Robert Merry's museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)Various
General
Robert Merry's museum, Volumes III-IV (1842)
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
The inferences drawn from all these facts, which are now placed beyond
dispute, are not only interesting, but they come upon us like a new
revelation. They seem to assure us that this world in which we dwell
has existed for millions of years; that at a period, ages upon ages
since, there was a state of things totally distinct from the present.
Europe was then, probably, a collection of islands. Where England now
is, the iguanodon then dwelt, and was, probably, one of the lords of
the soil.
This creature was from seventy to a hundred feet long. He dwelt along
the rivers and lakes, and had for his companions other animals of
strange and uncouth forms. Along the borders of the rivers the ferns
grew to the height of trees, and the land was shaded with trees,
shrubs, and plants, resembling the gorgeous vegetation of Central
America and Central Africa.
This was one age of the world--one of the days in which the process of
creation was going on. How long this earth remained in this condition,
we cannot say, but probably many thousands of years. After a time, a
change came over it. The country of the iguanodon sunk beneath the
waters, and after a period, the land arose again, and another age
began. Now new races of animals and vegetables appeared.
The waters teemed with nautili, and many species of shell and other
fishes, at present extinct; the tropical forests had disappeared, and
others took their places. Instead of the iguanodon, and the hideous
reptiles that occupied the water and the land before, new races were
seen. Along the rivers and marshes were now the hippopotamus, tapir,
and rhinoceros; upon the land were browsing herds of deer of enormous
size, and groups of elephants and mastodons, of colossal magnitude.
This era also passed away; these mighty animals became entombed in the
earth; the vegetable world was changed; swine, horses and oxen were
now seen upon the land, and man, the head of creation, spread over the
earth, and assumed dominion over the animal tribes.
Such are the mighty results to which the researches of modern geology
seem to lead us. They teach us that the six days, spoken of in the
book of Genesis, during which the world was created, were probably not
six days of twenty-four hours, but six periods of time, each of them
containing thousands of years. They teach us also that God works by
certain laws, and that even in the mighty process of creation, there is
a plan, by which he advances in his work from one step to another, and
always by a progress of improvement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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