HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



119 



6 



i| 



ihj 



(1, 



,B 



f 



CI 



■Ik 



ir 



which nature feems to have confined the powers 

 of mineral reprodudion ; from which, after 

 being confolidated, they are again deftined to 

 emerge, and to exhibit a feries of changes fimi- 

 kr to the pail ^. 



118. How often thefe viciiTitudes of decay 

 and renovation have been repeated, is not for 

 us to determine : they conftitute a feries, of 

 which, as the author of this theory has remark- 

 ed, we neither fee the beginning nor the end ; 

 a circumftance that accords well with what is 

 known concerning other parts of the economy 

 of the world. In the continuation of the dif- 

 ferent fpecies of animals and vegetables that in- 

 habit the earth, w^e difcern neither a beginning 

 nor an end ; and, in the planetary motions, 



r 



where geometry has carried the eye fo far both 

 into the future and the paft, we difcover 

 mark, either of the commencement or the t 



no 



of the prefent order f 



It is unreafon 



able, indeed, to fuppofe, that fuch marks ftiould 

 any Vv'here exift. The Author of nature has not 

 given laws to the univerfe, which, like the infti- 

 tutions of men, carry in themfelves the elements 



on. He has not permit- 



f their own deilrucl 



old 



d, in his works, any fymptom of infancy or of 

 age, or any fign by which we may eftimate 



either their future or their paft duration, 

 may put an end^ as he no doubt gave a beg 



He 



H4 



nmg 



3 



* Note xix. 



f Note xx 



