TO STRATIFIED ROCKS. 43 
continued their energies through all succeeding 
geological epochs, and still exert them in pro- 
ucing the phenomena of active volcanoes ; 
P enomena incomparably the most violent that 
liow appear upon the surface of our planet.* 
The evidence of design in the employment of 
orces, which have thus effected a grand general 
purpose, viz. that of forming dry land, by ele- 
vating strata from beneath the waters in which 
they were deposited, stands independent of the 
truth or eiTor of contending theories, respecting 
the origin of that most ancient class of strati- 
fied rocks, which are destitute of organic re- 
mains (see pi. 1 .—section 1 , 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). It is 
„ great and frequent alteration in the relative level 
in ^ established, that the only remain- 
bee regard the mode in which these alterations have 
dencp^ whether by elevation of the land itself, or subsi- 
which I**' ^ ^ ^ nature of the force 
freniiPTit * them ? The evidence in proof of great and 
subsidencr anTof protrusion and 
operations ’ f ^ oonnection of these movements with the 
so man d'ff ^s so various and so strong, derived from 
dav <!n ^ ' 1 rivarters on the surface of the globe, and every 
strate that'^tl, recent enquiry, as almost to demon- 
voliit;^ causes by which those great re- 
ward r ; and that although the action of the in- 
rent cou^^t* " protrude the land has varied greatly in diffe- 
have h different periods, they are now and ever 
Preparb " rncessantly at work in operating present change and 
globe future alteration in the exterior of the 
Fitton n a*^ °grt!®l Sketch of the Vicinity of Hastings, by Dr. 
> PP* o5, 86, 
