I44 NATURAL HISTORY 
fuch doubtful points, Naturalifts are to fubmit their own fentiments 
to the examination of the publick, that by a variety of hints, and 
the joint affiftances of all, the truth may at laft appear. 
Fir ft then thofe fifiures are no more, as they feem to me, than 
the neceffary confequences of the firft fettlement of matter, when it 
was divided into wet and dry, folid and fluid. That we may the 
more clearly apprehend this, let us recoiled! what happens to imall 
mafles of matter, cloven by like fiflures, whence we may infer wirat 
is probably the caufe of thofe greater clefts which we are now in 
fearch of. We all know that flime, diluted clay, and pulverized 
or diflolved ftone, fhall occupy more fpace in that ftate of moifture 
than when the fame clay, flime, or ftone, becomes dry and hard ; 
and, from a parity of reafon, we may argue, that when folids and 
fluids formed (and from a ftate of chaos became divided into 
diftindt bodies) the parts of the former, being deferted by the latter, 
muft needs grow clofer together, and confequently leave chafms and 
crevices betwixt them. But the mafles of earth, ftone, and clay, 
were not at this time meerly paflive ; they formed larger and more 
compact bodies every where, in proportion to the quantity and 
mutual attraction of their fimilar parts, within proper diftance. 
Hence arofe firmer combinations, and confequently greater open- 
ings between fuch mafles. Farther, it muft be obferved, that as 
all fimilar particles ftruggled to come into contact with each other, 
fo, at the fame time, they deferted, repelled, and exprefled all 
diflimilar and contending particles; confequently mafles of diffe- 
rently natured particles feceded and fled from each other, every 
party (if I may ufe the expreflion) tending to form and flick clofe 
to its like : betwixt fiich different fubftances therefore, attracted 
here, and there repelled, fome chink or interval muft needs happen. 
Thefe caufes then, viz. the defertion of moifture, the union of 
fimilar and the mutual repulfe of diflimilar particles, muft all have 
contributed to form the mafles of our terraqueous globe into fuch 
feparate portions as we now find them in ; for that indeed it was 
not poflible for bodies to grow dry and hard, unite and contract, 
without leaving fome chafms or fiflures between them. What 
enfued upon the hardening of particular and fmaller mafles, enfued 
alfo in the larger portions of the whole earth, in proportion to the 
quantity of folids united at any one effort, whether a grain, a Jlratum , 
a county, or a region. Hence therefore the cracks in all foftils, 
whether filled with heterogeneous matter or open ; hence the clefts 
and feparations of the firata , whether horizontal, perpendicular, 
or oblique ; and hence the larger divifions or fiflures which divide 
whole counties into as many fubterraneous diftridts, whether charged 
with ftone, metal, or earth, or kept open by the conftant courfe 
