n the chemical nature
of the fluid; and when the sea last receded from our continent its
inhabitants were not very different from those which it still
continues to support."

He then refers to successive irruptions and retreats of the sea, "the
final result of which, however, has been a universal depression of the
level of the sea."

"These repeated irruptions and retreats of the sea have neither been
slow nor gradual; most of the catastrophes which have occasioned
them have been sudden."

He then adds his proofs of the occurrence of revolutions before the
existence of living beings. Like Lamarck, Cuvier was a Wernerian, and in
speaking of the older or primitive crystalline rocks which contain no
vestige of fossils, he accepted the view of the German theorist in
geology, that granites forming the axis of mountain chains were formed
in a fluid.

We must give Cuvier the credit of fully appreciating the value of
fossils as being what he calls "historical documents," also for
appreciating the fact that there were a number of revolutions marking
either the incoming or end of a geological period; but as he failed to
perceive the unity of organization in organic beings, and their genetic
relationship, as had been indicated by Lamarck and by Geoffroy
St. Hilaire, so in geological history he did not grasp, as did Lamarck,
the vast extent of geological time, and the general uninterrupted
continuity of geological events. He was analytic, thoroughly believing
in the importance of confining himself to the discovery of facts, and,
considering the multitude of fantastic hypotheses and suggestions of
previous writers of the eighteenth century, this was sound, sensible,
and thoroughly scientific. But unfortunately he did not stop here.
Master of facts concerning the fossil mammals of the Paris Basin, he
also--usually cautious and always a shrewd man of the world--fell into
the error of writing his "theory of the world," and of going to the
extreme length of imagining universal catastrophes where there are but
local ones, a universal Noachian deluge when there was none, and of
assuming that there were at successive periods thoroughgoing total and
sudden extinctions of life, and as sudden recreations. Cuvier was a
natural leader of men, a ready debater, and a clear, forcible writer, a
man of great executive force, but lacking in insight and imagination; he
dominated scientific Paris and France, he was the law-giver and au