>) = 
FORMATION ofr THe EARTH. ¥¢ 
your method of philofophizing, which proceeds upon ac- 
tual obfervation, makes a colle€tion of faéts, and concludes 
no farther than thofe fa@ts will warrant. In my prefent 
circumftances, that mode of ftudying the nature of this 
globe is out of my power, and therefore I have permitted 
myfelf to wander a littlein the wilds of fancy. With 
greate fleem Lhave the honour to be, &c. 
P. S. I have heard that chemifts can by their art de- 
compofe {tone and wood, extracting a confiderable quan- 
uty of water from the one, and air from the other. It 
feems natural to conclude from this, that water and air 
were ingredients in their original compofition. For men 
cannot make new matter of any kind. . In the fame man- 
ner may we not fuppofe, that when we confume combuf- 
tibles of all kinds, and produce heat or light, we do not 
create that heator light; but only decompofe a fubfiance 
which received it originally as a part of its compofition? 
Heat may thus be confidered as originally ina fluid fate, 
but, attracted by organized bodies intheir growth, becomes 
a part of the folid. Befides this, I can conceive that in 
the firft afflemblage of the particles of which this earth is 
compofed each brought its portion of the loofe heat that 
had been connected with it, and the whole when _preffed 
together produced the internal fire which fill fubfifts,. 
NeSIL. 
Anew and curious Theory of Light and Heat ; ina letter: 
from Dr. B. Franklin to David Rittenboufe, E/q. 
Read June NIVERSAL fpace, as far as we know of 
Thshe it, feems to be filled with a fubtil fluid, whofe 
motion, or vibration, is called light, This: 
