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the attempt to account for the astonishing appearances which the 
surface of this globe presents, appears to many, as indicating a very 
improper degree of confidence and presumption. 
To trace the operations of nature, in periods far behind all human 
record; to pronounce opinions respecting the structure and the 
inhabitants of a former world; and to endeavour to find out the 
ways of God in forming, destroying, and reforming the earth ; do 
certainly appear to be tasks, to which the limited powers of man are 
but little adapted. But since the world we inhabit is evidently 
composed of the wrecks of a former world ; the materials of which 
that world was composed are, of course, at hand for our examina- 
tion. The remains too of its former inhabitants are frequently 
found preserved, in such situations as teach us something, not only 
respecting the extent of the changes, which have taken place on the 
surface of this globe ; but even the particular element which was 
employed, as the chief instrument of destruction, and of renova- 
tion. Scripture, likewise, corroborated by the collateral evidence 
of all human tradition, supplies us with the grand leading facts ; that 
after the complete formation and the peopling of this globe, it was 
subjected to the destructive action of an immense deluge of water ; 
all the fountains of the great deep were broken up ; the high hills 
that were under the w^hole heaven were covered ; and every living 
substance was destroyed, which was on the face of the earth. Che- 
niistry and mineralogy also furnish us with their aid, by which we 
are taught the several changes, of which these substances, under 
various circumstances, are susceptible. 
By these aids, we may sometimes be enabled to form, perhaps, a 
tolerably correct judgment, respecting some of the grand changes 
which took place, during the vast revolutions which this planet has 
experienced. But so very remote are the periods, to which our 
minds are to revert : so loose, and so light, are the grounds to which 
our conjectures are to be built; and so great is the temptation to 
