Millions Of Our Race Are Now Supported

Each Species May Have Had Its Origin In A Single Pair, Or Individual, Where An Individual Was Sufficient, And Species May Have Been Created In Succession At Such Times And In Such Places As To Enable Them To Multiply And Endure For An Appointed Period, And Occupy An Appointed Space On The Globe.

When The Aggregate Amount Of Solid Matter Transported By Rivers In A Given Number Of Centuries From A Large Continent, Shall Be Reduced To Arithmetical Computation, The Result Will Appear Most Astonishing To Those...not In The Habit Of Reflecting How Many Of The Mightiest Of Operations In Nature Are Effected Insensibly, Without Noise Or Disorder.

Probably There Was A Beginning-it Is A Metaphysical Question, Worthy A Theologian-species Have Begun And Ended-but The Analogy Is Faint And Distant.

The Question Now At Issue, Whether The Living Species Are Connected With The Extinct By A Common Bond Of Descent, Will Best Be Cleared Up By Devoting Ourselves To The Study Of The Actual State Of The Living World, And To Those Monuments Of The Past In Which The Relics Of The Animate Creation Of Former Ages Are Best Preserved And Least Mutilated By The Hand Of Time.

In The Course Of This Short Tour, I Became Convinced That We Must Turn To The New World If We Wish To See In Perfection The Oldest Monuments Of The Earth's History, So Far At Least As Relates To Its Earliest Inhabitants.