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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



479 



that fea, of the great chains of mountains, and 



of vegetation *." 



I muft confefs that I am unacquainted with eve- 

 ry thing of this letter but the title j and could not 

 eafily be prevailed on to follow any man who pro- 

 felTedly goes out of nature in fearcb of knowledge; 

 who pretends to give the hiilory of our planetary 

 fyftem when there was no fun, and to enumerate 

 the events which took place between the exift- 

 ence of that luminary, and the exiftence 



Ot 



light. 



The abfurdity of fuch an undertaking- 



admits of no apology; and the fmile which it 

 might excite, if addrefled merely to the fancy. 



gives 



place to indignation 



when it alTumes the 



air of philofophic inveftigation. 



420. It fets, however, in a flrong light, the in- 

 confiftencies that may be obferved in the intellec- 

 tual charader of the fame individual, toconfider 

 that the author of this llranc:e and inconfiftent 



reverie 



* Journal de Phyiique, torn. 37. (1790) partie 2de, 

 p. 332. As I may not have done juftice to this extra- 

 ordinary title, it may be right to prefent it in the origi- 

 nal. " Sur THiiloire de la Terre, depuis que cette pia- 

 nette fut penetr6e de lumiere, jufqu'a I'apparition du 

 soLEiL i efpace de tems qui renferme les origines de 



la chaleuKj et de la^^ 



couches 



pri77iQrd'akSf de Vanclenne mer, dc nos continens, comme 



fond de cette mer, de leurs grandes chajnes de men- 

 ia^neSf et de la vegetation," 



