He says that those marks of known materials
are never or scarce ever found;--by _scarce ever_ he surely means that
they are sometimes found; but if they shall only _once_ be found, his
argument is lost. I have not drawn my geological conclusion from every
particle in strata being distinguishable, but from there being certain
distinguishable particles in strata, and from our knowing what had been
the former state and circumstances of those distinguished parts.
If every stone or part of a stratum, in which those known objects are
not immediately visible, must be considered as so _many geological
observations that contradict my theory_, (of strata being formed from
the materials of a former earth), then, surely every stone and every
stratum which visibly contains any of those materials, must prove my
theory. But if every stratum, where these are found in any part of it,
is to be concluded as having had its origin at the bottom of the sea;
and, if every concomitant stratum, though not having those objects
visible or sufficiently distinct, must be considered as having had the
same or a similar origin, that pretended contradiction of my theory
comes to no more than this, that every individual stone does not bear
in it the same or equal evidence of that general proposition which
necessarily results from the attentive consideration of the whole,
including every part.
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