ii6 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 





mountains, as they now ftand, may not inapt" 

 be compared to the pillars of earth which 

 workmen leave behind them, to afford a mea- 

 fure of the whole quantity of earth which they 

 have removed. As the pillars, (coniidering the 

 mountains as fuch), are in this cafe of lefs height 

 than they originally were, fo the meafure fur- 

 niflied by them is but a limit, which the quan- 

 tity fought mull neceflarily exceed. 



114. Such, according to Dr Hutton's theory, 

 are the changes which the daily operations of 

 ■wafte have produced on the furface of the globe. 

 Thefe operations, inconfiderable if taken fepa- 

 rately, become great, by confpiring all to the 

 fame end, never counteracting one another, but 

 proceeding, through a period of indefinite ex- 

 tent, continually in the fame diredion. Thus 

 every thing defcends, nothing returns upward ; 

 the hard and folid bodies every where dilTolve^ 



+ 



and the loofe and foft no where confolidate. 

 The powers which tend to preferve, and thofe 

 which tend to change the condition of the earth's 

 furface, are never i?z equilibrio ; the latter are, 

 in all cafes, the moil powerful, and, in refpe6l 

 of the former, are like living in comparifon of 

 dead forces. Hence the law of decay is one 

 which fuffers no exception : The elements of all 



bodies were once loofe and unconnedled, and to 



the 



