'THEORY of the EARTH. 3 or 



and alfo, at the eaftern extremity of the port Eunofte, the fea-bath, 

 cut in the folid rock upon the fhore. Both thofe rocks, buf- 

 feted immediately with the waves of the Mediterranean fea, 

 are, to all appearance, the fame at this day as they were in an- 

 cient times *. 



MANY other fuch proofs will certainly occur, where the dif- 

 ferent parts of thofe coafts are examined by people of obferva- 

 tion and intelligence. But it is enough for our prefent purpofe, 

 that this decreafe of the coafts in general has not been obferved ; 

 and that it is -as generally thought, that the land is gaining up- 

 on the fea, as that the fea is gaining upon the land. 



To fum up the argument, we are certain, that all the coafts 

 of the prefent continents are wafted by the fea, and conftantly 

 wearing away upon the whole ; but this operation is fo ex- 

 tremely flow, that we cannot find a meafure of the quantity in 

 order to form an eftimate. Therefore, the prefent continents 

 of the earth, which we confider as in a ftate of perfection, 

 would, in the natural operations of the globe, require a time 

 indefinite for their deftruclion. 



BUT, in order to produce the prefent continents, the de- 

 ftruclion of a former vegetable world was neceflary j confe- 

 quently, the production of our prefent continents muft have 

 required a time which is indefinite. In like manner, if the 

 former continents were of the fame, nature as the prefent, it 

 muft have required another fpace of time, which alfo is inde- 

 finite, before they had come to their perfection, as a vegetable 

 world. 



WE have been reprefenting the fyftem of this earth as pro- 

 ceeding with a certain regularity, which is not perhaps in na- 

 ture, but which is necefTary for our clear conception of the 

 fyftem of nature. The fyftem of nature is certainly in rule, 

 although we may not know every circumftance of its regula- 

 tion. We are under a neceffity, therefore, of making regular 



fuppofitions, 



*; Lettres fur 1'Egypte, M. SAVARY. 



