X. THE OR* of the EARTH; or a INVESTIGATION^ /&? 

 Laws obfervable in the Compofition, Diffolution, and Reparation 

 of Land upon the Globe. By JAMES HuTTON, M. D. 

 F. R. S. EDIN. and Member of the Royal Academy of^Agrlcul- 

 ture at PARIS. 



[Read March *j . and April 4. 1785.] 



PART. I. 



Profpett of the SubjccJ to be treated of. 



WH EN we trace the parts of which this terreftrial fyftem 

 is compofed, and when we view the general connection 

 of thofe feveral parts, the whole prefents a machine of a pecu- 

 liar conftruc"Uon by which it is adapted to a certain end. We 

 perceive a fabric, creeled in wifdom, to obtain a purpofe wor- 

 thy of the power that is apparent in the production of it. 



WE know little of the earth's internal parts, or of the mate- 

 rials which compofe it at any confiderable depth below the fur- 

 face. But upon the furface of this globe, the more inert mat- 

 ter is replenifhed with plants, and with animal and intellectual 

 beings. 



WHERE fo many living creatures are to ply their refpeclive 

 powers, in purfuing the end for which they were intended, we 

 are not to look for nature in a quiefcent ftate j matter itfelf 

 muft be in motion, and the fcenes of life a continued or re- 

 peated feries of agitations and events. 



THIS globe of the earth is a habitable world; and on its fit- 

 nefs for this purpofe, our fenfe of wifdom in its formation 



D d muft 



