at 1238. As in the case of the terrestrial creatures, few of these shell-fish are of recent or existing species, not more, at the utmost, than 3 in every hundred. Here then we perceive for the first time the dom to the present. Lyell thinks the earth to have been fit for the habitation of man åt this period, but he is almost alone in his opinion. Crocodiles and palm-trees, which existed, it would appear from their remains, in large numbers, as well as the frequency of volcanic action, would seem to indicate too high a temperature, and too unsettled a state for an animal so long in coming to perfection. belonged to the class pachydermata (thickskinned animals), of which the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hog, the tapir, and the horse, are remarkable existing examples. Among these extinct creatures, the most worthy of notice are the palæotherium, the anoplothe-existence of a similar order in the animal kingrium, the lophiodon, anthracotherium cherapotamus, and one or two other families, including, some of them, not less than eleven or twelve distinct species. These mammiferous families had some general traits of resemblance, and the description of the great paleotherium may afford an idea of the main features of all. This animal was of the size of the horse, or about four feet and a half in height to the wither. It was more squat and clumsy in its proportions than the horse; the The second, or miocene period, brings us head was more massive, and the extremities a step nearer to the existing condition of thicker and shorter. On each foot were things. We find that the miocence deposits three large toes, rounded, and unprovided present us with the earliest forms of animals with claws; the upper jaw was much longer existing at the present time. In Dr. Buckthan the under. The tapir, and partly, also, land's Bridgwater Treatise a table is given, the hog, if large enough, would closely resem- exhibiting the animals found at Darmstadt, ble the great palæotherium. "The palæo- in a bed of sand referable to the miocene theria (says Buckland) probably lived and period. In this list are mentioned two died upon the margins of the then existing skeletons of the dinotherium, a large herbi lakes and rivers, and their dead carcases vorous animal, called by Cuvier, the gigantic may have been drifted to the bottom in sea- tapir; two large tapirs; calicotherium-two sons of flood." The other mammiferous fa large tapir-like animals of this name; two milies of the first eocene formation, were all, rhinoceroses; hippotherium, an animal allied like the palæotheria, herbivorous, and had, to the horse; three hogs; four large cats, it is probable, similar habits. The number some as large as a lion; the creature called of animals, aquatic and terrestrial, whose re- the glutton; agnotherium, allied to the dog; mains are found in the other deposits of the and machairodus, an animal allied to the eocene period is immense. In some gypsum bear. From this list the reader will perceive (sulphate of lime) quarries of that era, the gradual approach in the miocene animals scarcely a block can be opened which does to existing species. The discovery, also, of not disclose some fragment of a fossil true terrestrial mammalia, as the rhinoceros skeleton. The following list of the animals and hog, in the miocene formations, shows, found in the gypsum quarries of Paris, will that since the era of the gigantic reptiles, no show sufficiently how very different from the slight portion of the earth's surface had as gigantic reptiles of the secondary eras were sumed the condition of dry land, fit for the the creatures that tenanted, and found fitting support of the common herbivorous creatures. sustenance on the earth, during the eocene At the same time, the occurrence of such period. Besides various extinct pachyder- animals as the dinotherium in the miocene matous families, there were found extinct strata, proves, as Dr. Buckland remarks, that species of the wolf and fox, of the racoon many regions were still covered with great and genette, among the carnivorous tribes; lakes and estuaries. In the third, or older of the opossum; of the dormouse and squir- pliocene period, the first traces appear of rel; nine or ten species of birds, of the buz- ruminant animals-of oxen, deer, camels, zard, owl, quail, wood-cock, sea-lark, curlew, and other creatures of the same class. and pelican families; freshwater tortoises, pliocene ages were not less rich in enormous crocodiles, and other creatures of the reptile organic productions than those periods al class; and several species of fishes:-all of ready described. The enormous creature these animals, be it remembered, being ex- called the great mastodon, belongs to the tinct species of existing families, exclusive