44 RELATION OF UNSTRATIFIED 
immaterial to the present question, whether they 
were formed (according to the theory of Hutton) 
from the detritus of the earlier granitic rocks, 
spread forth by water into beds of clay and sand ; 
and subsequently modified by heat : or whether 
they have been produced, (as was maintained by 
Werner) by chemical precipitation from a fluid, 
having other powers of solution than those pos- 
sessed by the waters of the present ocean. It 
is of little importance to our present purpose, 
whether the non-appearance of animals and ve- 
getables in these in.ost ancient strata was caused 
by the high temperature of the waters of the 
ocean, in which they were mechanically depo- 
sited ; or by the compound nature and uninha- 
bitable condition of a primeval fluid, holding 
their materials in solution. All observers admit 
that the strata were formed beneath the w ater, 
and have been subsequently converted into dry 
land : and whatever may have been the agents 
that caused the movements of the gross unor- 
ganized materials of the globe; w^e find sufficient 
evidence of prospective wisdom and design, in 
the benefits resulting from these obscure and 
distant revolutions, to future races of terrestrial 
creatures, and more especially to Man.* 
» In describing geological phenomena, it is impossible to avoid 
the use of theoretical terms, and the provisional adoption of 
many theoretical opinions as to the manner in which these phe- 
nomena have been produced. From among the various and 
