140 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



*' this fcoria, fo wretchedly levelled, the rivers run 

 " as chance direfts. Some of them inundate the 

 " plains i others are fvvallowed up, or precipi- 

 *' pitate themfelves in cataradls, and no one of 

 " them prefents any thing like a regular current. 

 '' The Iflands, are merely fragments of the Conti- 

 *' nent, violently feparated from it by the Ocean ; 

 '* and what is the Continent itfelf, but a mafs of 

 ** hardened clay ? Here the unbridled Deep de- 

 *' vours it's fhores j there, it deferts them, and 

 " exhibits new mountains, which had been formed 

 *' in it's womb. Amidft this conflicl of contend- 

 " ing elements, this baked lump grows harder and 

 " harder, colder and colder, every day. The ices 

 " of the Poles, and of the lofty mountains, ad- 

 " vance into the plains, and infenfibly extend the 

 *' uniformity of an eternal Winter over this mafs 

 *' of confufion, ravaged by the Winds, the Fire, 

 *' and the Water. 



" In the vegetable World, the diforder increafes 

 " upon us *. Plants are a fortuitous producflion, 

 " of humid and dry, of hot and cold, the mould 

 *' of the Earth merelv. The heat of the Sun makes 

 " them fpring up, the cold of the Poles kills 

 " them. Their fap obeys the fame mechanical 

 ** laws with the liquid in the thermometer, and in 



* The reply is in Study V. 



«' capillary 



