THE EARTH. 15 



Such aie the most obvious and tranquil objects that every where 

 offer : but there are others of a more awful and magnificent kind ; the 

 Mountain rising above the clouds, and topped with snow ; the Rivet 

 pouring down its sides, increasing as it runs, and losing itself, at last, in 

 the ocean ; the Ocean spreading its immense sheet of waters over one 

 half of the globe, swelling and subsiding at well-known intervals, and 

 forming a communication between the most distant parts of the earth. 



If we leave those objects that seem to be natural to our earth, and 

 keep the same constant tenor, we are presented with the great irregu- 

 larities of nature. The burning mountain ; the abrupt precipice ; the 

 unfathomable cavern ; the headlong cataract ; and the rapid whirlpool, 



If we carry our curiosity a little further, and descend to the objects 

 immediately below the surface of the globe, we shall there find won- 

 ders still as amazing. We first perceive the earth for the most part ly- 

 ing in regular beds or layers, every bed growing thicker in proportion 

 as it lies deeper, and its contents more compact and heavy. We shall 

 find, almost wherever we make our subterranean inquiry, an amazing 

 number of shells that once belonged to aquatic animals. Here and 

 there, at a distance from the sea, beds of oyster-shells, several yards 

 thick, and many miles over ; sometimes testaceous substances of vari- 

 ous kinds on the tops of mountains, and often in the heart of the hard- 

 est marble. These, which are dug up by the peasants in every coun- 

 try, are regarded with little curiosity ; for being so very common, they 

 are considered as substances entirely terrene. But it is otherwise with 

 the inquirer after nature, who finds them, not only in shape but in 

 substance, every way resembling those that are found in the sea ; and 

 he, therefore, is at a loss to account for their removal. 



Yet not one part of nature alone, but all her productions and vari- 

 eties, become the object of the speculative man's inquiry : he takes 

 different views of nature from the inattentive spectator ; and scarce 

 an appearance, how common soever, but affords matter for his con- 

 templation : he inquires how and why the surface of the earth has 

 those risings and depressions which most men call natural ; he de- 

 mands in what manner the mountains were formed, and in what con- 

 sists their uses ; he asks from whence springs arise, and how rivers 

 flow round the convexity of the globe ; he enters into an examination 

 of the ebbings and flowings, and the other wonders of the deep ; he 

 acquaints himself with the irregularities of nature, and endeavours to 

 investigate their causes ; by which, at least, he will become better 

 versed in their history. The internal structure of the globe becomes 

 an object of his curiosity ; and, although his inquiries can fathom but 

 a very little way, yet, if possessed with a spirit of theory, his imagina- 

 tion will supply the rest. He will endeavour to account for the situa- 

 tion of the marine fossils that are found in the earth, and for the ap- 

 pearance of the different beds of which it is composed. These have 

 been the inquiries that have splendidly employed many of the philoso- 

 phers of the last and present age,* and, to a certain degree, they must 

 be serviceable. But the worst of it is, that, as speculations amuse the 



Buffon, Woodward, Burnet, Whiston, Kircher, Bourquat, Leibnitz, Steno, 

 *ay, Sic. 



