502 ON THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS 



with the clearness of the proofs, leave nothing to wish 

 as to the theory of the revolutions of the earth ; and I 

 know not that I ought to answer a trifling and igno- 

 rant objection often made, namely, that these intervals 

 of revolution, or action, succeeded by dormancy, were 

 the convenient assumptions of an hypothesis. It has 

 been shown that the actions have probably never 

 ceased, as they are still goyig on : they have been aug- 

 mented at intervals : but under final causes so demon- 

 strated in the present chapter, that to deny the facts, 

 is to deny the existence of a Power regulating as it 

 created the Earth; by whatever means the secondary 

 causes are managed to. those ends. And while the 

 existence of a perpetual source of heat and of a fluid 

 condition within the earth, is proved, while it is also 

 proved that the force of this heated fluid is constantly 

 producing the very effects in question, and also pro- 

 ducing them at intervals, thus uniting, now, every 

 thing necessary for the former effects, I cannot see 

 how such a theory can be called gratuitous, or in what 

 manner philosophy can ever prove any thing, if it has 

 not thus proved a permanent cause, adequate to every 

 end, under every conceivable variation. The demon- 

 strations of mathematics can compare with nothing ; 

 for they are but the catenations of successive syl- 

 logisms, from assumed, or established, simple facts or 

 abstractions : but physical science never yet has of- 

 fered, nor ever will produce, proofs more perfect than 

 Geology has thus done respecting the causes of the 

 Revolutions of the Earth. 



It remains to enquire what actual evidences can be 

 found, that every such revolution was attended by the* 

 formation of an unstratified rock ; and I think, that 

 with little difficulty, I can produce them, even where it 

 mightseem most difficult, namely, in the earlier periods. 

 I have shown that fragments of granite arc entail- 



