! 74 Natural History. 



cession. Consequently, according to this theory, 

 the continents which we now inhabit must, in 

 process of time, be worn away and destroyed, and 

 others be forced up to supply their place. The 

 length of time to be allowed for this successive de- 

 struction and reproduction. Dr. Hutton supposes 

 to be far greater than is generally imagined. His 

 system, therefore, is to be arranged, of course, 

 among those which are hostile to the sacred his- 

 tory; and the best judges have pronounced it 

 equally hostile to the principles of probability, to 

 the results of the ablest observations on the mineral 

 kingdom, and to the dictates of rational philo- 

 sophy. 



It has been suggested, that this doctrine of the 

 igniform origin of our globe appears to be drawn 

 from the theory of M. Buffon, with the difference 

 of perpetually renovating powers, having no deter- 

 minate commencement, instead of a once slowly 

 forming, and now gradually decaying principle. 

 Dr. Hutton, indeed, does not attribute the fusion 

 of terrestrial substances to the state in which this 

 planet issued from the sun, but to subterraneous 

 fires and furnaces, coeval with it, and still existing 

 undiminished.'^ 



In 1790 appeared a new theory of the earth, by 

 Mr. John AVilliams, an English mineralogist, of 

 respectable character, which, though it has not 

 acquired much celebrity, is entitled to a transient 

 notice in the present sketch.' 



JMr. Williams supposes, that the superficial 

 parts of the earth were originally mixed w^ith w^a- 

 ter into a fluid or chaotic mass. All the regular 

 strata w^ere formed by the flow of the tides succes- 

 sively spreading out the deposited matters on a 



h Howard's Thoughts on the Globe, 8ic. 



i Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom , 8i.C. by JoUN WlLLJAM*, 



a vols. 8vo. 1790. 



