THE EARTH. 35 



stability, and preparing them for the purpose of' 

 the living world. This agent is matter actuated 

 by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing 

 force. If this has been the case, it will be rea- 

 sonable to expect that some of the expanded 

 matter might be found condensed in the bodies 

 which have been heated by that igneous vapour ; 

 and that matter, foreign to the strata, may have 

 been thus introduced into the fractures and sepa- 

 rations of those indurated masses. We have but 

 to open our eyes to be convinced of this truth : 

 Look into the sources of our mineral treasures ; 

 ask the miner from whence has come the metal 

 into his vein ? Not from the earth or air above ; 

 not from the strata which the vein traverses : 

 There is but one place from whence these mine- 

 rals may have come, and that is the bowels of the 

 earth ; the place of power and expansion ; the 

 place from whence must have proceeded that in- 

 tense heat, by which loose materials have been 

 consolidated into rocks, as well as that enormous 

 force, by which the regular strata have been 

 broken and displaced." 



When he comes to speak of the actual diminu- 

 tion of the earth we at present inhabit, he says : 

 " Our land has two extremities the tops of the 

 mountains on one hand, and the sea-shore on the 

 other. It is the intermediate space between these 

 two, that forms the habitation of plants and ani- 

 mals. While there is a sea, shores, and high 

 ground, there is that which is required in the 

 system of the world j take these away, and there 

 would remain an aqueous globe, in which the 



