242 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



The mind, indeed, is lost in astonishment at the 

 means employed by nature in feeding these 

 enormous fires from such prodigious depths ; 

 but still we must perceive how inadequate they 

 are to account for the revolutions which appeai 

 to have shaken the earth to its foundations. The 

 same reasoning applies to earthquakes ; their 

 consequences are awfully great in the adjacent 

 country, but very far from being equal to ex- 

 plain the subversions which appear to have oc- 

 curred in every corner of the world that has been 

 visited. 



" In short, all the greatest possible efforts of 

 those causes that can be supposed to have taken 

 place since the creation, cannot have inverted 

 the strata, nor inclosed great quadrupeds in solid 

 stone, nor imbedded bones, shells, and vege- 

 tables, in the middle of compact rocks, nor have 

 deposited complete strata of shell-fish at the tops 

 of the highest mountains ; nor could they have 

 swept away whole species of animals which once 

 inhabited the earth ; causes, which evidently 

 extend through a limited space, and whose 

 effects are only partial, could never have ope- 

 rated throughout the globe, to produce the gene- 

 ral and amazing changes that we observe in all 

 parts of it. To produce such a universal effect, 

 the cause must have been not only powerful, but 

 general. 



" Sacred history alone furnishes us with he 



