"The species is an individual of a higher rank."--_Link: Elements of Botanical Science_, vi. 11. "Species, like individuals, have a certain limited term of existence. It is the fact, that, _according to some general law_, species of animals are introduced, last for a limited period, and are then succeeded by others performing the same office."--_Ansted's Ancient World_, 52, 54. [101] "The unity of the plan of organization, and the regular succession of animal forms, point out a _beginning_ of this great kingdom on the surface of our globe, although the earliest stages of its development may now be effaced: and the continuity of the series though all geological epochs, and the _gradual transitions_ which _connect_ the species of one formation with those of the next in succession, distinctly indicate that they form _the parts of one creation_, and not the heterogeneous remnants of successive kingdoms begun and destroyed: so that, while they present the best records of the changes which the surface of the globe has undergone, they likewise afford the best testimony of the recent origin of the present crust of our planet, and of all its organic inhabitants."--_Dr. Grant, in Br. Sci. Annual for 1839._ [102] Dr. Harris has the following observations:-- "Why might not God have created the crust of the earth, just as it is, with all its numberless stratifications, and diversified formations, complete? And the analogy for such an exercise of creative power is supposed to be found in the creation of Adam, not as an infant, but as _an adult_; and in the production of the _full-sized_ trees of Eden. To which the reply is direct: the maturity of the first man, and of the objects around him, could not deceive him by implying that they had slowly grown to that state. His first knowledge was the knowledge of the contrary. He lived, partly, in order to proclaim the fact of his creation. And, could his own body, or any of the objects created at the same time, have been subjected to a physiological examination, they would, no doubt, have been found to indicate their miraculous production in their very destitution of all the traces of an early growth; whereas the shell of the earth is a crowded storehouse of evidence of its gradual formation. So that the question, expressed in other language, amounts to this: Might not the God of infinite truth have enclosed in the earth, at its creation, evidence of its having existed ages before its actual production? Of course, the objector would disavow such a sentiment. But such appears to be the real import of the objection; and, as such, it involves its own refutation."--_Pre-Adamite Earth_, p. 83.