201 
EARTH. 
thriving and extending over the dill undiftnrbed grounds; 
and it' it were not for the growing capital towns and cities, 
which fvvallow up a part of the cultivating tribe ; for 
the fpirit of novelty fpringing up, with many vices, in 
fuch crowds of men ; and for the fchemes of opulence 
originating in thofe centres of luxury and idleneTs, which, 
in fo many minds, have changed the original motive of 
extending culture , that of producing food for a growing 
population, into a view of greater revenue; that progrej's 
would be (till more rapid. Nothing can be more inte- 
refling, more inftruXive for the hiftory of mankind , than 
the fludy of countries where thofe progrejfes are dill far 
from approaching near their end. Befide what their ex¬ 
ternal appearance unfolds to an experienced eye, there 
are numberlefs charaXeriftic circumdances, to be col¬ 
lected by proper inquiries, from records, monuments, 
traditions, conformities of methods, of riles, offends, of 
manners, of errors, of parts, of language; which lead us 
to refer various fettlemenls to the common centres whence 
they proceed ; and the names of a great many places, de- 
feriptive of certain fpots, point out by the language from 
which they are derived, the time when the prefent towns 
or large villages were only mills, farms, hamlets, fords, bridges, 
See. at the fame time that names of the fame iignifications, 
but ntodernifed, belong to modern fettlements which are 
dill what their names exprefs. 
That prefent date of the north-ead part of Europe, as 
a mean date between a great part of Ada and America 
on the one hand, and the fouth-wed part of Europe on 
the other, throws a great light on the date of this lad 
country, one of thofe which I had fird fet afide. Here, 
by particular circumdances, the archipels (may I be per¬ 
mitted to introduce this word?) of culture have modly 
coalefced: from which cuufe, the diftinXions between 
their parts appear to be merely artificial or conventional 
divifions. There are indeed fuch divilions, produced by 
wars, and by the fchemes and jealoufies of commerce, 
which have introduced a great confufion between the ori¬ 
ginal groupes of men, even in feme parts of the countries 
where the natural connexions may eafily be traced; but 
at the fame time, from analogy with the growing coun¬ 
tries, we may as furely conclude the origin of countries 
of full growth ; as by analogy with the improving marfhes 
on the outfide of long inclofed new lands, the origin of 
thefe, though in full culture, is clearly underdood. Con- 
fequently, the progrejfes of culture , and of the art of agri¬ 
culture ; to which now I may add that of commerce, as a 
confequence of the growth of nations-, agree with the ge¬ 
neral refult of the progreffes of fpontaneous effefts over 
the fame grounds-, and the whole leads to this irrefidible 
and great confequence, that the origin of our continents is 
at too fmall a didance from our times, for the revolution 
which produced them to be blotted out of the memory 
of men. 
Thofe real inquiries into the hiftory of our continents, 
when more generally attended to, w ill be the tombflone of 
every theory of the earth, the agents of which, and their 
agency, mud be hidden under the veil of unbounded anti, 
quity, for fancy to take the appearance of genius, and af- 
iertion that of knowledge. What body had thofe phi- 
lofophers made of the real faXs, who fird decided, feem- 
ingly from natural hidory and the hiftory of mankind, 
(and thus were believed,) that our continents were-of an 
antiquity lob in the night of timepaf? 
In oppofition to fuch determined data of real chronology 
as have been afforded by the continents themfelves, what 
are the dreams of fome nominal antiquarians, whole ima¬ 
gination, fond of the remote, (and the more remote, the 
greater their fondnefs!) inclines them to adopt the fables 
of fome Afiatic feXs, contradiXed by their own monu¬ 
ments when attentively examined, as Mr. Bryant, and 
other learned men, have proved, and denied by fome of 
their own countrymen! Shall we receive, on an objeX 
of fuch moment as the age of our continents and that of 
the prefent race of men. the obfeure affertions of igno- 
Vol. VI. No. 34*. 
ranee, pride, or defign, in fome lets of men ; when it is 
in our power to confult the unbiaffed and dubborn pheno¬ 
mena of the earth!” 
