576 ANCIENT DISLOCATIONS AND MODERN CHANGES RECONCILED. 



change, of much deeper rooted intensity and wider range than any to be found in our 

 own period ; then the theory of central heat, as propounded by the mathematician, 

 finds its best supporter in the geologist. 



Nor is this view incompatible with those principles which inculcate the doctrine of 

 the gradual elevation and depression of modern continents. We have recently seen 

 two of our first philosophers 1 maintaining, that a central heat being granted, the neces- 

 sary result of the increment of fresh matter in one part, and its abstraction from 

 another (as is now taking place), must produce such variations in the conducting 

 media, that the result would be the gradual elevation of some parts of the earth's 

 surface, and the depression of others. Hence, therefore, we infer that those principles 

 which teach us to reason from the operations of the present day, are completely re- 

 concileable with the doctrine of geological catastrophes ; for a central heat being 

 admitted, we see in it the source of great former revolutions, as well as of the gradual 

 heavings and depressions of modern times. 



He who had never extended his research beyond the phenomena of intense violence, 

 so apparent in almost every mountain chain, would scarcely be brought to believe, 

 that the agency by which these changes were accomplished, was the very same as that 

 which produces modern vicissitudes. But he who examines the whole range of ter- 

 restrial phenomena will acknowledge, that they are all in harmony, — all proceeding 

 from the same source ! 



Geology, therefore, in expounding the former condition of the globe, convinces us, 

 that every variation of its surface has been but a step towards the accomplishment of 

 one great end ; whilst all such revolutions are commemorated by monuments, which 

 revealing the cause and object of each change, compel us to conclude, that the earth 

 can alone have been fashioned into a fit abode for Man by the ordinances of INFINITE 

 WISDOM. 



1 Babbage and Herschel, 



END OF PART I. 



