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Here is a comparative estimate formed between two things which have not
any necessary relation; these are, the quantity of combustible materials
found in the earth, on the one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
necessary for hardening and consolidating strata, on the other. If this
earth has been consolidated by the burning of combustible materials,
there must have been a superfluity, so far as there is a certain
quantity of these actually found unconsumed in the strata of the earth.
Our author's conclusion is the very opposite; let us then see how he
is to form his argument, by which he proves that the supposition of
subterraneous heat for hardening bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary,
as being inconsistent with my theory.
According to my theory, the strata of this earth are composed of the
materials which came from a former earth; particularly these combustible
strata that contain plants which must have grown upon the land. Let
us then suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with its combustible
materials from this source, the vegetable bodies growing upon the
surface of the land.
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