The Vedic fathers of geology

GEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES OF THE West. 87

che jirst Thermal Ocean, i which the granite crust having been formed and then partially broken, land and mountains began to rise above waters. Subsequently, after lapse of ages, the thermal deep as also land and mountains began to cool down, and life became visible first in seaweeds, then in trilobites, fishes, reptiles, quadrupeds, and others, the vital gradation having by. process of evolution progressed from simpler conceptions to complex types, till perhaps the last and marvellous production of man,—the crowning piece of creation,—appeared on Harth. The Reader will have also become aware, that Creative Energy, according to the Taittiriya A’ranyaka, was in existence ever since the commencement of time, but was only dormant in the fluid (ante p. 18); and that, vitality had commenced first with the weeds or the lotus, according to the Taittiriya Bréhmana ( p. 18). But, according to the ‘Taittiriya Upanishad, life appears to have begun with the moss, herbs, and small plants, and then progressed in gradation from small and simple organie bodies to great and complex productions ( ante pp. 15-16 ) And, it may not be out of place here to mention, that a reference to the Lotus having appeared in waters ( Taitt. A. I. 23. 1; T. Br. 1. 1-3-5 ), and to the Herbs on Earth ( Taittiriya