1 80 Natural History, 



plosion of life every particle of native soil was 

 vivi/ied, and numerous races of vegetables and 

 animals were produced, in such numbers and of 

 such sizes, that putrefaction and fermentation en- 

 sued. Some meteoric phenomena having set fire 

 to this monstrous heap of putrefied bodies, the 

 horrid conflagration extended every w^here, even 

 under the sea, and was the cause of most tre- 

 mendous earthquakes, which broke all the strata, 

 which, till then, had been horizontal, and threw 

 them in every direction. The ashes of this almost 

 universal conflagration being the most saUne of 

 the then existing substances, formed a lixivium, 

 which, filtering through the interstices of the 

 broken strata, produced the guartz^ and other 

 similar substances which now compose them. 

 Wherever this lixivial and quartzeous flux de- 

 posed large quantities of matter, granite was 

 formed; and by a different modiiication of the 

 same materials, other mineral bodies were com- 

 posed. This great conflagration occasioned hol- 

 lows and cavities of incalculable dimensions, which 

 being laid open by some violent shock, w^ere filled 

 by waters of the ocean, by which sudden retreat 

 of the watery element, large portions of the globe 

 were left dry, and formed new continents, while 

 parts of the old continents fell into hollows, and 

 disappeared. Besides our earth, which has un- 

 dergone this series of revolutions, an indefinite 

 number of like cold lifeless masses exist, resting 

 invisible in darkness and inactivity, waiting for 

 some favourable circumstance, which may bring 

 them to light, life, and motion. 



Such are the outlines of a theory, which, though 

 exhibited and defended w^ith some talents, may be 

 considered as the most wild, and as involving the 

 most palpable opposition to every received prin- 

 ciple, that has yet been presented to the public. 



