marine, or Elaniosaurians ; and the aerial, or Pterosaurians. They were all of them air-breathing creatures — amphibious, and more or less aquatic in their nature and habits; together with the birds whose tracks have appeared in these aame systems." " The fossil remains ofthe reptilian inhabitants of earth, ocean, and air ofthe Oolite world, more especially ofthe Lias member of it, have reveal- ed them to have then swarmed out in such amazing numbers, and of such vast dimensions, that geologists have always dwelt on the scenes which the earth of those days must have presented with astonishment and wonder, and have named that jera ' the age of the reptiles.' "
"The Chalk or Cretaceous sj^stem succeeded that of the Oolite, and presents little, if any evidence of advance in creation. There is, however, a manifest decrease ofthe Saurian reptiles, which reigned in such
alnindance in the preceding formation, and some traces of the true nianmials have, it is said, been found in this system. At all events, in the next formation, the Tertiary, we have distinct evidence ofthe existence of the mammal race of animals, including the quadruped niammifers, resembling those now extant."
"No traces of human remains, or of any work of art, have been found below the superficial deposits, or outside coating ofthe globe; yet there is no evidence ofthe introduction on the earth of any species of ani- mal whose prototype was not in being before the hu- man race became inhabitants of the earth. Man's pedigree is of less antiquity than that of any other known creature, though, geologically and physically, he is at the to]) ofthe ascending orders or scale of cre- ated beings ; for it is admitted by the most eminent and best-informed geologists that the well-attested facts of their science demonstrate that the plan or law of the creation was progressive, beginning with the zoophyte in the bottom rocks, and ascending through the succeeding formations in the advancing forms of the Mollusk, Crustacean, Fish, Reptile, and IMammal, culminating with Man, since which no new species has been introduced on the scene. See Species.
"The length of the time which has elapsed since our planet was a ball of liquid fire, and during which our world of light and life was elaborated in its vari- ous stages bjf the hands ofthe Almighty, admits of no calculation. It is not to be reckoned by days or years, or anj' known measure of time. We can only lock at the vast piles of the sedimentary rocks which have been laid down at the bottom of the waters in that pe- riod, to the depth of fifteen miles at the lowest calcu- lation, and ask how long was the space of time occu- pied in the formation of those masses by the slow pro- cess of depositing grain after grain ofthe particles of the matter of which the}' have been formed, and j'et that is but a brief portion of duration when compared with that which must have lieen occupied by the cool- ing down of tlie globe, so as to admit ofthe existence of life upon its surface." "The Scriptures do not fix the age of the earth, or supply any means by which we could calculate the length of time that had elapsed between 'the beginning' and the first appearance of the creation, including that of Adam ; and the Biblical records have unfolded to us that nearly six thousand 3'earshave passed away since he became an inhabitant of the earth. Facts, however, have recently come to light on which it has been argued that, though the ex- tent of the human a?ra must have been short indeed when compared with the vastness of the geological ages, yet some ofthe human race must have tenanted the earth at a time long anterior to that assigned bj' the Bible records to have been the date of Adam's birth. Mr. Leonard Horner's experimental researches in Eg3'pt, instituted with a view to ascertain the depths ofthe sedimentary deposits in the vallej^ ofthe Nile, have brought to light relics of works of art and speci- mens of man's handiwork, such as pieces of pottery and sculpture, that tend to prove the existence of in- telligent manufacturers at a period of time that could not be less than eleven or twelve thousand years ; but the premises from which this conclusion has been de- duced are too uncertain and fallible to warrant such an extension of the commonly received age of man. The rate of accretion of sedimentarj' deposits of a river like the Nile is subject to so many varying external influences, that, as a measure of time, it may be most fallacious, and no reliance can be placed upon it aS disproving the record of Moses. Still greater impor- tance has l)een ascribed to the discoveries in the gravel quarries of Abbeville and Amiens, in the north of France, and also in Sufliblk in P'ngland, of flint imple- ments, such as hatchets, spears, arrow-heads, and wedges of rude manufacture, associated in undisturbed gravel, with the bones of extinct species of the ele- phant, rhinoceros, and other animals, whose remains