CATACLYSMS. Sufficient as they were, and satisfactory as they ought to have been, these arguments against the diluvial origin of the 'figured stones,' did not prevent the adoption of it by many writers who had gained the right faith in regard to their nature and origin. Woodward, the great founder of the Chair, which has been so worthily filled by Mitchell and Sedgwick, who ransacked the British Islands for fossils, and devoted all his mind to "observation of the present state of the earth, and of the site and condition of the marine bodies which are lodged in and upon it," adopts the hypothesis which plot rejected, to account for phenomena which that author had not rightly valued. His Natural History of the Earth (1695), contains these propositions and reflections: 1. That the marine bodies were borne forth of the sea by the universal deluge; and that upon the return of the water back again from off the earth, they were left behind at land." 2. 'That during the time of the deluge, whilst the water was out upon and covered the terrestrial globe, all the stone and marble of the antediluvian earth; all the metals of it; all mineral concretions; and in a word all fossils whatever that had before obtained any solidity, were totally dissolved, and their constituent corpuscles all disjoined, their cohesion perfectly ceasing. That the said corpuscles of these solid fossils, together with the corpuscles of those which were not before solid, such as sand, earth and the like; as also all animal bodies and parts of animals, bones, teeth, shells, vegetables and parts of vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs; and to be short, all bodies whatsoever, that were either upon the earth or that constituted the mass of it, if not quite down to the abyss, yet at least to the greatest depths we ever dig; all these were assumed up promiscuously into the water, and bodies in it, and made up one common confused mass.' 3. That at length all the mass that was thus borne up in the water, was again precipitated and subsided toward the bottom-according to the laws of gravity-forming the strata, including the organic fossils according to their specific gravity?' He then goes on to explain the solidification of the strata, their original parallelism, their subsequent dislocation by a force from within, and the production by this means of the irregularities of the surface of the earth, and makes these explanations on the whole : 'Here was, we see, a mighty revolution; and that attended with accidents very strange and amaz ing; the most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw; an elegant, orderly, and habitable earth, quite unhinged, shattered all to pieces, and turned into a heap of ruins: convulsions so exorbitant and unruly; a change so exceedingly great and violent, that the very representation alone is enough to startle and shock a man.' ALL LIFE DERIVED FROM THE SEA. By degrees, however, the great truth fixed by geology, that we stand on the dried bed of the ancient sea, began to influence the ingenious writers who followed close upon Plot and Scheuchzer. Among these De Maillet, in the singular work called 'Telliamed,' (his own name reversed,) is conspicuous for the perverse resolution with which he follows out the evil consequences of an 'inappropriate idea" on this subject. Believing that the old sea-beds were laid dry by the retirement and diminution of the water, about three feet in a thousand years, he feels no hesitation in deriving all the plants and animals of the land from prior productions of like nature in the sea, though at present circumstances may fail which contributed formerly to spontaneous 1 See Whewell's Inductive Sciences for examples of 'appropriate ideas.' generation, and that the earth is reduced to ordi nary propagation. Jamque adeo fracta est ætas, ecfœtaque tellus Vix animalia parva creat, quæ cuncta creavit The germs of life he supposes to be everywhere provided through the universe-in air, food, waterready to be developed into species by the warmth of the sun, in water or mud disposed to fecundity, so that all life has proceeded from the sea. Whether this constitution of things be ascribed to laws of nature or the design of the Creator, he regards with indifference, being satisfied that such a condition of things is real. The difficulty of the change from watery life to aërial life, he regards lightly. 'A hundred millions of individuals must have perished, without being able to assume the new habit of life, but it is enough if two have survived the trial, to give permanence to the race.' Here is one example of the process: 'It may have happened, as indeed we know it often does happen, that flying-fishes fell into brambles or pastures, from which it was impossible to return to the sea by the effort which brought them from it, and that in this state they acquired a greater power of flight. Their large fins, no longer bathed by the waters of the sea, divided and opened in drying; the separated fin-rays prolonged themselves, and became covered with barbs, or to speak exactly, the membranes which had previously held them together were metamorphosed. The barb formed of these separated pellicles, lengthened itself; the skin gradually covered itself with a down of the same colour, and this down increased. The subventral fins, which, as well as the large fins, assisted their promenade in the sea, became feet, and served them for walking on the earth. Some other small changes took place in their shape. The beak and neck of some were lengthened, of others shortened; and so of the other parts of the body. But still the conformity of the original figure remains on the whole; and it is and always will be easy to recognize.' So much for the origin of Birds! By processes equally easy and satisfactory, the sea is shewn to be the parent of quadrupeds and men. GERMS OF LIFE. Buffon adopted similar views as to the derivation of the forms of life, and was followed by one greatly superior in real knowledge of nature, who |