Pattern and Progress on the Geological Stage 487
less like modern forms, and thus ever more "primitive" by conventional definitions
of progress:
It is, in the first place, clearly ascertained, that the oviparous quadrupeds
are found considerably earlier, or in more ancient strata, than those of the
viviparous class... The most celebrated of the unknown species belonging
to known genera, or to genera nearly allied to those that are known, as the
fossil elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and mastodon, are never found
along with the more ancient genera; but are only contained in alluvial
formations... Lastly, the bones of species which are apparently the same
with those that still exist alive, are never found except in the very latest
alluvial depositions (1818, pp. 112-115).Cuvier expresses a similar interest in the directionality of physical history. He
argues (following the Wernerian system) for systematically changing mineralogy
through time, and for a pattern of increasing restriction of effect, as an original and
universal ocean shrinks, thus decreasing the intensity of catastrophes as well: "The
sea has not always deposited stony substances of the same kind. It has observed a
regular succession as to the nature of its deposits; the more ancient the strata are,
so much the more uniform and extensive are they; and the more recent they are, the
more limited are they, and the more variation is observed in them at small
distances" (1818, p. 34).
Cuvier treats directionality as his principal theme, but the validation of
catastrophe does not rank far behind, and the two subjects mesh into a distinctive
and comprehensive view. Cuvier opens the Essay with an exposition of
catastrophist dynamics. Interestingly, he begins, as Lyell did from the other side
(and as good advocates so frequently do), with a potent rhetorical device: we see
the world in an inherently biased way from our limited and daily perspective, but
deeper investigation reveals that opposite forces prevail in the fullness of time.
Lyell began by questioning our undue focus on civil catastrophes of death, famine
and war, and by arguing that we overemphasize such tragedies as a consequence of
their personal impact. We therefore fail to appreciate the far greater power of
ordinary events to render history by accumulation through time. Cuvier, in
reversed perspective, claims that we grant too much power to the calm of daily life
because we live within its immediate, surrounding pervasiveness. We therefore fail
to realize that rare and unusual events set the basic pattern of history. After a
preliminary discussion about the data and power of natural history as a science,
Cuvier begins his Essay with a striking image devised to equate catastrophism with
a broad and generous vision of reality:
When the traveller passes through those fertile plains where gently-flowing
streams nourish in their course an abundant vegetation, and where the soil,
inhabited by a numerous population, adorned with flourishing villages,
opulent cities, and superb monuments, is never disturbed except by the
ravages of war and the oppression of tyrants, he is not led to suspect that
nature also has had her intestine wars, and that the surface of