Being arrived at the shore, and having entered the dominion
of the waves, in which they find perpetual agitation, these hard
fragments, which had eluded the resolving powers natural to the surface
of the earth, are incapable of resisting the powers here employed for
the destruction of the land. By the attrition of one hard body upon
another, the moving stones and rocky shore, are mutually impaired. And
that solid mass, which of itself had potential liability against the
violence of the waves, affords the instruments of its own destruction,
and thus gives occasion to its actual instability.
In order to understand the system of the heavens, it is necessary to
connect together periods of measured time, and the distinguished places
of revolving bodies. It is thus that system may be observed, or wisdom,
in the proper adapting of powers to an intention. In like manner, we
cannot understand the system of the globe, without seeing that progress
of things which is brought about in time, thus measuring the natural
operations of the earth with those of the heavens. This is properly the
business of the present undertaking.
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