But what we have now chiefly in
view to illustrate is this, that there had then been in the ocean a
system of animated beings, which propagated their species, and which
have thus continued their several races to this day.
In order to be convinced of that truth, we have but to examine the
strata of our earth, in which we find the remains of animals. In this
examination, we not only discover every genus of animal which at present
exists in the sea, but probably every species, and perhaps some species
with which at present we are not acquainted. There are, indeed,
varieties in those species, compared with the present animals which we
examine, but no greater varieties than may perhaps be found among the
same species in the different quarters of the globe. Therefore, the
system of animal life, which had been maintained in the ancient sea, had
not been different from that which now subsists, and of which it belongs
to naturalists to know the history.
It is the nature of animal life to be ultimately supported from matter
of vegetable production. Inflammable matter may be considered as the
_pabulum_ of life.
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