If They [enlightened Men] Take Any Interest

Thus It Cannot Be Denied That The Masses Which Today Form Our Highest Mountains Were Originally In A Liquid State; For A Long Time They Were Covered By Waters Which Did Not Sustain Any Life.

It Is To Them [fossils] Alone That We Owe The Commencement Of Even A Theory Of The Earth ... By Them We Are Enabled To Ascertain, With The Utmost Certainty, That Our Earth Has Not Always Been Covered Over By The Same External Crust, Because We Are Thoroughly Assured That The Organized Bodies To Which These Fossil Remains Belong Must Have Lived Upon The Surface Before They Came To Be Buried, As They Now Are, At A Great Depth.

Moreover, It Thus Follows That Not A Great Deal Of Time Was Needed For The Large Animals Of The Three Major Parts Of The World To Become Known To The People Who Spent Time On The Coasts Of Those Regions.

A Famous Anecdote Concerning Cuvier Involves The Tale Of His Visitation From The Devil—only It Was Not The Devil But One Of His Students Dressed Up With Horns On His Head And Shoes Shaped Like Cloven Hooves. This Frightening Apparition Burst Into Cuvier's Bedroom When He Was Fast Asleep And Claimed: 'wake Up Thou Man Of Catastrophes. I Am The Devil. I Have Come To Devour You!' Cuvier Studied The Apparition Carefully And Critically Said, 'i Doubt Whether You Can. You Have Horns And Hooves. You Eat Only Plants.

All Organs Of An Animal Form A Single System, The Parts Of Which Hang Together, And Act And Re-act Upon One Another; And No Modifications Can Appear In One Part Without Bringing About Corresponding Modifications In All The Rest.