Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/90

 86 by mankind, are for the most part abundantly stocked with animated beings, that exult in the pleasure of existence, independent. of human control, and no way subservient to the necessities or caprices of man. Such is, and has been for several thousand years, the actual condition of our planet; nor is the consideration foreign to our subject, for hence we may feel less reluctance in admitting the prolonged ages or days of creation, when numerous tribes of the lower orders of aquatic animals lived and flourished, and left their remains imbedded in the strata that compose the outer crust of our planet" Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, 4th edit. p. 6.

we enter on the consideration of the fossil remains of other animals, it may be right to inquire whether any traces of the human species have yet been found in the strata of the earth.

The only evidence that has yet been collected upon this subject is negative; but as far as this extends, no conclusion is more fully established, than the important fact of the total absence of any vestiges of the human species throughout the entire series of geological formations. Had the case been otherwise, there would indeed have been great difficulty in reconciling the early and extended periods which have been assigned to extinct races of animals with our received chronology. On, the other hand, the fact of