ON THEORIES OF THE EARTH. 405 



The action of the elements, and the flow of water, 

 transfer the materials of roeks to the lower lands and 

 to the sea; and the same proceeding having occurred 

 in former times, those alluvia were the germs of the 

 present strata, as the existing ones are those of a sub- 

 sequent earth. The antient rocky strata have therefore 

 been produced from the waste of a former world : as 

 their organic fossils are the evidences of former Life. 

 The central ignited matter has protruded, as it does now 

 in volcanoes; and, under different circumstances, has 

 produced granite and trap, forming the unstratified rocks 

 which have elevated the older strata, and producing 

 their several accidents, as in the former system; while 

 the fluid matter, filling their fissures, has generated 

 rock veins. The consolidation of the strata is attri- 

 buted to the same cause ; but wherever there are dif- 

 ferences in the action of this and of ordinary fire, it is 

 attributed to pressure from superincumbent weight ; 

 under which the trap rocks are, falsely, said to be 

 never cavernous; as limestones become fusible. Lastly, 

 having conceived no other division of rocks but into 

 primary and secondary, this theory traces but three 

 forms of the earth, namely, that which anteceded the 

 primary strata, that which included these alone, and 

 the present one ; though arguing for its past eternity, 

 as it does for a future renovation, and to all eternity. 



In this simple view, this system possesses an aspect 

 which its author will soon injure, by his details. With 

 exception of the theory of trap and volcanoes, he had 

 borrowed well, and safely extended what he did bor- 

 row : but, with the usual ambition to erect an entire 

 theory, though ignorant of the necessary facts and 

 sciences, he has, in almost all else, levelled himself to 

 the Werners ; while his commentator has, unluckily 

 for his fame, pursued the same course. 