of pliocene era. Of all the fossil animals the pachydermatous animals, and the fishes, whose skeletons have been found complete, or which were extinct species of extinct families. nearly so, the mastodon is the largest. Ano The occurrence of the birds mentioned in the ther creature, belonging to the later pliocene! preceding list of the eocene animals, forms ages, if not indeed to the era of the diluvial (says Dr. Buckland) "a remarkable pheno- formation, has been discovered in America, menon in the history of organic remains." both north and south. This is the megathe The number of fossil shells found in therium, an animal more widely removed in eocene formation is estimated by Mr. Lyell character from any existing creature, than The any of the other fossil remains that have been | In the second and newer of these, which is yet observed. Another extinct tardigrade lacustrine, or a deposit from a fresh-water creature, presenting many of the chracters of lake, the jaw-bone of the monkey was found, the megatherium, was discovered in a cal-containing four incisor teeth, two canine, careous cavern in Virginia, and received from four false grinders, and six true grinders in a President Jefferson, who first described some continued series. The monkey is supposed of its bones, the name of the megalonyx. to have been about three feet in height. The Jefferson conceived the claw to be that of an bone occurred in a stratum of marl, covered extinct feline animal of vast size (that is to by compact limestone. Another jaw-bone of Bay, an animal of the same description as the a monkey was discovered with other remains, tiger, lion, cat, and lynx, all of which are in August, 1839, in a brick-field at Kingston, beasts of prey); but the French naturalist near Woodbridge, in the county of Suffolk: declared the possessor of the claw to have the particular bed in which it was found has been herbivorous, or calculated to live on not been stated. The bone indicates a speherbs; and this was triumphantly proved by cies of the quadrumana not now existing. the discovery of others of its bones. Another These must be considered as very interesting fossil animal of this period is that long called discoveries. The earliest animals and plants the mammoth, under the impression that it are of the simplest kind. Gradually, as we was a distinct genus, but which is now uni- advance through the higher strata, or, in versally denominated the fossil elephant, as other words, as we proceed through this rebeing an extinct species of that existing cord of progressive creation, we find animals family. and plants of higher and higher structure, till at last we come to the superficial strata where there are remains of kinds approxi tribes, namely, man himself. But, before the above discoveries, there remained one remarkable gap in the series. The quadrumana, or monkeys, who form an order above common mammalia, but below the bimana, or human tribes, were wanting. Now this deficiency is supplied; and it is shown that every one of the present forms of animated existence, excepting the human, existed at the time when the superficial strata were formed. The only zoological event of an important nature subsequent to that period is the creation of man; for we may consider of a lesser importance the extinction of many of the specific varieties which flourished in the geological ages, and the creation of new.* The period when the diluvium was deposited, being that immediately preceding the existing order of things on the earth's sur-mating to the highest of all the animated face, is marked by the remains of animals, many of which still exist, while others are extinct. The chief evidence on this point is derived from bones, and fragments of bones, found in caves which are supposed to have served about the time of the diluvial action, as retreats for hyænas and other beasts of prey. That of Kirkdale, in Yorkshire, discovered a few years ago, was found to contain remains of twenty-three species; namely, hyæna, tiger, bear, wolf, fox, weasel, elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse, ox, three species of deer, hare, rabbit, water-rat, mouse, pigeon, raven, lark, a species of duck and partridge. The bones in all these cases were broken into angular fragments or chips, and were all more or less decayed, though the Here then we find it now almost univergelatinous matter yet remained in some of sally admitted by naturalists that there has them. They were covered by a layer of mud been a regular gradation or succession of orabout a foot deep, the nature of which led ganised forms upon the earth, and no facts to the supposition that it must have been in support of the opinion still maintained by deposited during the action of the diluvium. many, that all the animals, plants, &c. were