STUDY IV* 27J 



rogeneous fubftances, on the fuppofitlon of It's 

 being a reparation from a body (o homogeneous 

 as the Sun ; and I could make it appear, that it is 

 impoflible they (liould be, in any refpeft, con- 

 lidered as the wreck of folar and vitrified fub- 

 ftances (if it be poffible for us to have an idea of 

 the fubftances from which light ilTues), feeing 

 fome of our terreflrial Elements, fuch as Water 

 and Fire, are abfolutely incompatible. But I Ihall 

 confine myfelf to the refrigeration afcribed to the 

 Earth, becaufe the evidence on which this opinion 

 refts, is level to the comprehenfion of all men, and 

 is of importance to their fecurity. 



If the Earth is getting colder and colder, the 

 Sun, from which it is faid to have been feparated, 

 muft be getting cold in proportion ; and the mu- 

 tual diminution of the heat in thefe two Globes, 

 muft become perceptible in a courfe of ages, at 

 leaft on the furface of the Earth, in the evapora- 

 tions of the Seas, in the diminution of rains, and 

 efpecially in the fucceffive deftrudlion of a great 

 number of plants, which are killed every day, 

 merely from the diminution of only a few degrees 

 of heat, when the Climate is changed upon them. 

 Not a fingle plant, however, has been loft of all 

 thofe which were known to Circe, the moft an- 

 cient of Botanifts, whofe Herbal Homer has, in 

 fome meafure, preferved for us. The plants cele- 



VOL. I. T bratcd 



