THEORY OP THE EARTH. 27 



The ancient history of the globe, which is the 

 ultimate object of all these researches, is also of 

 itself one of the most curious subjects that can en- 

 gage the attention of enlightened men ; and if they 

 take any interest in examining, in the infancy of our 

 species, the almost obliterated traces of so many 

 nations that have become extinct, they will doubt- 

 less take a similar interest in collecting, amidst 

 the darkness which covers the infancy of the globe, 

 the traces of those revolutions which took place 

 anterior to the existence of all nations. 



We admire the power by which the human mind 

 has measured the motions of globes which nature 

 seemed to have concealed for ever from our view : 

 Genius and science have burst the limits of space, 

 and a few observations, explained by just reason- 

 ing, have unveiled the mechanism of the universe. 

 Would it not also be glorious for man to burst the 

 limits of time, and, by a few observations, to ascer- 

 tain the history of this world, and the series of 

 events which preceded the birth of the human 

 race? Astronomers, no doubt, have advanced 

 more rapidly than naturalists ; and the present pe- 

 riod, with respect to the theory of the earth, bears 

 some resemblance to that in which some philoso- 

 phers thought that the heavens were formed of 

 polished stone, and that the moon was no larger 

 than the Peloponnesus ; but, after Anaxagoras, we 

 have had our Copernicuses, and our Keplers, who 

 pointed out the way to Newton ; and why should 

 not natural history also have one day its Newton ? 



