HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



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517 



are, however, unfold 



bfer 



and 



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leading principles of it 

 ed in the courfe of his 

 ble us to form a notion of its general outline. 

 It was evidently far removed from the fyflem 

 of fubtefraneous heat, and feems, efpecially in 

 the latter part of the author's life, to have been 

 very much accommodated to the prevailing fy- 

 flem of Werner. Neverthelefs, with fo little 

 affinity between their general views, vSauffure 

 and Hutton agree in that moll important ar- 

 ticle which regards the elevation of the flrata. 

 SaufTure plainly perceived the impoffibility of 

 the ftrata being formed in the vertical litua- 

 tions which fo many of them now occupy ; and 

 he takes great pains to demonllrate this im- 

 poffibility, from fome facls that have been re- 

 ferred to above. He alfo believed that this ele- 

 vation had been given to ftrata that were origi- 

 nally level, by a force directed upwards, or by 



I- 1 



the refoulement of the beds, not by their falling 

 in, as is the opinion of De Luc and fome other 

 of the Neptunifts. 



Now, whoever admits this principle, and rea- 

 fons on it conliftently, without being afraid to 

 follow it through all its confequences, muft un- 

 avoidably come very clofe to the Huttonian 

 theory. He muft fee, that a power which, ad- 

 ing from below, produced this great effed, can 



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never have belonged to water, unlefs rarefied 



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into 



