at they could not
contemporaneously exist; when the whole earth was a shoreless sea,
and that animals could not live is certain; but were they created in
succession by the Divine fiat, or did they emerge, as our author
supposes and elaborately tries to prove, from the humblest primitive
forms, by an inscrutable law of progression--evidenced, he contends,
by geological facts--though by some his facts are disputed--and
certainly not confirmed by any animal changes observable within the
limits of human experience?

There is another alternative offers, which would dispense both with the
author's hypothesis and the need of successive organic creations by a
special Providence. Is it a geological fact, since life began, that the
earth has _simultaneously_ undergone throughout its entire surface the
revolutions assigned to it? May it not always, from that period, have
consisted, as it now does, of water and dry land, alternately changing
their sites, but always apart, and allowing of the contemporary
existence on some portion of its surface of all the varieties of tribes
ever found upon it? The fossiliferous rocks that formed the primeval
sea-beds could only be deposited by the abrasion from the anterior and
higher rocks. It has always appeared to us that this conjecture is
worthy of consideration, and, if found tenable, would reconcile many
perplexities.

Upon subjects so obscure, and to which the human intellect has been only
recently directed, it is not surprising that men of science have not
arrived at uniformity of conclusion. Unable to reconcile phenomena with
positive knowledge, there are names of no mean repute who would reserve
certain domains of creation as the fields of special interventions. To
this class Dr. WHEWELL appears to belong, who assumes that "events not
included in the _course of nature_ have formerly taken place." In the
same way Professor SEDGWICK, to account for the appearance of certain
animals, says, "They were not called into being by any law of nature,
but by a power above nature." He adds, "they were created by the hand of
GOD, and adapted to the conditions of the period." To this the author of
the _Vestiges_ assents, with the explanation (p. 134) that their
existence was not the result of a "special exertion of power to meet
special conditions," but of an antecedent and primitive law of
development suited to the new exigencies, and emanating from the
Creator. This, he contends, does not lower o