Probably There Was A Beginning-it Is A

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.

In Attempting To Explain Geological Phenomena, The Bias Has Always Been On The Wrong Side; There Has Always Been A Disposition To Reason á Priori On The Extraordinary Violence And Suddenness Of Changes, Both In The Inorganic Crust Of The Earth, And In Organic Types, Instead Of Attempting Strenuously To Frame Theories In Accordance With The Ordinary Operations Of Nature.

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.

There Is No Foundation In Geological Facts, For The Popular Theory Of The Successive Development Of The Animal And Vegetable World, From The Simplest To The Most Perfect Forms.

So Far From Having A Materialistic Tendency, The Supposed Introduction Into The Earth At Successive Geological Periods Of Life,-sensation,-instinct,-the Intelligence Of The Higher Mammalia Bordering On Reason,-and Lastly The Improvable Reason Of Man Himself, Presents Us With A Picture Of The Ever-increasing Dominion Of Mind Over Matter.