2 4 



amount of vegetable substance required to make a seam, say even a foot thick over an extent 

 of country, we are confounded. What must we say to a seam six feet thick ? Can we doubt 

 but that the Creator placed it where it is entirely for man's use? If we consider the depth it 

 is found at, and how it got there, we are bewildered altogether. Then as to metals, what 

 are they made of? and at what distance of time were they formed, and under what circumstances? 



Really it seems to come to this, that it is hardly possible to say there is a very great dis- 

 tinction between the liquid and the solid portions of the globe, as the liquid portion seems to 

 contain so much matter capable of being made solid, as lime and salt, and even perhaps some 

 metallic substances. The whole subject, on consideration, seems to be little understood, except 

 perhaps by a few scientific persons who keep their knowledge very much to themselves. 

 There must be lime in the sea, or whence come the shells, and the bones of its other 

 inhabitants? and there maybe metallic matter which may produce the colours of the inhabitants. 

 Then again, how lime must in some shape or other be distributed generally. Where is 

 it gathered to form our bones? Is man himself partly a mineral, as also a metal, 

 besides the other component parts of his body? I think I have heard his blood is coloured 

 from iron. One can fancy his acquiring lime from the vegetables he eats, the same having 

 been absorbed by them from the earth. The carnivorous animals perhaps get the lime they 

 require indirectly from feeding on other animals whose diet was vegetable. 



Perhaps some of us may suppose pearls may have some analogy to precious stones in 

 consequence of their being used like them as personal ornaments, and which are, if large and 

 of good quality, very highly esteemed ; but they are of a very different quality. They are being 



