This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ...and inflicted as the penalty of sin. Earth, according to them, was to have been the eternal scene of man's existence, ind material being the unchanging necessity of human life. From this opinion we altogether dissent. If death were not exactly coeval with life, it was life's immediate successor. For ages prior ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ...and inflicted as the penalty of sin. Earth, according to them, was to have been the eternal scene of man's existence, ind material being the unchanging necessity of human life. From this opinion we altogether dissent. If death were not exactly coeval with life, it was life's immediate successor. For ages prior to the advent of man these two co-accessory agencies--life and death--were busy preparing the earth for that advent. There have been six grand groups or periods of animated existence, and five of these have altogether passed away, and they passed away, too, before man was created and died. Many of our rocks are solid sarcophagi. One-seventh of our earth's crust is composed of limestone, and limestone is but the imbedded sepulchre of once living creatures. Whatever of this rock was beheld by the first man, was actually a monument of death. Death in inorganic nature was change, and change in the animated kingdoms was death. Not only was there death prior to man, but there was also violent death. The larger races preyed upon the smaller, and, to build up their living tissues, the death of subsidiary races was indispensable. And what the evidence of observed facts declares to have been the case, reason can demonstrate must have been the case. Where space is limited in extent, material organizations cau only increase in number up to a certain point, and then the space will be full. If increase is to continue, the decease of the old must take place to afford room for the existence of the new. Where matter is limited in quantity, and organisms are composed of matter, then, also, increase, or even continued existence, can only reach a certain point, and death must ensue; not only to furnish material for an increase of numbers, but to supply...
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