" This proposition, with regard to the general composition
of the earth, I have certainly not assumed, I have maintained it as a
fact, after the most scrupulous examination of all that, with the most
diligent search, I have been able to see, and of all that authors
have wrote intelligibly upon the subject. If, therefore, I have so
misrepresented this great geological fact on which my theory is
absolutely founded, I must have erred with open eyes; and my theory
of the earth, like others which have gone before it, will, upon close
examination, appear to be unfounded, as the dissertation now before us
is endeavouring to represent it.
Our author here, I think, alleges that the contrary to this, my
fundamental proposition, is the truth; and he has given us Scotland as
an example in which his assertion (founded upon the testimony of all
mineralogists), is illustrated. Now my geological proposition should
certainly be applicable to Scotland, which is the country that I ought
to be best acquainted with; consequently, if what our author here
asserts be true, I would have deserved that blame which he is willing to
throw on me.
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