42 



THE YEAR. 



southern, it is upon the whole warmer. Another effect 

 is produced, which, though the data for following it out 

 are far from perfect, certainly is of no inconsiderable 

 importance in the natural history of the earth and its 

 productions, and also in the domestic comfort and 

 labours of man. 



We have no means of ascertaining how those portions 

 of the earth's surface that form the land were elevated 

 above the remaining and larger part, which forms the bed 

 of the ocean, or why they should have one position, form, 

 or elevation, rather than another; but, as there is no 

 detached fact or event in nature, nothing but what 

 comes as the consequent of anterior causes, and the 

 antecedent of future events, we may rest assured that 

 all of these, however anomalous they may appear to 

 our ignorance, are parts of the system ; and that if we 

 could but make ourselves wise enough for the inquiry, 

 we should find that the shape of a continent, and the 

 figure of a mountain, however anomalous they may 

 * appear, are as regular, and as proportionate to their 

 causes, as the motions of a planet, or the structure of 

 an animal. It may be long, however, before that part 

 of the subject can be made matter of philosophy, as 

 there is at present no key either to the mode of going 

 about it, or to the advantage that would result, other 

 than the gratification of mere curiosity, even though it 

 were found. But the case is different with the actual 

 position of the land, and the greater solar heat which 

 the northern hemisphere annually receives. By much 

 the greatest part of the land is in the northern hemis- 

 phere; and as the chief heat, and also seasonal action, 

 as relates to the surface of the earth, is between the 



