Theory of the Earth

fill the mind with wonder and with doubt, we are not to suppose, that there is any violent exertion of power, such as is required in order to produce a great event in little time; in nature, we find no deficiency in respect of time, nor any limitation with regard to power. But time is not made to flow in vain; nor does there ever appear the exertion of superfluous power, or the manifestation of design, not calculated in wisdom to effect some general end.

THE events now under consideration may be examined with a view to see this truth; for it may be enquired, why destroy one continent in order to erect another? The answer is plain; Nature does not destroy a continent from having wearied of a subject which had given pleasure, or changed her purpose, whether for a better or a worse; neither does she erect a continent of land among the clouds, to shew her power, or to amaze the vulgar man: Nature has contrived to productions of vegetable bodies, and the sustenance of animal life, to depend upon the gradual but sure destruction of a continent; that is to say, these two operations necessarily go hand in hand. But with such wisdom has nature ordered things in the oeconomy of this world, that the destruction of one continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in the production of another; and the animal and vegetable bodies, for which the world above the surface of the sea is levelled with its bottom, are among the means employed in those operations, as well as the sustenance of those living beings is the proper end in view.

THUS, in understanding the proper constitution of the present earth, we are led to know the source from whence had come all the materials which nature had employed in the construction of the world which appears; a world contrived in consummate wisdom for the growth and habitation of a great diversity of plants and animals; and a world peculiarly adapted

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