This power cannot be much less than that
required to elevate the highest land upon the globe. Whether, therefore,
we shall consider the general veins as having been filled by mineral
steams, or by fluid minerals, an elevating power of immense force is
still required, in order to form as well as fill those veins. But such a
power acting under the consolidated masses at the bottom of the sea, is
the only natural means for making those masses land.
If such have been the operations that are necessary for the production
of this land; and if these operations are natural to the globe of this
earth, as being the effect of wisdom in its contrivance, we shall
have reason to look for the actual manifestation of this truth in the
phaenomena of nature, or those appearances which more immediately
discover the actual cause in the perceived effect.
To see the evidence of marble, a body that is solid, having been formed
of loose materials collected at the bottom of the sea, is not always
easy, although it may be made abundantly plain; and to be convinced that
this calcareous stone, which calcines so easily in our fires, should
have been brought into fusion by subterraneous heat, without suffering
calcination, must require a chain of reasoning which every one is not
able to attain[13].
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