[ 3^7 J 



which fur^ry are lava, he fays that it ab^^^nds in mines of lead and 

 copper, neither of which are ever found in lava, though their 

 fragments may. This lafl mentioned geologift pretends that JEtnA 

 is at leaft 8000 years old, which he infers from the beds of vege- 

 table earth whch he difcovered betwixt different beds of lava. 

 Yet Dolomieu exprefly tells us that fuch earth does not exift be- 

 tween beds o" lava, Ponces 472. and thus deftroys the foun- 

 dation of tho/e calculations that afcribe to the globe an antiquity 

 incompatible with the Mofaic hiftory. Even if vegetable earth 

 wfre found betwixt beds of lava, yet no conclufion relative to 

 tteir age could fairly be deduced from that circumftance, as fome 

 lava become fertile much fooner than others. Thus Chevalier 

 Cioanni in 1787 found lavas projeded in 1766 in a ftate of vege- 

 tition, while other lavas much more ancient ftill remained barren. 

 Kolom. Ponces 493. And in particular, it is well known that bed& 

 of volcanic afhes and pumice vegetate fooner than any other *. 



I HAVE been led into this detail by obfcrving how fatal the 

 fufpicion of the high antiquity of the globe has been to the credit 

 of the Mofaic hiftory, and confequently to religion and morality ; 

 a fufpicion grounded on no other foundation than that whofe 

 weaknefs I have here expofed. M. Dolomieu tells us that Canon 

 Recupero denied having ever expreffed any doubt on that head,. 



Q,q 2 and 





• Ferber Italy, 169. 



