But if, even in our operations, water, by means of
compression, may be made to endure the heat of red hot iron without
being converted into vapour, what may not the power of nature be able to
perform? The place of mineral operations is not on the surface of the
earth; and we are not to limit nature with our imbecility, or estimate
the powers of nature by the measure of our own.[10]
[Note 10: This is so material a principle in the theory of consolidating
the strata of the earth by the fusion of mineral substances, that I beg
the particular attention of the reader to that subject. The effect of
compression upon compound substances, submitted to increased degrees of
heat, is not a matter of supposition, it is an established principle
in natural philosophy. This, like every other physical principle, is
founded upon matter of fact or experience; we find, that many compound
substances may with heat be easily changed, by having their more
volatile parts separated when under a small compression; but these
substances are preserved without change when sufficiently compressed.
Our experiments of this kind are necessarily extremely limited; they
are not, however, for that reason, the less conclusive.
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