so much success in his examination of the
evidences of Design in the mechanical
structure of the corporeal frame of Man, and
of the inferior Animals which are placed with
him on the present surface of the Earth.
The myriads of petrified Remains which
are disclosed by the researches of Geology
all tend to prove, that our Planet has been
occupied in times preceding the Creation of
the Human Race, by extinct species of
Animals and Vegetables, made up, like
living Organic Bodies, of “ Clusters of Contrivances,”
which demonstrate the exercise
of stupendous Intelligence and Power. They
further show that these extinct forms of Organic
Life were so closely allied, by Unity
in the principles of their construction, to
Classes, Orders, and Families, wdiich make
up the existing Animal and Vegetable Kingdoms,
that they not only afford an argument
of surpassing force, against the doctrines of
the Atheist and the Polytheist; but supply
a chain of connected evidence, amounting to
demonstration, of the continuous Being, and
of many of the highest Attributes of the One
Living and True God.
The scientific Reader .will feel that much value has been added
to the present work, from the whole of the Palaeontology, during
its progress through the Press, having had the great advantage
of passing under the revision of Mr. Broderip, and from the
botanical part having being submitted to Mr. Robert Brown.
I have also to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. Clift for his
important assistance in the anatomy of the Megatherium ; to
Professor Agassiz of Neuchâtel for his unreserved communications
of his discoveries relating to Fossil Fishes ; to Mr. Owen
for his revision of some parts of my Chapter on Mollusks ; and
to Mr. James Sowerby for his assistance in engraving most of
my figures of radiated animals, and some of those of Mollusks.
To all these Gentlemen I feel it my duty thus to offer my
public acknowledgments.
Many obligations to other scientific friends are also acknowledged
in the course of the work.
The Wood-cuts have been executed by Mr. Fisher and Mr.
Byfield, and most of the Steel plates of Mollusks by Mr. Zeitter.