hypotheses, all as well, and some better founded than itself; and it is
curious to remark that the inventors of the opposing views seem to have
been led into them as much by their knowledge of geology, as by their
acquaintance with biology. In fact, when the mind has once admitted the
conception of the gradual production of the present physical state of
our globe, by natural causes operating through long ages of time, it
will be little disposed to allow that living beings have made their
appearance in another way, and the speculations of De Maillet and his
successors are the natural complement of Scilla's demonstration of the
true nature of fossils.

A contemporary of Newton and of Leibnitz, sharing therefore in the
intellectual activity of the remarkable age which witnessed the birth
of modern physical science, Benoit de Maillet spent a long life as a
consular agent of the French Government in various Mediterranean ports.
For sixteen years, in fact, he held the office of Consul-General in
Egypt, and the wonderful phenomena offered by the valley of the Nile
appear to have strongly impressed his mind, to have directed his
attention to all facts of a similar order which came within his
observation, and to have led him to speculate on the origin of the
present condition of our globe and of its inhabitants. But, with all
his ardour for science, De Maillet seems to have hesitated to publish
views which, notwithstanding the ingenious attempts to reconcile them
with the Hebrew hypothesis contained in the preface to "Telliamed,"
were hardly likely to be received with favour by his contemporaries.

But a short time had elapsed since more than one of the great anatomists
and physicists of the Italian school had paid dearly for their
endeavours to dissipate some of the prevalent errors; and their
illustrious pupil, Harvey, the founder of modern physiology, had not