The surface of the earth is not simply a stage on which the thousands of present and past inhabitants played their parts in turn. There are much more intimate relations between the earth and the living organisms which populated it, and it may even be demonstrated that the earth was developed because of them.

Études sur Les Glaciers (1840), trans. A. V. Carozzi, Studies on Glaciers Preceded by the Discourse of Neuchâtel (1967)