Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/324



a superficial view of nature it may seem that her operations point to its final destruction; for plants, animals, and men die, and even the rocks disintegrate. Yet what seems to suggest the temporal, when more interiorly considered, really illustrates the permanency and eternity of creation.

That the age of mollusks, of fishes, of coal, of reptiles, of mammals as distinctive periods have come to an end, is true; yet their uses are perpetuated. Vast strata of plant and animal deposit are not now repeatedly and quickly elevated above the sea and again submerged to form the basis of vegetation, and the periods specially adapted to the making of matter suitable for vegetable and animal life are come to an end, yet their uses endure in providing animal and vegetable material as a perpetual basis