6 



A HISTORY OF 



and descend to the objects immediately be- 

 low the surface of the globe, we shall there 

 find wonders still as amazing. We first per- 

 ceive the earth for the most part lying in re- 

 gular beds or layers, every bed growing thick- 

 er in proportion as it lies deeper, and its con- 

 tents more compact and heavy. We shall 

 find, almost wherever we make our subterra- 

 nean inquiry, an amazing number of shells 

 that once belonged to aquatic animals. Here 

 and there, at a distance from the sea, beds of 

 oyster-shells, several yards thick, and many 

 miles over; sometimes testaceous substances 

 of various kinds on the tops of mountains, and 

 often in the heart of the hardest marble. 

 These, which are dug up by the peasants in 

 every country, are regarded with little curi- 

 osity ; for being so very common, they are 

 considered as substances entirely terrene. 

 But it is otherwise with the inquirer after na- 

 ture, who finds them, not only in shape but 

 in substance, every way resembling those that 

 are found in the sea; and he, therefore, is at 

 a loss to account for their removal. 



Yet not one part of nature alone, but all 

 her productions and varieties, become the ob- 

 ject of the speculative man's inquiry : he takes 

 different views of nature from the inattentive 

 spectator; and scarcely an appearance, how 

 common soever, but affords matter for his 

 contemplation : he inquires how and why the 

 surface of the earth has those risings and de- 

 pressions which most men call natural ; he 

 demands in what manner the mountains were 

 formed, and in what consists their uses ; he 

 asks from whence springs arise, and how ri- 

 vers flow round the convexity of the globe ; he 

 enters into an examination of the ebbings and 

 flowings, and the other wonders, of the deep ; 

 he acquaints himself with the irregularities of 

 nature, and endeavours to investigate their 

 causes ; by which, at least, he will become 

 better versed in their history. The internal 

 structure of the globe becomes an object of 

 his curiosity ; and, although his inquiries can 

 fathom but a very little way, yet, if possessed 

 with a spirit of theory, his imagination will 

 supply the rest. He will endeavour to ac- 

 count for the situation of the marine fossils 



Buffon, Woodward. Burnet, Whiston, Kircher, Bour- 

 quat, Leibnitz, Steno, Ray, &c. 



that are found in the earth, and for the ap- 

 pearance of the different beds of which it is 

 composed. These have been the inquiries 

 that have splendidly employed many of the 

 philosophers of the last and present age, and, 

 to a certain degree, they must be serviceable. 

 But the worst of it is, that, as speculations 

 amuse the writer more than facts, they may 

 be often carried to an extravagant length ; 

 and that time may be spent in reasoning upon 

 nature, which might be more usefully em- 

 ployed in writing her history. 



Too much speculation in natural history is 

 certainly wrong; but there is a defect of an 

 opposite nature that does much more preju- 

 dice ; namely, that of silencing all inquiry, by 

 alleging the benefits we receive from a thing, 

 instead of investigating the cause of its pro- 

 duction. If I inquire how a mountain came to 

 be formed ; such a reasoner, enumerating its 

 benefits, answers, because God knew it would 

 be useful. If I demand the cause of an earth- 

 quake, he finds some good produced by it, 

 and alleges that as the cause of its explosion. 

 Thus such an inquirer has constantly some 

 ready reason for every appearance in nature, 

 which serves to swell his periods, and give 

 splendour to his declamation ; every thing 

 about him is, on some account or other, decla- 

 red to be good ; and he thinks it presumption 

 to scrutinize into its defects, or to endeavour 

 to imagine how it might be better. Such wri- 

 ters, and there are many such, add very little 

 to the advancement of knowledge. It is finely 

 remarked by Bacon, that the investigation of 

 final causes" is a barren study ; and, like a 

 virgin dedicated to the Deity, brings forth 

 nothing. In fact, those men who want to com- 

 pel every appearance and every irregularity 

 m nature into our service, and expatiate on 

 their benefits, combat that very moralitj 

 which they would seem to promote. God 

 has permitted thousands of natural evils to 

 exist in the world, because it is by their inter- 

 vention that man is capable of moral evil; 

 and he has permitted that we should be sub- 

 ject to moral evil, that we might do something 

 to deserve eternal happiness, by showing that 

 we had rectitude to avoid it. 



b Investigatio causarum finalium sterifis est, et veluti 

 virgo Deo dedicata, nil parit. 



