understood in the senses here defined, natural science has
nothing to say in favour of the proposition that they succeeded
one another in the order given by Mr. Gladstone; but that, on
the contrary, all the evidence we possess goes to prove that
they did not. Whence it will follow that, if Mr. Gladstone has
interpreted Genesis rightly (on which point I am most anxious to
be understood to offer no opinion), that interpretation is
wholly irreconcilable with the conclusions at present accepted
by the interpreters of nature--with everything that can be
called "a demonstrated conclusion and established fact" of
natural science. And be it observed that I am not here dealing
with a question of speculation, but with a question of fact.

Either the geological record is sufficiently complete to afford
us a means of determining the order in which animals have made
their appearance on the globe or it is not. If it is, the
determination of that order is little more than a mere matter of
observation; if it is not, then natural science neither affirms
nor refutes the "fourfold order," but is simply silent.

The series of the fossiliferous deposits, which contain the
remains of the animals which have lived on the earth in past
ages of its history, and which can alone afford the evidence
required by natural science of the order of appearance of their
different species, may be grouped in the manner shown in the
left-hand column of the following table, the oldest being at
the bottom:--

Formations First known appearance of
Quaternary.