In opposition to the theory of consolidating bodies by fusion, our
author has taken great pains to show, that I cannot provide materials
for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find the means to make it
burn had I those materials. Had our author read attentively my theory he
would have observed, that I give myself little or no trouble about that
fire, or take no charge with regard to the procuring of that power, as I
have not founded my theory on the _supposition_ of subterraneous
fire, however that fire properly follows as a conclusion from those
appearances on which the theory is founded. My theory is founded upon
the general appearances of mineral bodies, and upon this, that mineral
bodies must necessarily have been in a state of fusion. I do not pretend
to prove, demonstratively, that they had been even hot, however that
conclusion also naturally follows from their having been in fusion. It
is sufficient for me to demonstrate, That those bodies must have been,
more or less, in a state of softness and fluidity, without any species
of solution. I do not say that this fluidity had been without heat;
but, if that had been the case, it would have answered equally well the
purpose of my theory, so far as this went to explain the consolidation
of strata or mineral bodies, which, I still repeat, must have been
by simple fluidity, and not by any species of solution, or any other
solvent than that universal one which permeates all bodies, and which
makes them fluid.
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