298 COSMOS. 



elastic forces of our planet may have inclined them more to its 

 northern than to its southern direction, and caused the con- 

 tinent in the eastern part of the globe to present a broad mass, 

 whose major axis is almost parallel with the Equator, whilst 

 in the western and more oceanic part, the southern extremity 

 is extremely narrow. 



Very little can be empirically determined regarding the 

 causal connection of the phenomena of the formation of con- 

 tinents, or of the analogies and contrasts presented by their 

 configuration. All that we know regarding this subject 

 resolves itself into this one point, that the active cause is sub- 

 terranean, that continents did not arise at once in the form 

 they now present, but were, as we have already observed, 

 increased by degrees by means of numerous oscillatory eleva- 

 tions and depressions of the soil, or were formed by the fusion 

 of separate smaller continental masses. Their present form is, 

 therefore, the result of two causes which have exercised a con- 

 secutive action the one on the other : the first is the expression 

 of subterranean force whose direction we term accidental, owing 

 to our inability to define it from its removal from within the 

 sphere of our comprehension ; whilst the second is derived from 

 forces acting on the surface, amongst which volcanic eruptions, 

 the elevation of mountains, and currents of sea water play the 

 principal parts. How totally different would be the condition 

 of the temperature of the earth, and consequently of the state 

 of vegetation, husbandly, and human society, if the major axis 

 of the New Continent had the same direction as that of the 

 Old Continent; if, for instance, the Cordilleras, instead of 

 having a southern direction, inclined from east to west ; if 

 there had been no radiating tropical continent, like Africa to 

 the south of Europe; and if the Mediterranean, which was once 

 connected with the Caspian and Red Seas, and which has 

 become so powerful a means of furthering the inter-commu- 

 nation of nations, had never existed ; or if it had been elevated 

 like the plains of Lombardy and Gyrene ? 



The changes of the reciprocal relations of height between 

 the fluid and solid portions of the Earth's surface, (changes 

 which, at the same time, determine the outlines of continents, 

 and the greater or lesser submersion of low lands), are to be 

 ascribed to numerous unequally working causes. The most 

 powerful have incontestibly been the force of elastic vapours 



