Our author had just now said, that I have advanced two suppositions,
_neither of which is grounded on facts_: Now, with regard to the one, he
has acknowledged, that the mouldering of stones takes place, which is
the fact on which that proposition is grounded; and with regard to the
other, the only authority given against it is founded expressly upon
the moving of soil by means of the rain water, in order to make sloping
plains of mountains. Here, therefore, I have grounded my propositions
upon facts; and our author has founded his objections, first, upon a
difficulty which he has himself removed; and, secondly, upon nothing but
a visionary opinion, with regard to an earth which is not yet made, and
which, when once made, is never more to change.
After making some unimportant observations,--of all water not flowing
into the sea,--and of the travelled materials being also deposited upon
the plains, etc. our author thus proceeds: "Hence the conclusion of our
author relative to the imperfect constitution of the globe falls to the
ground; and the pains he takes to learn, _by what means a decayed world
may be renovated_, are superfluous.
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