Is there anything more you want to know?
for you look as if something was puzzling you still.
Were there any men in the world while all this was going on?
I think not.

We have no proof that there were not: but also we have no proof that there were; the cave-men, of whom I told you, lived many ages after the coal was covered up.

You seem to be sorry that there were no men in the world then.
Because it seems a pity that there was no one to see those beautiful coral-reefs and coal-forests.
No one to see them, my child?
Who told you that?
Who told you there are not, and never have been any rational beings in this vast universe, save certain weak, ignorant, short-sighted creatures shaped like you and me?
But even if it were so, and no created eye had ever beheld those ancient wonders, and no created heart ever enjoyed them, is there not one Uncreated who has seen them and enjoyed them from the beginning?
Were not these creatures enjoying themselves each after their kind?
And was there not a Father in Heaven who was enjoying their enjoyment, and enjoying too their beauty, which He had formed according to the ideas of His Eternal Mind?
Recollect what you were told on Trinity Sunday--That this world was not made for man alone: but that man, and this world, and the whole Universe was made for God; for He created all things, and for His pleasure they are, and were created..