We do not find that any of the pofitions fet up by M. 
de Luc, either in refutation of the Huttonian theory, or 
in fuppert of his own, have been controverted by any 
fubfequent writer. Mr. Williams, whb publilhed a 
Theory of the Earth in 1791, does not appear to have 
feen that propofed by M. de Luc ; but he offers many 
objeXions to that of Dr. Hutton ; his remarks on which 
are as follow : “ I acknowledge the truth of almod all 
Dr. Hutton has advanced about the weathering, decom- 
pofition, and wade of the fuperficies of many of our rocks 
and drata, and of our mountains and cavernous Ihores: 
and that the lpoils of the mountains are carried down by 
land-doods to the valleys and to the borders ot the ocean. 
So far we go together; but here w’e mud part, as 1 pofi- 
tively deny that any drata are formed under the waters 
of the ocean. It is evident to a demondration, that the 
fea purges itfelf, by the tides, of all the earthy matter car¬ 
ried down by the floods, which earthy matter is thrown 
back upon the Ihores, in the bays and creeks, and at the 
mouths of great rivers, where, by degrees, it enlarges 
the bounds of the dry land in exaX proportion to the 
quantity carried down by the floods. It is alfo clearly 
demondrated, that the earthy matter walhed off the face 
of our mountains and rocks has no manner of tendency 
to the real wade and dedruXion of the prefent earth ; lo 
far from it, that, on the contrary, the habitable parts of 
the earth are gradually, but really and effeXually, reno¬ 
vated, enlarged, and improved, thereby. Many lakes, 
mardies, and frightful gulfs, among the mountains and 
in the plains, have been filled up in the courfe of the ri¬ 
vers of the world, which are now rich, beautiful, and ha¬ 
bitable, countries; many millions of acres of new land 
have been made in the valleys and plains, at the mouths 
of the rivers in the bays, creeks, and Ihores, of the ocean ; 
and many and extenfive portions of this new land are now 
the fat valleys by the rivers, which are the feenes of po¬ 
pulation, wealth, and focial happinefs. It is upon this 
defeription of .land that the highed number of the great 
commercial cities of the world are feated, fuch, as, for 
indance, London, Amderdam, Alexandria, and many of 
the cities of China, &c. Whoever will take the trouble 
to perufe my effays, will be convinced that the Deltas, 
Belgias, and Carfes, and other deferiptions of new land, 
formed and forming in all parts of the world, fully and 
perfeXly correfpond with the quantity of matter wadied 
od' the mountains and rocks; and all this is a real, a 
great,afubdantial,and a durable, improvement of the pre¬ 
fent earth. Man cannot live upon the fummits, nor high 
up the Tides of lofty mountains ; but the frods and thaws, 
and other changes of the air and weather, decompofe part 
of the fuperficies of the mountains, which is carried down 
by the floods to the valleys and to the margin of the fea, 
where new land is gradually increafed, which enlarges 
the bounds of the earth in convenient (ituations for in¬ 
creafed population, See. This ufe which benevolent 
Providence makes of the fediment of rivers in the ordi¬ 
nary courfe of things, is not a fanciful hypothefis, but a 
real and vifible faX, which may be viewed, examined, 
and thoroughly invefiigated, by the man of leifure and 
abilities; and I am perfuaded, that if Dr. Hutton 
will read my papers upon this fubjeX, he will be con¬ 
vinced of the errors of his hypothefis. I have made it 
evident to a demonftration, that if, for argument’s fake, 
we allow the particles of matter carried down by the 
rivers to be fpread put over the bounds of the ocean, and 
to fubfide in it, we fhould, in that event, have no coal, 
no lime-flone, free-ftone, nor any other ufeful foflil body. 
We fhould have no fuch thing as ftrata nor bed, nor di- 
vifion of any kind whatl'oever, but all would be one uni¬ 
form folid mafs of fediment compounded of all things. 
If we can fuppofe any order of diftinXion in a fediment, 
it muff agree with the laws of gravitation j of courfe the 
3 F ' heavieft' 
