CHAP. I. 



OF THE EARTH ITS FORM AXD COMPOSITIONOF AT- 

 TRACTION REPULSION ELEMENTS 



HEAT AIR WATER. 



1 HE figure of the earth, its motions, or the external 

 relations which subsist between it and the other parts 

 of the universe, belong not to our present inquiry. It 

 is .the internal structure of the globe, its form and 

 manner of existence, that we here "propose to examine. 

 The general history of the earth ought to precede that 

 of its productions. Details of particular facts relating 

 to the economy *and manners of animals, or to the 

 culture and vegetation of plants, are not, perhaps, so 

 much the objects of natural history, as general deduc- 

 tions from the observations that have been made upon 

 the different materials of which the earth itself is com- 

 posed ; as its heights, depths, and inequalities ; the 

 motions of the sea, the direction of mountains, the si- 

 tuation of rocks and quarries, the rapidity and effects 

 of currents in the occean, &c. This is the history of 

 nature at large, and of her principal operations, by 

 which other inferior or less general eifect is produced. 

 The theory of these effects constitutes what may be 

 called the primary science, upon which a precise 

 knowledge of particular appearances, as well as of ter- 

 restrial substances, solelv depends. 

 Vol. I. A 



