In examining things present, we have data from which to reason with
regard to what has been; and, from what has actually been, we have
data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen hereafter.
Therefore, upon the supposition that the operations of nature are
equable and steady, we find, in natural appearances, means for
concluding a certain portion of time to have necessarily elapsed, in the
production of those events of which we see the effects.
It is thus that, in finding the relics of sea-animals of every kind
in the solid body of our earth, a natural history of those animals
is formed, which includes a certain portion of time; and, for the
ascertaining this portion of time, we must again have recourse to the
regular operations of this world. We shall thus arrive at facts which
indicate a period to which no other species of chronology is able to
remount.
In what follows, therefore, we are to examine the construction of the
present earth, in order to understand the natural operations of time
past; to acquire principles, by which we may conclude with regard to the
future course of things, or judge of those operations, by which a world,
so wisely ordered, goes into decay; and to learn, by what means such a
decayed world may be renovated, or the waste of habitable land upon the
globe repaired.
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