446 A Reply to Mr. Carr's Letter, 



From what source can it be inferred, that the "present laws 

 of Nature," as Mr. Q, has defined them, have been in ac- 

 tion millions of years ? any more, than that the fanciful 

 creation of an tk erratic planet*' is intended " for accomplish- 

 ing, almost in an instant, that which, far more probably, re- 

 quired many thousands of years to effect?" My personal 

 acquaintances well know, that I have all along supposed the 

 probable period to be very long ; during which a satellite 

 revolved in a continually decreasing orbit (from causes that 

 are perhaps assignable, without clumsily cutting any Gordian 

 knot) and effected the stupendous operations on the strata, 

 previous to its fall into, and assimilation with, the com- 

 pound mass of the terraqueous globe, which it is the busi- 

 ness of " closet" as well as " itinerant" geologists to in- 

 vestigate and understand fully, before they pronounce the 

 proposer of a new application of the principle of gravitation 

 to the earth, as a person forsaken by the genuine spirit of 

 philosophy, and become u bewildered in the unprofitable 

 maze of hypothesis I" Surely gravity (as exemplified daily 

 by the tides, p. 250,) may safely be classed among the 

 " present energies" of Nature : and who is there, that can- 

 not perceive, that the energies, be they what they may, 

 which effected the disruption and denudation of the strata, 

 must have acted in degrees and modes, utterly distinct from 

 those which have prevailed, since the last and great opera- 

 tions of creative power were performed, in the creation of 

 the present race of vegetables and animals, and of man, 

 whose reasoning faculties rendered him capable of tracing 

 back to events, which took place long, very long prior to 

 the existence of his species. 



Strong as the language 1 have used herein may at first 

 seem, I will not anticipate the slightest irritation in Mr. 

 Carr thereat, much less art explosion of any thing like viru- 

 lence on his part, but on the contrary, cordially wish, that 

 he would engage seriously in applying the action of water, 

 (without the reversed and deranged action of gravity) to the 

 explanation of the phenomena presented by the neighbour- 

 hood of Manchester, or any other which he may choose, 



an<i 



