A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



be supplied from the dissolution of the solid earth as 

 here represented, we may perceive an end to this beau- 

 tiful machine ; an end arising from no error in its con- 

 stitution as a world, but from that destructibility of 

 its land which is so necessary in the system of the 

 globe, in the economy of life and vegetation. 



"The immense time necessarily required for the 

 total destruction of the land must not be opposed to 

 that view of future events which is indicated by the 

 surest facts and most approved principles. Time, 

 which measures everything in our idea, and is often 

 deficient to our schemes, is to nature endless and as 

 nothing ; it cannot limit that by which alone it has ex- 

 istence ; and as the natural course of time, which to us 

 seems infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation 

 that may have an end, the progress of things upon this 

 globe that in the course of nature cannot be limited by 

 time must proceed in a continual succession. We are, 

 therefore, to consider as inevitable the destruction of 

 our land, so far as effected by those operations which 

 are necessary in the purpose of the globe, considered 

 as a habitable world, and so far as we have not ex- 

 amined any other part of the economy of nature, in 

 which other operations and a different intention might 

 appear. 



"We have now considered the globe of this earth as 

 a machine, constructed upon chemical as well as me- 

 chanical principles, by which its different parts are all 

 adapted, in form, in quality, and quantity, to a certain 

 end an end attained with certainty of success, and 

 an end from which we may perceive wisdom in con- 

 templating the means employed. 



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