Till a recent period, no trace of any animal created at one time, the earth being at that of a higher order was discovered in rocks. time fit for their habitation; the earth preSome remains of a human skeleton had been senting such appearances as to warrant the found in a cave in Guadaloupe, imbedded in assertion that all the animals that have lived stony matter; but it was concluded, in that upon it could not at any one period have existed case, that the enclosing matter was of recent had they been upon it. And that, in every formation, and that the human being whose case, the earth was only suited for those anirelics were discovered in it, might have been mals which had it for their inheritance during alive at no distant era. Latterly, however, the periods pointed out by geology. The fossil zoology has made one step in advance. only dispute between me and others, that is In 1838, a fossil jaw-bone of one of the quad- to say, scientific men, is simply whether there rumana (four-handed or monkey tribes) was have been successive creations, or whether all discovered in the tertiary formation at the is not merely results from the different connorthern foot of the Pyrenees, in the depart- ditions of matter consequent upon the ment of Gers, in France. Two deposits there never ceasing change of position of its are very rich in fossils, affording remains of particles. W. C. no fewer than thirty mammiferous animals. • Chambers. [A portion of these papers appeared in a small work, called Common Sense, published by Taylor, Bir mingham, some time since. Mr. S.'s executors have determined upon giving them to the public entire.] reached us) considered in its totality, or as a whole, announces nothing which is a sign or mark of its origin, or presages its destruction; none have seen its birth, growth, or decay; it is ever the satne, in the same man THE FREE INQUIRER'S WHY AND ner, always equal and like unto itself. This BECAUSE. WRITTEN BY CHARLES SOUTHWELL. latter opinion is held by many philosophers of the present age, who are called Atheists (a term compounded of two Greek words, Why is nature said to be the parent or signifying without god in the world) by cause of all the effects we behold? are theologians who display abundance of passion Because nature is the great whole, or and are most bitter in their denunciation of universe, and contains within itself the seeds Atheists, Deists, and in short all whose opi. or causes of effects; and, figuratively speak- nions do not happen to square and dovetail ing, all effects are as children of causes. By in with their own, seemingly forgetful that a kindling a little alcohol, while holding in so- satisfactory solution of this question is beIntion nitrate of copper in a watch glass, a yond the grasp of the most powerful intelfine green flame will be produced. The lect. Let them, each one, if he can, be congreen coloured flame is here the effect, caused vinced in his own mind; but those who canby the kindling of the alcohol when holding not, and hug the Aristotelian precept, that in solution nitrate of copper. 66 Pliny, per incredulity is the parent of wisdom," haps the most learned of the ancient natural- not to be treated as wild beasts, or hunted ists, calls the universe an uncreated and from society. But, alas! in this age of cant, eternal god, which has never been produced, belief, which is the opposite of knowledge, is and which can never be destroyed; the great lauded to the skies, and woe to those who whole or universe is all in all, or rather is cannot sound the sharps and flats of disitself all. It is at once the work of nature, course, so as to tickle the ears of the vulgar, and nature itself." According to this notion, or disdain to make their voices sweetly chime the universe is at the same time the workman in, and harmonise with, the flutes and trumand the work; which modern naturalists pets of orthodoxy. would call flat blasphemy. But, as observed by Dupuis," Metaphysical refinement is of a comparatively recent date, and men believed in the evidence of their senses before they delivered themselves up bound hand and foot to the illusions of the imagination, and circumscribed their worship to the world they saw, before they created a god, by abstraction, in a world that they saw not." Why have men so violently disputed about the origin and probable end of all things? Because we see but a part, and that a very small part of the great whole; and seeing; but a part, we know but in part-grasping only a few links in what appears the endless chain of causation, all our opinions regarding beginnings or endings of things should be given with modesty and cantion, if we would maintain a character for wisdom. Ancient, like modern philosophers, seemed, to have held various opinious