32 HISTORY OF 



a single Goth can in one day destroy the fabric 

 which Caesars were employed an age in erecting. 

 We might ask how mountains, which are com- 

 posed of the most compact and ponderous sub- 

 stances, should be the first whose parts the sea 

 began to remove? We might ask, how fossil- 

 wood is found deeper even than shells? which 

 argues, that trees grew upon the places he sup- 

 poses once to have been covered with the ocean. 

 But we hope this excellent man is better em- 

 ployed than to think of gratifying the petulance 

 of incredulity by answering endless objections. 



[" In the first volume of the Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, a, new theory of the earth 

 has been laid down by Dr Hutton, of which the 

 following is an abstract.* 



" The general view of the terrestrial system 

 conveys to our minds an idea of a fabric erect- 

 ed in wisdom, to obtain a purpose worthy of the 

 power that is apparent in the production of it. 



" The end for which it was formed is, that it 

 might be an habitation for living creatures : and 

 we are enabled to understand the constitution of 

 this earth, as a thing formed by design, not only 

 by seeing those general operations which depend 

 on its construction as a machine, but also by per- 

 ceiving how far the particulars in the construc- 

 tion of that machine depend on the operations of 

 the globe. 



" In taking a comprehensive view of the me- 

 chanism of the globe, the Doctor considers it as 

 composed of three principal parts, properly adapt- 



* Encyclopedia Britannica. EARTH. 



