But, in truth, if any one, with all the facts of the case fully before his mind, were deliberately to adopt this theory, that Fossils, as we find them now, were created by God in the Crust of the Earth, we candidly confess we have no argument that we should think likely to shake his conviction; just as we should be utterly at a loss if he were to say that the Pyramids of Egypt, or the colossal sculptures of Nineveh, or the ruins of Baalbec, were created by God from the beginning. The evidence of human workmanship is certainly not more clear in the one case than is the evidence of animal and vegetable life in the other. We believe, however, that no such persons are to be found; that theories of this kind have their origin, not so much in false reasoning, as in imperfect knowledge of facts; and we have, therefore, judged it most expedient not to spend our time in a discussion of philosophical axioms, but to set forth the facts, and leave them to speak for themselves. [Illustration] _CHAPTER XII._ GEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY--PRINCIPLES OF THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED AND DEVELOPED. _Significance of fossil remains--Science of Palæontology--Classification of existing animal life--Fossil remains are found to fit in with this classification--Succession of organic life--Time in Geology not measured by years and centuries--Successive periods marked by successive forms of life--The Geologist aims at arranging these periods in chronological order--Position of the various groups of strata not sufficient for this purpose--It is accomplished chiefly through the aid of fossil remains--Mode of proceeding practically explained--Chronological table._ The existence of Fossil Remains is, then, a fact. Go where you will through the civilized world, and every chief town has its Museum, into which they have been gathered by the zeal and industry of man; descend where you can into the Crust of the Earth,--the quarry, the mine, the railway cutting,--and there, notwithstanding the plunder which has been going on for two centuries or more, you will find that the inexhaustible cabinets of Nature are still teeming with these remains of ancient life.