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year after year, from the elastic and non-elastic fluids circulating 

 round the earth, and is then thrown down upon its surface. Ins 

 this single operation, there is a vast counterpoise to all the agents 

 of destruction. And the deltas of the Ganges and the Missisippi 

 are not solely formed at the expense of the solid materials of our 

 globe, but in part, and I believe also in a considerable part, by one 

 of the great conservative operations by which the elements are made 

 to return into themselves. 



Let me not, however, be misunderstood. I am not denying the 

 great processes of degradation so admirably described by Mr. Lyellj 

 but I contend that to estimate their whole effects is a problem of 

 such complexity, and so variable in its conditions, that its true na- 

 ture is not fairly placed before the mind by the mere enumeration of 

 a few extreme cases, or the description of a few striking instances. 

 If I were to speculate upon the method of solving this problem, I 

 should compare it to the summation of a converging series — the 

 successive terms of degradation may be infinite, but the whole result 

 may still perhaps be limited and finite. 



It is impossible for me now to grapple with Mr. LyelPs whole 

 argument; but it appears to me, that volcanic action is not the only 

 true conservative principle, and is rather to be regarded as the great 

 productive principle, by which the solid matter on the surface of the 

 globe has been lifted above the waters : and that the grand princi- 

 ples of conservation are to be looked for among the operations of the 

 elements themselves, assisted by the combined action of animal and 

 vegetable life. 



According to the principles of Mr. Lyell, the physical operations 

 now going on, are not only the type, but the measure of intensity of 

 the physical powers acting on the earth at all anterior periods : and 

 all we now see around us is only the last link in the great chain 

 of phenomena, arising out of a uniform causation, of which we can 

 trace no beginning, and of which we see no prospect of the end. 

 And in all this, there is much that is beautiful and true. For we all 

 allow, that the primary laws of nature are immutable — that all we 

 now see is subordinate to those immutable laws — and that we 

 can only judge of effects which are past, by the effects we behold in 

 progress. Whether there be, or be not, any physical traces of a state 

 of things anterior to the commencement of our geological series of de- 

 posits, is a question of no real importance. But to assume that the 

 secondary combinations arising out of the primary laws of matter, have 

 been the same in all periods of the earth, is, I repeat, an unwarrant- 

 able hypothesis with no a priori probability, and only to be main- 

 tained by an appeal to geological phenomena. 



If the principles I am combating be true, the earth's surface ought 

 to present an indefinite succession of similar phsenomena. But as far 

 as I have consulted the book of nature, I would invert the negative 

 in this proposition, and affirm, that the earth's surface presents a 

 definite succession of dissimilar phsenomena. If this be true, and 

 we are all agreed that it is ; and if it be also true, that we know no- 

 thing of second causes, but by the effects they have produced ; then, 



