2I6 <lEei.OGICAL CHANGER OF THE EASTS' ( 
piar. jjea, and all similar inland seas and lakes 
the most part, formed from the choakinff np 
which once constituted their outlets, if 
nature be not interrupted by the misdirected 
man, the gradual desiccation of all such collection* 
ter will, in due time, produce land of’higknt y-'* 
their sites. In like manner, the great lakes oi ^ 
America, if the St. Lawrence be not sedulously 
will, in the course of ages, be filled up by the ? |!?_ 
encroachment of their banks, and the raising 
bottoms with strata of vegetable and aninapl 
New rivers would then flow over these incrcas^n 
tions, and the ultimate effect would be 
of the Continent of North America ^ 
above its preseiv; level. Even the very place on ^ 
stand was, according to Webstei!, once a ''n*, 
to raise jf 
several hun |,p| 
0” I 
was, according to Webstek, once a r 
extending from the Nore to near Reading, but 
uj) with vegetable and animal remains ; and the .jit ' 
Cuvier has discovered a similar basin round 
Paris. These once were Caspians, created by d’C f 
and final disappearance of some mighty rivers-^ny,i' ' j 
- been filled up by gradual encroachments, and ■’ ' 
Thames and the Seine flow over them ; — but 
left to themselves, will, in their turn, generate 
or basins— and the successive recurrence of a sitbUjjif ' 
of causes will continue to produce similar effects; ' ^ 
rupted by superior causes. .. f 
“ This .situation was so .sequestered, and theret?ji)lL 
vourable to contemplation, that I could not avo't*^ 
myself. What, then, are tliose superior can**-’ i,l 
claimed, which will interrapt tliis series of vi*/ 
rations to which man is indebted for the inchant'b’j 
of hill and dale, and for the elysium of beauty 
in which he finds himself? Alas ! facts prov‘ 
that all things are transitoiy, and that change 
•’V 
, rffA 
is the constant and necessary result of that itiob® 
is the chief instrument of eternal causation, 
in causing all phenomena, wears out existing 
while it is generating new ones. In the *!• 
earth as a planet, doubtless are to be discovei'e“^^ P, 
rior causes which convert seas into continents, 
»ents into seas. These sublime changes are occ^ 
