16 HISTORY OF 



tance from the sea, beds of oyster-shells, several yards thick, 

 and many miles over ; sometimes testaceous substances of various 

 kinds on the tops of mountains, and often in the heart of the 

 hardest marble. These, which are dug up by the peasants in 

 every country, are regarded with little curiosity ; for being so 

 very common, they are considered as substances entirely terrene. 

 But it is othenvise with the inquirer after nature, who finds 

 them, not only in shape, but in substance, every way resembling 

 those that are found in the sea ; and he, therefore, is at a loss to 

 account for their removal. 



Yet not one part of nature alone, but all her productions 

 and varieties, become the object of the speculative man's in- 

 quiiy ; he takes different views of nature from the inattentive 

 spectator ; and scarcely an appearance, how common soever, but 

 affords matter of his contemplation ; he inquires how and why 

 the surface of the earth has those risings and depressions which 

 most men call natural ; he demands in what manner the moun- 

 tains were formed, and in what consists their uses ; he asks 

 from whence springs arise, and how rivers flow round the con- 

 vexity of the globe ; he enters into an examination of the ebbings 

 and flowings, and the other wonders of the deep ; he acquaints 

 himself with the irregularities of nature, and endeavours to in- 

 vestigate their causes ; by which, at least, he will become better 

 versed in their history. The internal structure of the globe be- 

 comes an object of his curiosity ; and although his inquiries can 

 fathom but a very little way, yet, if possessed with a spirit of 

 theory, his imagination will supply the rest. He will endeavour 

 to account for the situation of the marine fossils that are found 

 in the earth, and for the appearance of the different beds of 

 which it is composed. These have been the inquiries that have 

 splendidly employed many of the philosophers of the last and 

 present age,' and, to a certain degree, they must be serviceable 

 But the worst of it is, that, as speculations amuse the writel 

 more than facts, they may be often carried to an extravagant 

 length •, and that time may be spent in reasoning upon nature, 

 \\ hich might be more usefully employed in writing her history. 



Too much speculation in natural history is certainly wrong ; 

 but there is a defect of an opposite nature that does much more 



1 r.uffon, Wood«'ard, Burnet, Whiston, Kirclier, Bourquat, Leibnitz, 

 BtPDo, Ray, &c. 



