294- 1-HE ORT of the EAR TH. 



fill the mind with wonder and with doubt, we are not to flip- 

 pofe, that there is any violent exertion of power, fuch as is re- 

 quired in order to produce a great event in little time ; in na- 

 ture, we find no deficiency in refpecl: of time, nor any limita- 

 tion with regard to power. But time is not made to flow in 

 vain ; nor does there ever appear the exertion of fuperfluous 

 power, or the manifestation of defign,-not calculated in wifdom 

 to effect fome general end. 



" THE events now under confideration may be examined with 

 a view to fee this truth ; for it may be enquired, why deftroy 

 one continent in order to creel another ? The anfwer is plain ; 

 Nature does not deftroy a continent from having wearied of a 

 fubjecl which had given pleafure, or changed her purpofe, whe- 

 ther for a better or a worfe ; neither does me erecl a continent 

 of land among the clouds, to fhew her power, or to amaze 

 the vulgar man : Nature has contrived the productions of ve- 

 getable bodies, and the fuftenance of animal life, to depend 

 upon the gradual but fure deftruction of a continent ; that is 

 to fay, thefe two operations necefTarily go hand in hand. 

 But with fuch wifdom has nature ordered things in the cecono- 

 my of this world, that the deftruclion of one continent is not 

 brought about without the renovation of the earth in the pro- 

 duction of another ; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for 

 which the world above the furface of the fea is levelled with 

 its bottom, are among the means employed in thofe operations, 

 as well as the fuftenance of thofe living beings is the proper 

 end in view. 



THUS, in underftanding the proper conftitution of the pre- 

 fent earth, we are led to know the fource from whence had 

 come all the materials which nature had employed in the con- 

 ftruc*lion of the worjd which appears ; a world contrived in 

 confummate wifdom for the growth and habitation of a great 

 diverfity of plants and animals ; and a world peculiarly adapted 



to 



