Evidence of the Senses often delusive—Deductions of Reason fallible—Essentials sometimes overlooked—Discrepancy between Scripture and Geological Conclusions—Painful Dilemma—Efforts to escape from it—Supremacy of Truth—Various Attempts at Reconciliation—Denouncers—Opinions of Brown—Blackwood— Macbrair—Ure—Penn—Young—Cockburn—Miller—Sedgwick—Turner—Sumner— Chalmers—Harris—Gray—Conybeare—Hitchcock—Pye Smith—"Protoplast"—Babbage—Powell—"Vestiges"—Amplitude of Choice Page 1-29 II.The Witness for the Macro-Chronology.A Court of Inquiry—The Witnesses—Testimony of One—Strata of Thames Tunnel—of Hertfordshire—of Yorkshire—of the Globe—Granite—Granitic Strata—Organic Remains—Silurian System—Corals—Trilobites—Mollusks—Devonian System—Old Red Sandstone—Its Formation—Fishes—Carboniferous System—Coral Limestone—Millstone Grit—Coal—Predominance of Carbonic Acid—Extent and Thickness of Coal-Fields—Formation of Coal—Conjecture as to its Age—Antediluvian Theory untenable—Sauroid Fishes—Earliest Reptiles—Footprints of Frogs 30-53 III.The Same—(continued.)Disturbances of Strata—Internal Heat—Changes of Land and Sea—New Red Sandstone—Footprints—Labyrinthodon—Lias Formation—Crinoids—Ammonites—Belemnites—Fishes—Marine Reptiles—Ichthyosaur—Plesiosaur—European Archipelago—Oolitic Formation—Cycads—Megalosaur—Bat-Lizards—Iguanodon—HylÆosaur—Earliest Mammal—Chalk Formation—Infusoria—DiatomaceÆ—Their Minuteness and Numbers—Chambered Cephalopods—Mosasaur—End of Secondary Formations—Convulsions—Basalt—Uprearing of Mountain Chains—London Clay—Plants and Animals—Fishes—Reptiles—Birds—Mammals—Anoplotherium—Condition of Europe—Dinotherium—Mastodon—Mammoth—Trees—Crag Formation—Tertiary Fauna—Bone Caves—Kirkdale—Erratic Blocks—Glaciers—Sloths—Marsupials—Birds—Raised Beaches—Human Period—Moho—Present Cosmical Operations—River Deltas—Coral Beefs—Volcanoes—Changes of Level—Earthy Deposits—Stalagmite—Shells—Recapitulation. 54-101 IV.The Cross-Examination.Grandeur of the Evidence—Proposed Line of Objection—It is but circumstantial—Example of Confusion of Thought—Analysis of the Reasoning—-Dependent on the exhaustive Power of Observation—Relation of Precedence and Sequence—Of Cause and Effect—Force of my Position. 102-109 V.Postulates.The Creation of Matter—The Persistence of Species. 110-112 VI.Laws.The Course of Nature a Circle—Illustrations—Scarlet Runner—Lady-fern— Hawkmoth—Plumularia—Cow—Universality of the Law—Creation an Irruption into a Circle—False Witness to Past Processes—Prochronism and Diachronism—Phenomena illusory—Recapitulation 113-126 VII.Parallels and Precedents.(Plants.)Ideal Tour on Creation-Day—Chronological Investigations—Queried Age of a Tree-fern—Data for the Inquiry—Development of the Leaves—Leaf-scars—Report—Its manifest Error—Selaginella—Bamboo— Couch-grass—Screw-pine—Pashiuba—Sugar Palm—Areca—Rattan—Agave— Traveller's Tree—Butterfly Flower—Orchis—Gladiolus—Grass-tree—White Lily—Testudinaria—Caffer-Bread—Fig—Banyan—Euphorbia—Tulip-tree—Bignonia—Loranthus—Prickly Pear—Mangrove—Silk-cotton-tree—Locust-tree—Restriction of the Inquiry—Uniform Testimony to Untruth 127-181 VIII.Parallels and Precedents.(Invertebrate Animals.)Resumption of the Examination—Sea Pen—Millepore—Madrepore—Organ-pipe— Medusa—Sea-urchin—Feather-star—Tapeworm—Serpula—Terebella—White-ant— Goliath-beetle—Gnat—Case-fly—Melicerta—Julus—Buprestis—Shore-crab— Barnacle—Lepralia—Botryllus—Clavagella—Prickly Venus—Scorpion Stromb—Tiger Cowry—Thorny Murex—Pearly Nautilus—Cuttlefish 182-239 IX.Parallels and Precedents.(Vertebrate Animals.)Examination of the Vertebrata—Sword-fish—Gilt-head—LaminÆ of Scales—Shark—Arrangement of Teeth—Their Structure—Tree-frog— Metamorphosis—Rattlesnake—Crocodile—Tortoise—LaminÆ of Plates—Skull of Cassowary—Peacock—Humming-bird—Trogon—Structure and Growth of Feathers—Whalebone of Whale—Horn of Ibex—Horn of Stag—Teeth of Horse—Of Babiroussa—Of Hippopotamus—Tusk of Elephant—Molars of Elephant 240-273 X.Parallels and Precedents.(Man.)Examination of Primal Man—Blood—Its Formation—Its Oxygenation— Nails—Hair—Bones—Teeth—All formed by successive Processes—Stature—Thyroid Cartilage—Beard—Development of Teeth—Proportion of Bloods—Condition of Skeleton—Navel—False Conclusion 274-291 XI.Parallels and Precedents.(Germs.)Assumption of adult Development at Creation—Its Reasonableness—The Position waived—Assumption of the Germ-Hypothesis—Double Cocoa-nut—Coral Tree—Tulip—Earth-pea—Mangrove—Medusa—Connexion of Germs with Parent—In Echinoderms—In Annelids—In Insects—Egg of Butterfly—Of Nut Weevil—Of Bots—Of Ichneumon—Of Pill Chafer—Of Gall-fly—Of Lace-fly—Of Spider—Of Gipsy Moth—Of Coccus—Of XII.The Conclusion.Uniformity of Results—Prochronism of Organic Nature—Phenomena inadequate to settle Chronology—Historic Testimony alone oracular—Familiar Illustration—Objections met—Analogy between an Organism and a World—Illustration from a Tree—Analogy between the Life of a Species and that of an Individual—History Divinely Projected—Grand Plan of Nature—Diachronic Existence not necessary—Deceptive Phenomena inseparable from Created Organisms—Illustrations abundant—Hypothesis of the Life-history of the Globe—Supposition of 1857 being the Era of Creation—What its State?—Minuteness and Verity of Proofs of Life present no Difficulty—Coprolites—FÆcal Residua in newly-created Animals—Cyclical not Organic Condition the Test of Prochronism—Illustrations from the inorganic World—Rivers—Ocean Currents—Celestial Bodies—Velocity of Light—Records of Entities actually passed—"No Tree has Leaves"—Plates of Testudinaria—Leaf-scars of Palm—Column of Nerita—Spines of Murex—Madreporic Plate of Cribella—Hilum of Seed—Navel of Mammal—Argument of "Great and Small"—Old Hypothesis of Lusus NaturÆ—Demonstration of a Law—Effect of this Principle on the Study of Geology—Summing up 335-372 |