Chap. 45.] the Earth. 307 



was intermediate, would remain in the ftate of com- 

 mon fluids. Ic is therefore, perfectly agreeable to 

 found philofophy to fuppofe, that the abftraction of a 

 confiderable quantity of caloric, or the mutter of fire, 

 from the chaotic mafs, would effectually deftroy its 

 fluidity, and would aknoft inftantly produce all the 

 different mineral fubftances, which are obferved in 

 the bowels of the earth. Not that we are under any 

 neceffity of believing, that the whole internal fub- 

 ftance of the earth exifts at this hour as it exiled when 

 creation was completed. There are a variety of pro- 

 ceflfes going on continually in the interior parts of the 

 globe, befide thofe more fudden and violent changes, 

 which have been produced by earthquakes, floods, 

 and volcanoes. 



By the fubfiding of the clenfer and more folid bo- 

 dies, a confiderable portion of the fluid matter would 

 be left in a feparate {late, and would form large mafTes, 

 or oceans of water. 



With refpect to the formation of iflands, nothing 

 more was necefTary than the unequal and irregular 

 fubfiding of the different parts of matter, which may- 

 have happened from a variety of caufes; from the 

 effects of elective attraction and cryftallization $ from 

 the motion of die earth, and the flux and reflux of 

 the tides, The latter caufe would neceflarily remove 

 the folid mafles, as they were formed, from place to 

 place, till thefe folid mafles, meeting with others, or 

 increafing their bulk by their action upon congenial 

 particles, would, from their increafed gravity and 

 denfity, at length become ftationary. Thus the fur- 

 face of the earth is all irregular, and an ifland is no 

 other than a hill or mountain, the adjacent vallies of 

 which are filled with water. Some iflands, however, 

 we know, are of more recent origin. Some have 

 X 2 been 



