304 7 'HE ORT of the EAR <T H. 



THIS, however, alters nothing with regard to the nature of 

 thofe operations of the globe. The fyftem is ftill the fame. 

 It only protracts the indefinite fpace of time in its exiftence, 

 while it gives us a view of anoti: ' diftincl: period of the living 

 world ; that is to fay, the world .ich we inhabit is compofed 

 of the materials, not of the earth which was the immediate 

 predecefTor of the prefent, but of the earth which, in afcendmg 

 from the prefent, we confider as the third, and which had pre- 

 ceded the land that was above the furface of the fea, while our 

 prefent land was yet beneath the water of the ocean. Here are 

 three diftincl fucceffive periods of e; "tence, and each of thefe 

 is, in oxir meafurement of time, a thing of indefinite duration. 



WE have now got to the end of our reafoning ; we have 

 no data further to conclude immediately from that which ac- 

 tually is : But we have got enough ; we have the fatisfadlion 

 to find, that in nature there is wifdom, fyftem, and confiftency. 

 For having, in the natural hiftory of this earth, feen a fucceffion 

 of worlds, we may from this conclude that there is a fyftem in 

 nature ; in like manner as, from feeing revohitions of the pla- 

 nets, it is concluded, that there is a fyftem by which they are 

 intended to continue thofe revolutions. But if the fucceffion 

 of worlds is eftabliihed in the fyftem of nature, it is in vain to 

 look for any thing higher in the origin of the earth. The refult, 

 therefore, of our prefent enquiry is, that we find no veftige of a 

 beginning, no profpedl of an end. 



XI. 



