'time's Noblest Offspring Is The Last.' This

Such Discoveries Have Led Me, And Other Geologists, To Reconsider The Evidence Previously Derived From Caves Brought Forward In Proof Of The High Antiquity Of Man.

There Is No Foundation In Geological Facts, For The Popular Theory Of The Successive Development Of The Animal And Vegetable World, From The Simplest To The Most Perfect Forms.

Amidst The Vicissitudes Of The Earth's Surface, Species Cannot Be Immortal, But Must Perish, One After Another, Like The Individuals Which Compose Them. There Is No Possibility Of Escaping From This Conclusion.

The Earth's Becoming At A Particular Period The Residence Of Human Beings, Was An Era In The Moral, Not In The Physical World, That Our Study And Contemplation Of The Earth, And The Laws Which Govern Its Animate Productions, Ought No More To Be Considered In The Light Of A Disturbance Or Deviation From The System, Than The Discovery Of The Satellites Of Jupiter Should Be Regarded As A Physical Event In The History Of Those Heavenly Bodies, However Influential They May Have Become From That Time In Advancing The Progress Of Sound Philosophy Among Men.

In Attempting To Explain Geological Phenomena, The Bias Has Always Been On The Wrong Side; There Has Always Been A Disposition To Reason á Priori On The Extraordinary Violence And Suddenness Of Changes, Both In The Inorganic Crust Of The Earth, And In Organic Types, Instead Of Attempting Strenuously To Frame Theories In Accordance With The Ordinary Operations Of Nature.