vegetable nature are concerned, it has been preceded by a
different condition. We can pursue this evidence until we reach
the lowest of the stratified rocks, in which we lose the
indications of life altogether. The hypothesis of the eternity
of the present state of nature may therefore be put out
of court.


Fig. 1.--Ideal Section of the Crust of the Earth.


We now come to what I will term Milton's hypothesis--the
hypothesis that the present condition of things has endured for
a comparatively short time; and, at the commencement of that
time, came into existence within the course of six days. I doubt
not that it may have excited some surprise in your minds that I
should have spoken of this as Milton's hypothesis, rather than
that I should have chosen the terms which are more customary,
such as "the doctrine of creation," or "the Biblical doctrine,"
or "the doctrine of Moses," all of which denominations, as
applied to the hypothesis to which I have just referred, are
certainly much more familiar to you than the title of the
Miltonic hypothesis. But I have had what I cannot but think are
very weighty reasons for taking the course which I have pursued.
In the first place, I have discarded the title of the "doctrine
of creation," because my present business is not with the
question why the objects which constitute Nature came into
existence, but when they came into existence, and in what order.
This is as strictly a historical question as the question when
the Angles and the Jutes invaded England, and whether they