THEORY OF THE EARTH. 443 



coal, that system of depression which so many other 

 facts prove, explains the successions of the beds. 

 Respecting the chemical theory of all coal, I have 

 clearly traced it from peat, and, when necessary, through 

 the organic lignites; proving also that the entire pro- 

 cess of hituminization is the effect of water, not of fire; 

 whether or not the former is the exclusive cause of the 

 present mineral character. 



There remains another subsidiary point to be noted ; 

 most conspicuous in the more recent strata, or later 

 conditions of the earth, if, probably, not less true of 

 every set. How far it may affect any of the present 

 views of a Theory of the Earth, will only be known 

 when the whole globe has been better examined than 

 even Europe has. Hitherto, with some knowledge, 

 there has been still more of presumption. In spite of 

 all the warnings of philosophers, it is surprising how 

 seldom men have enquired why they believed, how in- 

 veterately they have persisted in the imaginary " truths 

 which they have inherited without any industry or ac- 

 quisition of their own :" assenting without evidence, 

 and persisting against it. But "all the world are born 

 to orthodoxy : they imbibe at first the allowed opinions 

 of their country and party, and so, never questioning 

 the truth, not one of a hundred ever examines." 



I have fully shown, that the necessary circumstances 

 under which every deposit of strata must have been 

 formed, render it impossible that they should be iden- 

 tical, either in quality or order, beyond certain limits; 

 that, in reality, all of them are more or less partial, 

 while some are conspicuously so ; and that they cannot, 

 either in consistence with this, or with the laws of ani- 

 mal life, be identified, under remote positions, by means 

 of their organic fossils : and the conclusion therefore 

 is, that under every condition of the Earth, the deposits 



