of the Mineral Kingdom.” 199. 
down by the floods, which earthy matter is thrown back upon 
the shores, in the bays and creeks, and at the mouths of great 
rivers, where, by degrees, it enlarges the bounds of the dry land 
in exact proportion to the quantity carried down by the floods. 
In that part of my essays, I have clearly demonstrated, that 
the earthy matter washed off the face of our mountains and rocks 
has no manner of tendency to the real waste and destruction of 
the present earth; so far from it, that on the contrary, the ha- 
bitable parts of the earth are gradually, but really and effectually 
renovated, enlarged, and improved thereby. 1 have proved, that 
many lakes, marshes, and frightful gulphs among the mountains 
and in the plains, have been filled up in the course of the rivers 
of the world, which are now rich, beautiful and habitable coun- 
tries; that many millions of acres of new land have been made 
in the valleys and plains, at the mouths of the rivers in the bays, 
creeks, and shores of the ocean; and that very many and ex- 
tensive portions of this new land are now the fat valleys by the 
rivers, which are the scenes of population,wealth, and social hap- 
piness. 
It is upon this description of land that the highest number of 
the great commercial cities of the world are seated ; such as, for 
instance, London, Amsterdam, Alexandria, and many of the 
cities of China, &c. which have long been the seats of learning 
and the arts, of commerce, wealth, and glory. 
Whoever will take the trouble to peruse my essays, will be 
convinced and satisfied that the Deltas, Belgias, and Carses, and 
other descriptions. of new land, formed and forming in all parts 
of the world, fully and perfectly correspond with the quantity of 
matter washed off the mountains and rocks; and they will there 
see it clearly proved that all this is a real, a great, a substantial, 
and a durable improvement of the present earth. ; 
Man cannot live upon the summits, nor high up the sides of 
lofty mountains ; but the frosts and thaws, aud other changes of 
the air and weather, decompose part of the superficies of the 
mountains, which is carried down by the floods to the valleys 
and to the margin of the sea, where new land is gradually in- 
creased, which enlarges the bounds of ‘the earth in convenient 
situations for increased population, and for all the improvements 
which are necessary for increasing human and social felicity ;— 
and are not the spoils of the mountains much better disposed of 
in this way, than if spread out at random through the bounds of 
the ocean, to form imaginary worlds in the craniums of our mo- 
dern philosophers ? ; 
But this use which the wise and benevolent providence of God 
makes of the sediment of-rivers in the ordinary course of things; 
is not a well fancied hypothesis, proposed for the amusement or 
N4 confusion 