with regard to the universe and its origin; some contending that all sprung from Mercury, or the divine word; which (if we substitute the word god for that of Mercury) is the notion of modern theologists; whilst others, and by far the greater number, denied the creation of matter, and contended that all proceeds from the confused seeds of things; in other words, all the changes or effects we behold are produced by the action of matter upon matter, which matter is self-existent and necessarily eternal. The universe, says Ocellus (one of the most ancient philosophers whose writings have MR. MACKINTOSH'S CHALLENGE. I have but a transient recollection of his remarka having read them but once-and since doing so, a thousand things have arisen to obscure the impres sion they left. But I remember he complains of "flippancy and abuse." If I am flippant, it is not aimed at. It results from accident rather than design, and in this case has been suggested by the subject--not imparted by my taste. But censurable or not, I confess no am bition to write homilies for reviews. With regard to abuse, as far as I am concerned the reciprocation of this charge shall stop here. I thought Mr. M.'s book abusive. He thinks my re me. view of his work abusive too. I did not intend my observations to be so, and if they are, they deceive been equally unfortunate in conveying his meaning. I am quite willing to believe he may have For my own part I care not to substantiate or repeat charges while abundance of argument is on hand. If I called his reasoning "cold-hearted," &c., E did not think the reasoner so-I have often had the happiness of experiencing the contrary,and hope again to do so. May not a man's reasoning lead to cruel Consequences and he not be aware of it? I think 30. The head may err and the heart still be right. I wished, and still do, to be credited with believing this when I wrote the words complained of. Infallibility is no pretension of mine-I can conceive how my own logic may be baneful though I never intend it. Was Mr. M. willing to discuss the morality of the question at issue, I am now denied the pleasure of joining in it. But more than this do I regret that any language of mine should have impressed him with a distaste for it, because there is no man with whom I would sooner have debated the matter. Not for triumph, but for profit. I am not vain enough to think victory would have been easy-only that the satisfaction to me would have been great. Thongh Mr. M. disclaims argument in reply, I remember he uses a little-but I remember it too indistinctly to reply to it. I trust from the circumstances under which I write, this will be ascribed to a defective rather than a convenient memory. his For Still, I am surprised at Mr. M.'s letter. In declining discussion he declines embracing all the advantages laying at his feet, if he has truth on his side. It appears either to imply apathy or doubt on part-disregard for the cause he has espoused, or suspicions as to the validity of the ground he has taken. For he is an older man than I-more familiar with the weapons of disputation he could easily expose my errors, and disturb my fancied security where I am wrong. He can build a case inore adroitly than I from his greater experience, and make a point where I should fall into an error. my own part where I can be afforded fair play, as I was prepared to afford him in the Oracle, in discussing any question-I would welcome the fiercest attack pon my principles & smile at the most virulent abuse Hoping that error will ever be unmercifully rejected, and conscious that truth can never be injured where equal justice prevails, I am willing to give wings to calumny, licence to misrepresentation, and pardon to insult-if thereby I can gain permission to discuss on equal grounds the important principles mankind ought to understand. I have full faith in the invincibility and power of truth. Once equally matched against error anything may be perilled on it as the victor. With the proviso just named, like Milton, I would let all the winds of doctrines upon her; and, with the earnestness of Lear, cry to error, "Blow, blow, and crack your cheeks!" I have no convenience for enumerating the various points in my review, I wish the reader to attend, and Mr. M. to reply, to. Because he has not replied, 1 do not deem them established, but certainly claim a little presumptive evidence in their favor. Gloucester Gaol. CORRESPONDENCE. G. J. H. To the Editor of the Oracle of Reason. SJR.