V„- 



222 Nalural Hlstorij. [Chap. III. 



some respects he agrees with Mr. Whitehurst; in 

 others, he adopts the opinions of M. de Luc; while, 

 with regard to a third class of his doctrines, he 

 claims to be original. He supposes that the earth, 

 innnediately after tlie fall, and in consequence of 

 the divine curse pronounced against it, miderwent 

 a total chansre, bv means of the elementary fire 

 lodged at that time near its centre; and that hence 

 arose the irregularities which no\v appear in the 

 earth's surface. 



The theory of Milne was followed by that of Dr. 

 James Hutton, of Edinburgh, which has been much 

 more distinguished, and excited incomparably more 

 ii^ttention. Dr. Hutton thinks*, that all our rocks 

 and strata have been formed by subsidence under 

 the waters of a former ocean, from the decay of 

 a former earth, carried down to the sea by land 

 floods; that the strata at the bottom of the ocean 

 were brought into fusion by subterraneous iives^ 

 and consolidated by subsequent congelation ; that 

 these strata were forced up, and made to form 

 islands and continents by similar agency; that the 

 shells and other exuvicti of animals, gradually col- 

 lected and incorporated with these strata, make 

 about a fourth part of our solid ground; and tliat 

 the foregoing operations, 17';::. the waste of old land, 

 the formation of new under the ocean, and tlie 

 elevation of the strata now forming there into 

 future dr}' land, are a progressive work of nature, 



* Tlicoiy of the Earth ; or, an Invcsiigation of iht Laves ob- 

 sa-i'uhk in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration, of Lund 

 upon the Earth, by James Hutton, M.D. F.Il.S. E. This me- 

 moir is contained in the Transuction.^ of ihc Roj/al Sucitlj^f of Edin^ 

 bur .ill, vol. i. 



