The observations which
he has made appear to me to be founded on nothing more than common
prejudice, and misconceived notions of the subject. I am therefore
to point out that erroneous train of reasoning, into which a hasty
superficial view of things, perhaps, has led the patron of an opposite
opinion to see my theory in an unfavourable light. This, however, is not
all; for, that train of inconsequential reasoning is so congenial with
the crude and inconsiderate notion generally entertained, of solid
mineral bodies having been formed by the infiltration of water into
the earth, that no opportunity should be lost of exposing an erroneous
manner of reasoning, which is employed in supporting a hypothesis
founded upon certain operations of the surface of this earth that cannot
be properly applied to the formation of mineral bodies. This object,
therefore, so far as it may come in the way, will be attended to in
this discussion, although I shall have another opportunity of farther
enlarging upon that subject.
Our author begins by examining a geological operation, the very opposite
to that of mineral consolidation, and which would seem to have little
connection with the subject of this dissertation.
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