THEORY of the EARTH. 271 



better than defcending to the mine, where all the examples are 

 found on an enlarged fcale. 



LET us now confider what power would be required to force 

 up, from the mofl unfathomable depth of the ocean, to the 

 Andes or the Alps, a column of fluid metal and of ftone. This 

 power cannot be much lefs than that required to elevate the 

 higheft land upon the globe. Whether, therefore, we mall con- 

 fider the general veins as having been filled by mineral fleams, 

 or by fluid minerals, an elevating power of immenfe force is 

 flill required, in order to form as well as fill thofe veins. But 

 fuch a power acting under the confolidated mafTes at the bot- 

 tom of the fea, is the only natural means for making thofe 

 mafTes land. 



IF fuch have been the operations that are necefTary for the 

 production of this land ; and if thefe operations are natural to 

 the globe of this earth, as being the effect of wifdom in its 

 contrivance, we fhall have reafon to look for the actual mant- 

 feftation of this truth in the phenomena of nature, or thofe ap- 

 pearances which more immediately difcover the actual caufe in 

 the perceived effect. 



To fee the evidence of marble, a body that is folid, having 

 been formed 'of loofe materials collected at the bottom of the 

 fea, is not always eafy, although it may be made abundantly 

 plain ; and to be convinced that this calcareous ftone, which 

 calcines fo eafily in our fires, fhould have been brought into 

 fufion by fubterraneous heat, without fuffering calcination, 

 muft require a chain of reafoning which every one is not able 

 to attain. But when fire burfts forth from the bottom of 

 the fea, and when the land is heaved up and down, fo as to de- 

 molifh cities in an inftant, and fplit afunder rocks and folid 

 mountains, there is nobody but muft fee in this a power, which 

 may be fufficient to accomplifh every view of nature in erect- 

 ing land, as it is fituated in the place mofl advantageous for 

 that purpofe.. 



THE 



