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of that anterior world, if compofed of materials fimilar to 

 thofc of this, be equally accounted for ? and muft we fuppofe 

 that anterior world deflitute of calcareous earth becaufe it 

 was not formed at the bottom of the fea ? If it were deflitute 

 of that earth, it could not contain plants or animals fimilar 

 to oiirs, as ours elTentially require that earth : or muft we allow 

 that anterior folid land to have been itfelf alfo formed of the 

 ruins of another ftill prior to it, and thus admit a procefs 

 in it/Jiiiltiim ; an abyfs from which human reafon recoils ? 

 Into this gvilph our author however boldly plunges ; towards 

 tlie end of his Effay he tells us, this earth is derived partly from 

 one immediately anterior, and partly from another anterior 

 to that again. In a word, to make ufe of his own expreflion, 

 ". We find no veftige of a beginning." Then this fyftem 

 of fucceflive worlds muft have been eternal ; now fucceflion 

 without a beginning is generally allowed to involve a con- 

 tradidion, therefore the fyftem that forces us to adopt that 

 conclufion muft necefiTarily be falfe. Our author was led to 

 it by his, and our common ignorance, of the means by which 

 ftones of the filiceous clafs v/ere confolidated or difl"olved in 

 liquid menftruums, but the rules of cxadl reafoning require 

 that, before we deny the general polTibility of producing an 

 efFedl by any given caufe, we fliould be acquainted with all 

 the pofllble methods of applying that caufe ; if any of them 

 be unknown, our conclufion muft be dcfedive ; more eipeclally 

 if we have ftrong reafons to fufpecl that fome modes or 

 circumftances in the application, that caufe do exift with 



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