164 ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO iv. 



The marble mountain, and the sparry steep, 

 Were built by myriad nations of the deep, 

 Age after age, who form'd their spiral shells, 

 Their sea-fan gardens and their coral cells; 

 Till central fires with unextinguished sway 

 Raised the primeval islands into day ; 

 The sand-flird strata stretch'd from pole to pole; 

 Unmeasured beds of clay, and marl, and coal, 



a punishment for evil deeds, though without consciousness of its pre- 

 vious existence; and from this doctrine he inculcated a system of 

 morality and benevolence, as all creatures thus became related to each 

 other. 



The marble mountain, 1.431. From the increased knowledge in 

 Geology during the present century, owing to the greater attention 

 of philosophers to the situations of the different materials, which 

 compose the strata of the earth, as well as to their chemical proper- 

 ties, it seems clearly to appear, that the nucleus of the globe be- 

 neath the ocean consisted of granite; and that on this the great beds 

 of limestone were formed from the shells of marine animals during 

 the innumerable primeval ages of the world; and that whatever strata 

 lie on these beds of limestone, or on the granite, where the limestone 

 does not cover it, were formed after the elevation of islands and con- 

 tinents above the surface of the sea by the recrements of vegetables 

 and of terrestrial animals; see on this subject Botanic Garden, Vol. I. 

 Additional Note XXIV. 



