142 An Inquiry into Terrestrial Plicenomena, &c. 



disintegration o!" the rock, the period of aqueous attrition 

 and rouiidius; of the pebbles, their subscrpient consolidation 

 into breccia, and the atttr disintegration from pudding-stone 

 again into sand and gravel, as occurs in thousands of in- 

 stances, it will, T think, compel an acknowledgment that 

 this vvondert'ul history of material tianst'ormatiob includes a 

 duration oi tinie, in which we can perceive no comnience- 

 njent. and a distinct diversity of marine submersions of the 

 same country. 



Indeed, to pur:^ue this most astonishing transition of mat- 

 ter from one nate to another, without even approximating 

 the limits of rational probability, it may be truly asserted, 

 that there is not a cubic foot of material in any natural ijed 

 within the range of hunnan inspection, thai is not strictly 

 derivative, having obtained its present form from its de- 

 structive dissolution in a former state ; and that all our 

 present continents have been constructed from the number- 

 less remnants and fragments of other more ancient countries, 

 evincing aliogether periods of duration, systems of trans- 

 ition, and alternations of land and ocean, to which we can 

 assign neither coamiencement nor termination. 



What has been said, and much more that might be oflTer- 

 ed, afford, I think, as much of probable evidence as the 

 nature of the case n)ight be expected to furnish, that the 

 different portions of our globe have been subjected to an in- 

 definite number of marine innnersions, and that it is in the 

 infinite diversity of alterative effects which such alternating 

 changes of land and sea would operate on local portions of 

 the earth, that we arc to look for the only natural illustra- 

 tion of the principal phcenomena of geology. Stricily gui- 

 ding our researches by the laws which we now find in action, 

 we shall discover in Nature neither infancy nor old age, and 

 the operations of the past and of the future will be found to 

 human scrutmy equally illimitable. Every waste will have 

 its compensation, and every decomposition its reconsolida- 

 tion, and' an endless succession of decay and reproduc- 

 tion will be found revolving through the whole in circular 

 perpetuity. 



'I'he geologist who enters on his pursuit without these en- 

 landed views, will be measuring the pyramid by the frag- 

 ment of its apex. Every rock will be an obstacle, and every 

 chasm a barrier to his progress ; and calling hypothetical in- 

 vention to his aid, he will fancy he isadvancing, when, like 

 the doc in the uherl, he is only scrambling against a bank. 



I have, Mr. Editor, a great deal more to say on the di- 

 versified 



