Theory of the Earth

and also, at the eastern extremity of the port Eunoste, the sea-bath, cut in the solid rock upon the shore. Both those rocks, buffeted immediately with the waves of the Mediterranean sea, are, to all appearance, the same at this day as they were in ancient times *.

MANY other such proofs will certainly occur, where the different parts of those coasts are examined by people of observation and intelligence. But is enough for our present purpose, that this decrease of the coasts in general has not been observed; and that it is as generally thought, that the land is gaining upon the sea, as that the sea is gaining upon the land.

TO sum up the argument, we are certain, that all the coasts of the present continents are wasted by the sea, and constantly wearing away upon the whole; but this operation is so extremely slow, that we cannot find a measure of the quantity in order to form an estimate. Therefore, the present continents of the earth, which we consider as in a state of perfection, would, in the natural operations of the globe, require a time indefinite for their destruction.

BUT, in order to produce the present continents, the destruction of a former vegetable world was necessary; consequently, the production of our present continents must have required a time which is indefinite. In like manner, if the former continents were of the same nature as the present, it must have required another space of time, which also is indefinite, before they had come to their perfection as a vegetable world.

WE have been representing the system of this earth as proceeding with a certain regularity, which is not perhaps in nature, but which is necessary for our clear conception of the system of nature. The system of nature is certainly in rule, although we may now know every circumstance of its regulation. We are under a necessity, therefore, of making regular

* Lettres sur l'Egypte, M. SAVARY.

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