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To thefe laws I mean flridly to conform in the fubfequcnt 

 inquiry, and on this conformity to reft its merits. To them I 

 fliall appeal in examining the various fyftcms I may have occafi- 

 on to mention. 



To thofe who may regard this inquiry as fuperfluous, and con- 

 fider the adual flate of the globe as alone intitled to philofophi- 

 cal attention, I fhall beg leave to obferve that its original ftate 

 is fo ftridly conneded with that which it at prefent exhibits, 

 that the latter cannot be properly undcrftood without a retrofped 

 to the former, as will amply be fliewn in the fequel. Moreover 

 recent experience has fhewn that the obfcurity in which the phi- 

 iofophical knowledge of this ftatc has hitherto been involved, 

 has proved too favourable to the ftrudure of various fyftems of 

 atheifm or infidelity, as thefe have been in their turn to turbu- 

 lence and immorality, not to endeavour to difpel it by all the 

 lis;hts which modern geological refearchcs .have ftruck out. Thus 

 it will be found that geology naturally ripens, or (to ufe a mine- 

 ralogical expreflion) graduates into religion, as this does into 

 morality. 



So numerous indeed and fo luminous have been the more 

 modern geological refcarches, and fo obvioufly conneded with 

 the objed we have now in view, that fmce the obfcuration or 

 obliteration of the primitive traditions, ftrange as it may ap- 

 pear, no period has occurred fo favourable to the illuftration of 



the 



