Notwithstanding, Therefore, That We Have Not Witnessed

'time's Noblest Offspring Is The Last.' This Line Of Bishop Berkeley's Expresses The Real Cause Of The Belief In Progress In The Animal Creation.

The Earth's Becoming At A Particular Period The Residence Of Human Beings, Was An Era In The Moral, Not In The Physical World, That Our Study And Contemplation Of The Earth, And The Laws Which Govern Its Animate Productions, Ought No More To Be Considered In The Light Of A Disturbance Or Deviation From The System, Than The Discovery Of The Satellites Of Jupiter Should Be Regarded As A Physical Event In The History Of Those Heavenly Bodies, However Influential They May Have Become From That Time In Advancing The Progress Of Sound Philosophy Among Men.

It Is Probable That A Greater Number Of Monuments Of The Skill And Industry Of Man Will, In The Course Of The Ages, Be Collected Together In The Bed Of The Ocean Than Will Exist At Any Other Time On The Surface Of The Continents.

Never Was There A Dogma More Calculated To Foster Indolence, And To Blunt The Keen Edge Of Curiosity, Than The Assumption Of The Discordance Between The Former And The Existing Causes Of Change.

Notwithstanding, Therefore, That We Have Not Witnessed Of A Large Continent, Yet, As We May Predict The Future Occurrence Of Such Catastrophes, We Are Authorized To Regard Them As Part Of The Present Order Of Nature.