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attained, and on the introduction of various earthy, and other 
matters, appeared to depend the formation of the different kinds of 
bituminous substances, and particularly the different varieties of coal. 
There also appeared great reason for supposing that, in some 
situations, and under certain circumstances, this process was arrested, 
in small detached masses, by their being subjected to particular 
saline, earthy, or metallic impregnations. In which cases it was 
presumed, that substances were formed, which, although not so useful 
to man as those already mentioned, were well calculated to increase 
his number of elegant luxuries, and to excite in his mind the highest 
degree of admiration, by their extraordinary, and often exquisitely 
beautiful appearances. Thus seemed to have been formed the fossil 
woods ; some, at least, of the jaspers ; the pitch-stones ; the wax, or 
semi-opals : and, perhaps, even the noble opal itself. 
The most direct inferences, from obvious facts, made whilst 
considering the nature of those bodies, which have been the subjects 
of our correspondence, lead to the conclusion, that, independent 
of the accomplishment of any other important purpose, by the 
resolution of a former world, one grand object appears to have 
been attained — such an arrangement and modification of the seeming 
ruin, as produced the regeneration of a world, stored, in its deepest 
recesses, with substances calculated to promote the comfort of man ; 
to tempt him to the exercise of his innate powers ; to furnish him 
with the means of supporting his dominion over the animals around 
him ; and even to urge him to a change from the savage to a civilized 
state. Another world rises from the overwhelming flood, composed 
of the fragments of the former, which appear to be blended together, 
in an apparently disordered and incongruous mass. But, after the 
lapse of a small period of time, the constituent parts of the newly- 
formed world are discovered to be arranged, according to those wise 
laws which the great Creator had decreed from the beginning. The 
surface again teems with beings possessed of the energies of animal 
