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the nature of that process which has been instituted for their 
formation. 
A careful investigation of the subject has led me to believe, 
that the mineralization, or petrifaction as it is generally called, of 
vegetable matter, is primarily dependent on that process, by which 
the formation of bituminous substances is accomplished. To this 
process I therefore necessarily call your attention. 
We have already seen, that vegetable matter, deprived of life, 
suffers, on the surface of the earth, a certain decomposition, by 
which some of its principles, becoming volatilized, are diffused in 
the surrounding atmosphere, whilst others enter, on the spot, into 
new combinations, and there form a substance called vegetable 
mould, replete with all the principles necessary to yield the proper 
pabula to a succeeding race of the same class of beings. But other, 
and very different changes to those which take place on the surface, 
were necessary to be decreed, for those vegetable substances which 
are buried far beneath the surface of the earth. 
In some cases, it is highly presumptive to measure the wisdom and 
providence of Omniscience, by our narrow judgments ; and it is bor- 
dering on profanation to point out, as the wonderful contrivance of 
the Deity, those arrangements which may be only the creatures of our 
own fancy and imagination. But I trust that, in this conjecture, I do 
not err. The path of nature appears here too plain to be mistaken. 
The resolution of vegetable matter into mould fit for the future 
growth of vegetables is the result of a design, the end of which is 
evident. But when vegetable matter is deposited at depths lower 
than the roots of vegetables ever reach, a conversion into a substance 
of this kind would be useless ; and nature, it must be remembered, 
does nothing in vain. Another process is therefore instituted ; and 
instead of a substance being produced, calculated to promote vege- 
tation, where vegetation never takes place, another substance is 
formed, totally different in its nature. 
