OF HEAT. 153 



matter for the accomplishment of his pleasure, 

 and which measureless as they are in their inten- 

 sity, and majestic in their effects, may have room 

 and scope enough for making great mountains. 



It is true that considerable portions of matter 

 are thrown up at a few points by volcanoes on the 

 land; but still it is doubtful whether any one 

 mountain has ever added permanently to its height 

 by that means. The present Vesuvius is to ob- 

 servation a volcanic pile, but it is surrounded by 

 the remains of a former and loftier mountain, the 

 summit of which has fallen in after the former 

 volcano has excavated the interior. We know 

 too that when the connexion of volcanoes with 

 the sea is cut off, the volcanoes become still and 

 cool by slow degrees. 



Thus we can see, as the power of heat has 

 really no material limit, how it can work, in suc- 

 cessive exhaustions and renovations, the conti- 

 nents and the oceans, just as in revolving seasons 

 it renews the plants and the animals, and just as 

 in the reciprocal actions of containing vessels and 

 contained fluids, it repairs the waste of plants 

 and animals by successive assimilations of nou- 

 rishment. This heat, we have already seen, is, 

 even in the strength of its working, not a thing 

 that would measure one hair's breadth by the scale, 

 or cause the thousandth part of the smallest grain 

 to mount up on the balance ; but still it can lay 

 upon the whole globe, and all the material works 

 of the Creator, the gripe of a giant, which no- 

 thing can resist, that before it the ancient moun- 

 tains are lighter than thistle-down, and the fathom- 

 less strata of the earth itself are weaker than cob- 

 webs. What then shall we think of Him, who 



