6z Tie Production and Generation 



fmelting, in order to the act of fcorification or vi- 

 trification, as this laft operation is for metallifa- 

 tion. Upon the whole, in iron the metal and 

 the earth ftand fufceptible of the quickeft, eafieft 

 and moft repeated changes. 'Tis the firft metal, 

 that may be, and, proximately, is made from crude 

 earth ; its earth is the firft form of all metallic 

 earths, derived from the univerfal crude earth ; 

 whence as iron is the ground- earth of pyrites, this 

 laft mould feem not improbably to have its ori- 

 ginal as high as the creation. And naturalifts de- 

 viling another arrangement of metals than that 

 taken from the planets, mould give iron the pre- 

 ference, at leaft with regard to priority of exiflence, 

 if notof derivation ; for by the common difpofition 

 of the mineral kingdom, one metal is groundlefsly 

 fuppofed to be produced from another ; for in- 

 itance, copper from iron, gold from copper, and 

 in this cafe from pyrites, and in the language of 

 miners, from mocklead and glitter ; a more ma- 

 ture from a more immature, and a noble from an 

 ignoble metal. 



To determine the particular time or day, on 

 which the fubterraneous kingdom took its rife, 

 or arrived at its ftate, feeing we learn this 

 neither from Mofes, nor any other infpired writer, 

 is perhaps no very eafy matter. That actual mi- 

 neral, metallic mixts mould, before the fecond day, 

 lie confufedly huddled together, feems not very 

 probable. 



On the fecond day, the dry land, as Mofes calls 

 it, began to appear, out of the chaos, and ac- 

 quired its form. Now from this, and particularly 

 the third day, on which the earth was by an ex- 

 prefs fiat, made fit for the production of vege- 

 tables, it is fcarcely to be doubted but that the 

 earthy particles were hereby multiplied, and the 

 tenderer!: of them formed, by means of the water, 

 for vegetation -, and the more denfe, heavy par- 

 ticles, 



