430 ON THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE. 



up to pour down another ocean. He who reflects on 

 the devastation caused by earthquakes, inundations and 

 the fall of mountains, even though they are merely local 

 appearances confined to particular quarters, cannot help 

 putting the question to himself, how the order, regulari- 

 ty and connection exhibited by strata of rocks, could 

 in any measure exist, if the same or similar accidents 

 had happened throughout the whole world, and if mecha- 

 nical power had operated with such energy, and to such an 

 extent ? All our knowledge of the structure of the earth, 

 and of the existence of its inhabitants, declares rather a 

 quiet uninterrupted and continually progressive advance- 

 ment in its formation and development. 



In the lapse of geological epochs, we observe a gradation 

 of rock formations following one another, in which the 

 latter, however remotely connected, still appear sufficient- 

 ly similar to the earlier to indicate a common origin, till 

 they at length terminate in simple formations, resembling 

 those which are presently taking place. When the pre- 

 cipitates were exhausted, and the structure was complet- 

 ed, nay, even earlier, its destruction commenced; not 

 that violent destruction by which lofty mountains are 

 torn asunder and levelled, no uproar of nature, no gigan- 

 tic struggle of the elements, such as we commonly con- 

 ceive, but a decomposition of the strata of rocks to a great- 

 er or less depth, caused partly by chemical, partly 

 by mechanical, but slow operating powers, what they 

 wanted in intensity being compensated by the endurance 

 of their operation. According to the common law of na- 

 ture, deficiency of power is supplied by duration of 

 time ; for, of all the oracles which have been consulted 



