/ 



1^2 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



V 



have certainly made a great facrifice to the love 

 of truth, or of paradox, in rejefting the affift- 

 ance of fo powerful an auxiliary *. 



129. In the fyftems which employ the agency 

 of the latter element, we are to look for a great- 



mce to that of Dv Hutton, though 



er 



fembl 



many and great marks of diftincf^ 



are 



ealily 



pe 



Lt 



In the cofmologies, for example, of 

 nd BuFFON, fire and water are both 



employed, as well as in this ; but they are em- 

 ployed in a reverfe order. Thefe philofophers 

 introduce the a^lion of fire firft, and then the 

 aiftion of water, which is to invert the order of 

 nature altogether, as the confolidation of the 

 rocks muft be poflerior to their flratification. 

 Indeed, the theory of Buffon is fingalarly de- 

 fe(5live : beiides inverting the order of the two 



Cj 



great operations of ftratification and confohda- 

 tion, and of courfe giving no real explanation of 



the latter, it gives no account of the elevation, or 

 highly inclined poiition of the flrata ; it makes 

 no diftindion between ftratified and unftratified 

 bodies, nor does it offer any but the mofl unfa- 

 tisfaclory explanation of the inequalities of the 

 earth's furface. This fyflem, therefore, has but 

 a very diftant refemblance to the Huttonian 

 theory -j-. 



130. The fydem of Lazzaro M^ro has been 

 remarked as approaching nearer to this theo- 



ry 



* Note xxiii. 



f Note xx/v 



I 



