fossils--the palaeotheria,
anoplotheria, megalonyces, mastodontes, pterodactyli, ichthyosauri,
etc.--could have been the sources of any animals now existing, which
would differ only by the influence of time or climate.

As yet no human bones have been discovered in the regular layers of the
surface of the earth, so that man probably did not exist in the
countries where fossil bones are found at the epoch of the revolutions
which buried these bones, for there cannot be assigned any reason why
mankind should have escaped such overwhelming catastrophes, or why human
remains should not be discovered. Man _may_ have inhabited some confined
tract of country which escaped the catastrophe, but his establishment in
the countries where the fossil remains of land animals are found--that
is to say, in the greatest part of Europe, Asia, and America--is
necessarily posterior not only to the revolutions which covered these
bones, but even to those which have laid open the strata which envelop
them; whence it is clear that we can draw neither from the bones
themselves nor from the rocks which cover them any argument in favour of
the antiquity of the human species in these different countries. On the
contrary, in closely examining what has taken place on the surface of
the globe, since it was left dry for the last time, we clearly see that
the last revolution, and consequently the establishment of present
society, cannot be very ancient. An examination of the amount of
alluvial matter deposited by rivers, of the progress of downs, and of
other changes on the surface of the earth, informs us clearly that the
present state of things did not commence at a very remote period.

The history of nations confirms the testimony of the fossils and of the
rocks. The chronology of none of the nations of the West can be traced
unbroken farther back than 3,000 years. The Pentateuch, the most ancient
document the world possesses, and all subsequent writings allude to a
universal deluge, and the Pentateuch and Vedas and Chou-king date this
catastrophe as not more than 5,400 years before our time. Is it possible
that mere chance gave a result so striking as to make the traditional
origin of the Assyrian, Indian, and Chinese monarchies agree in being as
remote as 4,000 or 5,000 years back? Would the ideas of nations with so
little inter-communication, whose language, religion, and laws have
nothing in common, agree on this point if they were not founded o