FARMERS' REGISTER— GEOLOGICAL. 



605 



(he end of twelve years, his principal unimpaired, 

 and an equal amount of interest, should demand 

 twenty tive per centum, and at the end of four or 

 live years, lose liis principal by extortion, oppres- 

 sion, and usury. The cases are, to my mind, 

 strikingly analagous. The pracliceof cuttingdown 

 and wearing out land, liefbre it is ever permitted 

 to rest, is on'e of those cherished sins against the 

 soil which we have derived from our ancestors, 

 without having the sanie apology for it that they 

 had. They were but thinly scattered over a large 

 extent of fertile country, surrounded by an almost 

 interminable forest, could see no good reason wjiy 

 they should nurse the little fields that surrounded 

 their cottages, and suffer the rich forests to remain 

 the haunt of wihl beasts. Nor indeed was there 

 any. But far different is the case with us; we 

 have continued to fell the forest, and wear out, and 

 turn out, long after there was any good reason for 

 it. How much longer this practice is to continue, 

 I know not ; liut I nmst hope that we are shortly 

 to awake to the fallacy, and ruinous consequences 

 of a system, which all who think, must deplore 

 and condemn. 



I will conclude the fewdisjoinfed thoughts which 

 are here offered, by saying, that the want of im- 

 provement in our soil does not arise from a failure 

 in any well organized effort to that end, but from 

 a total want of adequate efTort itself. There does 

 seem to exist a degree of supineness and indiffer- 

 ence on that subject, which to me is unaccounta- 

 ble, and I am afraid unalterable, unless it can be 

 effected by the effort of your very valuable Far- 

 mers' Register. 



A PLANTER OF MECKLEXDURG. 



Fur Ihc Farmers' R.cgister. 

 GEOLOGICAL ESSAY, KG. III. 



[ Continued from page 540.] 



When the earth was formed, or rather, when 

 the elements of it were brought together and 

 placed in its orbit, a certain quantity of animal 

 and vegetable matter was very generally diffused 

 among the various other principles uhich seem to 

 have taken no part in the formation of living be- 

 ings; but constitute a very important part of (he 

 terrestrial mass. When these heterogeneous mat- 

 ters were collectively blended, forming what is 

 called chaos, according to the laws of a((raction, 

 all (he grosser matters devolved towards the cen- 

 tre of gravity ; and whenever two principals of the 

 same kind fell together, or chanced to meet in the 

 general conflict, the affinity, or attraction which 

 they had for eacli other, caused them to unite ; and 

 although different metals, ores and earths did com- 

 bine at that time, forming various compounds, yet 

 perhaps this would not have been the case, had 

 each of its kind fortunately fallen within the sphere 

 of their mutual attractions. If this hul been the 

 case, and the affinity of aggregation prevailed, 

 and the same laws of attraction perpetuated in all 

 the succeeding combinations of matter, chemistry 

 would not have found a place in the catalogue of the 

 sciences; for the earth would not have exhibited 

 to us that confused and discordant mixture which 

 it now |)resents to our view. On the contrary, 

 all matter would be more simple, and all bodies, 

 animate or inanimate, homogeneous. Let us sup- 

 pose all affinity, or that tendency of matter to 

 combination, completely annulled, what would be 



the state of our globe .^ Would the essence of mat- 

 ter be the sime, or would it be annihilated.' Mat- 

 ter, I should su|)pose, cannot exist if its attraction 

 be taken away ; to remove attraction, therefore, 

 is to annihilate matter. The force or j)Ower of at- 

 traction exerted between particles of the same na- 

 ture, could not produce any combinations different 

 from the w hole, unless it I e adnu'fted, that several 

 particles of the same kind uniting, shall produce 

 one essentially ditTerent in form and property from 

 those of its constituents; and that these parts, or 

 portions of matter, uniting in the same way, shall 

 produce a third, different from either of the fore- 

 going; and so on, causing an infinite vaiiefy of 

 compound matter from the original simple stock, 

 bearing names according to their various qualities 

 and proportions, diflering merely in the arrange- 

 ment of particles. 



Perhaps we should be less hypothetical and more 

 systematical, under the impression that this earth 

 was originally composed of a certain number of 

 simple substances ; or we may hazard a conjec- 

 ture, that there were only a few primitive princi- 

 ples, or original species of matter, which have be- 

 come compounded by attraction and repulsion, 

 causing all that variety in quality and consistency, 

 which observation presents to our view, similar to 

 the different shades and modifications of color, 

 which arise from the various combinations and 

 proportions of the colors which compose solar 

 light. A learned geologist, M. J. A. Chaptal, 

 has very justly observed, that if we may be per- 

 mitted to recur, by an effort of the imagination, to 

 that epocha in which, according to some histo- 

 rians, the w ater and earth were confounded, and 

 the confused mixture of all principles formed a 

 chaos, we shall see that the laws of gravity inhe- 

 rent in matter, must have carried it down, and 

 necessarily produced the arrangement which ob- 

 servation at present exhibits to us. The water, 

 as (he least heavy, nms( have purified itself, and 

 arisen to the surfiice by a filtration through the 

 other materials : while the earthy principles must 

 have precipitated, and formed a mud, in which all 

 the elements of stones were confounded. In this 

 very natural order of things, the general law of 

 affinities, which continually tends to bring to- 

 gether all analagous parts, must have exerted it- 

 self with its whole activity upon the principles of 

 this almost fluid paste; and the result must have 

 been, a nundier of bodies ol' a more definite kind, 

 in crystals more or less regular : and from this mud- 

 dy substance, in which the principles of the stones 

 were confounded, a rock mus( have been produced, 

 containing the elementary stones all in possession 

 of their distinct forms and characters. In this 

 manner it is, that we observe salts of very differ- 

 ent kinds develope themselves in waters which 

 hold them in solution ; and in this manner it still 

 happens, (hat crystals of spar and gypsum are 

 found in clays which contain their component 

 parts. If all the metals, stone earths, and alkalis 

 were completely dissolved, the principles of the 

 atmosphere condensed, and all blended together in 

 one great receptacle; and let this be encircled 

 around by a large canopy, so constructed as (o 

 confine (he voladle principles contained in (his 

 huge mass : then cause it to be acted upon by the 

 san)e degree of heat as that with which (he earth 

 was first enlivened; — we might then form, per- 

 haps, a correct idea of the original state of our 



