"--The object of my theory is
to show, that this decaying nature of the solid earth is the very
_perfection_ of its constitution, as a living world; therefore, it
was most proper that I should _take pains to learn_ by what means the
decayed parts might be renovated. It is true, indeed, that this will be
superfluous, when once that constitution of the earth, which M. de Luc
thinks is preparing, shall be finished; but, in the mean time, while
rivers carry the materials of our land, and while the sea impairs the
coast, I may be allowed to suppose that this is the actual constitution
of the earth.
I cannot help here animadverting upon what seems to be our author's
plan, in making these objections, which have nothing to do with his
examination. He accuses me of giving this world a false or imperfect
constitution, (in which the solid land is considered as resolvable, and
the materials of that land as being washed away into the sea,) for no
other reason, that I can see, but because this may imply the formation
of a future earth, which he is not disposed to allow; and, he is now to
deny the stratified construction of this present earth to have been made
by the deposits of materials at the bottom of the sea, because that
would prove the existence of a former earth, which is repugnant to his
notion of the origin of things, and is contrary, as he says, to reason,
and the tenor of the Mosaic history.
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