Note 975 — Chapter IX · THE LANDS

De sancta trinitate, Gen. I, 34; see also Zöckler, Geschichte, vol. i, 1877, p. 396. That teleological reasoning of this sort was not confined to the medieval period may be seen from the following paragraph from R. J. Sullivan, A View of Nature in Letters to a Traveller Among the Alps, London, 1794, vol. I, p. 105: “On a cursory view it must be acknowledged, the surface of our earth exhibits no great regularity or order. In its outward appearance it strikes us with heighths, depths, plains, seas, marshes, rivers, caverns, gulfs, volcanoes, and a vast variety of other discordant objects;... Yet all these apparent deformities are absolutely 447necessary to vegetation and animal existence. Were the earth’s surface smooth and regular, we should not have those beautiful hills which furnish water. A dreary ocean would cover the globe, which would in such case be suited only for the habitation of fishes. As it is, the motions of the sea and the currents of the air are regulated by fixed laws. The returns of the seasons are uniform, and the rigour of Winter invariably gives place to the verdure of Spring. Men, animals, and plants consequently succeed one another, and flourish in their destined soils.”