It is not our purpose at present to inquire into the particular nature
of this power of subterraneous heat, or to trace the proper connection
and analogy of the internal fire with that which is so necessary to our
life, and which acts so great a part upon the surface of the earth, this
being reserved for the last part. Our intention in here mentioning it,
is only to dispose the mind to look for active powers or efficient
causes, in that part of the earth which has been commonly considered as
passive and inert, but which will be found extremely active, and the
source of mighty revolutions in the fate of land.
There may, indeed, be some difficulty in conceiving all the
modifications of this mineral power; but as, on the one hand, we are not
arbitrarily to assume an agent, for the purpose of explaining events, or
certain appearances which are not understood; so, on the other, we must
not refuse to admit the action of a known power, when this is properly
suggested in the appearances of things; and, though we may not
understand all the modifications, or the whole capacity and regulation
of this power in bodies, we are not to neglect the appropriating to it,
as a cause, those effects which are natural to it, and which, so far as
we know, cannot belong to any other.
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