HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



127 





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'til 



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Gulation, which the aftronomer and mathema- 

 tician are already in poffeffion of; and this may 

 be done, by fuppofmg that the chronology of 

 Moses relates only to 



th 



h 



Th 



liberty is not more neceffary to Dr Hutton than 



other theorifts 



No 



genuity has been able 



'1r„ 



to reconcile the natural hiflory of the globe 

 with the opinion of its recent origin , and ac- 

 cordingly the cofmologies of Kirwan and De 

 Luc, though contrived with more mineralogical 

 ikill, are not lefs forced and unfatisfadlory than 

 thofe of Burnet and Whifton, 



k 



126. It is impoffible to look back on the fyf- 



tem M'hich we have thus endeavoured to illuf- 

 trate, without being flruck with the novelty and 

 beauty of the views which it fets before us. The 

 very plan and fcope of it diilinguifh it from all 

 other theories of the earth, and point it out as 

 a work of great and original invention. The 

 fole objed: of fuch theories has hitherto been, 

 to explain the manner in which the pre- 

 fent laws of the mineral kingdom were firft 

 eftablilhed, or began to exift, without treating 

 of the manner in which they now proceed, and 

 by which their continuance is provided for. The 

 authors of theie theories have accordingly gone 

 back to a ftate of things altogether unhke the 



prefent, and have confined their reafonings, or 



their 



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