besides, of a merely exceptional character; and, further, it has been adopted by botanists of the highest standing.[34] It is necessary to hold, in the second place, in order to the reception of the theory, that the area of the earth’s surface occupied by the British Islands and the neighboring coasts of the Continent once stood fifty fathoms higher, in relation to the existing sea-level, than it does now,—a belief which, whatever its specific grounds or standing in this particular case, is at least in strict accordance with the general geological phenomena of subsidence and elevation, and which, so far from outraging any experience founded on observation or testimony, runs in the same track with what is known of wide areas now in the course of sinking, like that on the Italian coast, in which the Bay of Baiæ and the ruins of the temple of Serapis occur, or that in Asia, which includes the Run of Cutch; or of what is known of areas in the course of rising, like part of the coast of Sweden, or part of the coast of South America, or in Asia along the western shores of Aracan. Whereas, in order to close with the _simpler_ antagonistic belief of the author of the “Vestiges,” it is necessary to hold, _contrary_ to all experience, that _dulce_ and _henware_[35] became, through a very wonderful metamorphosis, cabbage and spinnage; that kelp-weed and tangle bourgeoned into oaks and willows; and that _slack_, _rope-weed_, and _green-raw_,[36] shot up into mangel-wurzel, rye-grass, and clover. _Simple_, certainly! An infidel on terms such as these could with no propriety be regarded as an _unbeliever_. It is well that the New Testament makes no such extraordinary demands on human credulity.