-In your notice to correspondents, in last week's namber (27), I find that a Mr. W. Cuppey, of Liver pool, is made to assert that he had heard Mr. Mackintosh declare that "That there was no god, and he who attempted to bring into society the mention of the existence of such a being was deserving of the greatest punishment that society could inflict upon 231 him." Who Mr. Cuppey may be, I know not; nor do I know whether there be a Mr. Cuppey at all, never having had the honour of his acquaintance. This, however, I do know, that neither Mr. Cuppey nor any other person, at Liverpool or any where else, at any time has heard me give utterance to any such words or sentiments. To speak out plain, Mr. Cup. pey's charge is a downwright falsehood. I could point out one or two errors of the same kind in the Oracle in reference to myself. However, I forbear, with this one remark: if the cause of atheisin is obliged to descend to personal abuse, for lack of argument, it is a poor cause. Yours, T. S. MACKINTOSHI. [The extract was inserted without the editor's knowledge. It should have been-Curphey, not Cuppey. Mr. M. has seen the letter, but declares he knows nothing of the author.-W. C.} tors. EFFECTS OF PERSECUTION. To the Editor of the Oracle of Reason. FRIEND OF THE HUMAN RACE. -In forwarding the enclosed amount of subscriptions, received by me up to this date, allow me to observe that you must not judge of the number of your friends in Sheffield by the small amount of money subscribed; hundreds of your Chartist (to say nothing of your Socialist) friends are too poor to give even a penny, and fervent are their wishes for your triumph over your persecuAnother martyr has been sacrificed at the shrine of tyranny. SAMUEL HOLBERRY, convicted at the York spring assizes of 1840, of sedition, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment, expired in his dungeon (York Castle) yesterday morning, at half-past four o'clock. As if in mockery of his dying agonies, an order for his release came from the home office, a day or two before his death, with the conditions annexed that he should find bail him. self £200 and two sureties of 100 each to be of good behaviour! His poor wife (whom you have seen at my home) was refused permission to see him only two or three weeks since; she is distracted. Shall there be no retribution for this foul, bloody murder? When, oh when will the human race rise in its might and trample in the dust the monar chical, aristocratical, priestly, and profit-hunting villains who oppress, plunder, and murder them? under which poor gallant, noble-hearted HOLBERRY That the fates may preserve you from the torture has sunk into his grave, is the heart-felt hope of, My dear HOLYOAKE, Fraternally thine, GEO. JULIAN C. HARNEY. Sheffield, June 22, 1842. P.S. I must work hard to get some support for Mrs. Holberry, with whom every friend of liberty and the rights of man must heartily sympathise. I shall keep open my book for subscriptions for you and SOUTHWELL, and hope to have the continued help and aid of every friend of free inquiry.—G.J.H. WRITTEN ON THE CONVICTION OF DEEP in dungeon's gloom immured, I ask not if the streams that flow From Reason's fount be dark or bright; Is man's unalienable right- Demoniac malignity, From 'neath the priest's crime-covering cowl, Truth shrinks not from Inquiry's light, And growls defiance from his lair. O! for the day when moral worth, From Priestcraft's dark and fearful deeds! Free is the captive's soul, at least, 'Mid fetters, dungeon-gloom, and whips; The iron symbol of the priest The cross-polluted not his lips! SOUTHWELL! thy name will be enrolled Who dared to teach mankind to think: M. A. L. NOTICE.-Copies of this work sent by post to any parts where they cannot be otherwise obtained, at the rate of THREE for FOURPENCE. Post-office stamps for one month or three, with directions, addressed to the Editor, No. 8, Holywell-street, Strand, London, will receive attention. NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. J. C. F. says, "It is absolutely necessary that some new arrangements should be made to promote the sale of the Oracle; I KNOW that great difficulties stand in the way of its circulation even in Newcastle, Leeds, and Manchester districts; if it cannot be obtained readily in these quarters, you may easily guess the difficulties elsewhere. I that propose you advertise a list of retail agents once a month in the Oracle, and that persons willing to sell it be requested to forward their names forthwith. I know that many persons have ceased to purchase it through the ueglect of agents, because they could not complete their sets, and obtain the current numbers regularly. speak from extensive experience in this matter. Mr. Roche, Hall of Science, Macclesfield, will become agent for that town."-The difficulty is to get agents; if friends to the cause would exert themselves to obtain the names of those willing to sell the work, they could appear in the Oracle every week. In the mean time, the plan recommended in the preceding notice would be advantageous. |