OF THE EARTH. 495 



states of the earth. These are easily demonstrated; 

 namely, the primary, the first order of the secondary, 

 the coal strata, and the last of the secondary. It is 

 probable that those which were formed beneath the 

 water, during the period of the formation of the coal 

 strata above it, are also known ; but they have not 

 been demonstrated as separate and defineable strata. 

 And these are the great or general revolutions of the 

 Earth, as far as we can discover them, first, and as far 

 as we can discover what is general as distinguished 

 from partial. Those which follow are certainly par- 

 tial, though of various degrees: and they have pro- 

 bably occurred in different places, at different times, 

 commencing with the last general revolution, and ex- 

 tending down to our own days. 



Whether the original globe was inhabited or not, 

 we must ever remain ignorant; but I have shown that 

 during at least five conditions before the present, it 

 consisted, as it does now, of rocks, or of land elevated 

 above the water, and of an ocean. The foundations 

 of each successive new series of rocks on the earth's 

 surface, were laid beneath the preceding ocean, except 

 in one instance; and they were the produce of materials 

 washed down from the land into their submarine re- 

 ceptacles: these actions being analogous to those now 

 going on, as the submarine alluvia of our earth are 

 destined, at some future period, to form new rocks, 

 and to generate a new earth. By the elevation, in 

 succession, of these submarine deposits, they were 

 brought above the surface of the waters, forming, in 

 each, the dry land of that terraqueous globe which 

 was again to undergo similar and succeeding changes. 

 In one case alone, the only assignable change was a 

 depression of the dry land. Thus the original earth, 

 original at least to us, is traced, in a general manner, 

 to that which we now inhabit. 



