\ 



HUTTONIAN THEORY, 



489 



lumns, Handing on the fame bafe, any where 

 within it, and reaching from thence to any two 

 points of the furface, ihould be of fuch weights 

 as precifely to balance one another. Neither of 



F 



thefe, indeed, is at all conformable to fad:. 



They are, h 



the 



y fuppofi 



on 



which th 



determination of the fpheroid 



f 



quilibrium is founded 



d as they certainly do 



in no degree belong to the earth, it feeras flrange 

 that the refiilt deduced from them fliould be ia 

 any way applicable to it. This coincidence 

 remains, therefore, to be Explained ; and it Paull 

 greatly enhance the merit of any geological fy~ 

 ftem, if it can conned this great and enigmati- 

 cal phenomenon with the other fads in the na- 

 tural hiftory of the earth. 



ac- 



429. To eftablifli fuch a connexion, has, 

 rdingly, been a favourite objed with geologift 



whether they have embraced 



Vulcanic 



y 



both h 



the Neptunian or 

 thought that they 



were entitled to fuppofe the pr 



fluidity 



of the globe, the one by water, and the other by 



way that fluidity was 



fi 



and 



in 



hatfoever 



produced, the refult of it could be no other th 

 the fpheroidal figure of the whole 



mafs, aQ:ree- 



ably to the laws of hydroftatics. If in this fluid 

 ftate the earth was homogeneous, the fpheroid 

 would be accurately elliptical, and the compref- 



iion at the poles would be 



I 



230 



F 



of the radius of 



the 



