They are, indeed,
infinitely various, as they ought to be, according to the rule; but all
those varieties in appearances conspire to prove one general truth, viz.
That all which we see had been originally composed according to certain
principles, established in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
and that those regular compositions had been afterwards greatly changed
by the operations of another power, which had introduced apparent
confusion among things first formed in order and by rule.
It is concerning the operation of this second power that we are now
inquiring; and here the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
mineral regions are as instructive, with regard to what had been
transacted in a former period of time, as the order and regularity of
those same regions are conclusive, in relation to the place in which a
former state of things had produced that which, in its changed state, we
now perceive.
We are now to conclude, that the land on which we dwell had been
elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which had been
employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and
preparing them for the purpose of the living world.
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