MODERN GEOLOGY 



" Let us suppose that the continent which is to suc- 

 ceed our land is at present beginning to appear above 

 the water in the middle of the Pacific Ocean; it must 

 be evident that the materials of this great body, which 

 is formed and ready to be brought forth, must have 

 been collected from the destruction of an earth which 

 does not now appear. Consequently, in this true state- 

 ment of the case there is necessarily required the de- 

 struction of an animal and vegetable earth prior to the 

 former land; and the materials of that earth which is 

 first in our account must have been collected at the 

 bottom of the ocean, and begun to be concocted for 

 the production of the present earth, when the land 

 immediately preceding the present had arrived at its 

 full extent. 



"We have now got to the end of our reasoning; we 

 have no data further to conclude immediately from 

 that which actually is; but we have got enough; we 

 have the satisfaction to find that in nature there are 

 wisdom, system, and consistency. For having in the 

 natural history of the earth seen a succession of worlds, 

 we may from this conclude that there is a system in 

 nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions of 

 the planets, it is concluded that there is a system by 

 which they are intended to continue those revolu- 

 tions. But if the succession of worlds is established in 

 the system of nature, it is in vain to look for anything 

 higher in the origin of the earth. The result, therefore, 

 of our present inquiry is that we find no vestige of a 

 beginning no prospect of an end." 



Altogether remarkable as this paper seems in the 



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