That this is a mere supposition will appear by
considering; first, that they do not know how this agent water is to
operate in producing those effects; nor have they any direct proof
of the fact which is alleged, from a very fallaceous analogy; and,
secondly, that they cannot tell us where this operation is to be
performed. They cannot say that it is in the earth above the level of
the sea: for, the same appearances are found as deep as we can examine
below that level; besides, we see that water has the opposite effect
upon the surface of the earth, through which it percolates dissolving
soluble substances, and thus resolving solid bodies in preparing soil
for plants. If, again, it be below the level of the sea, that strata of
the earth are supposed to be consolidated by the infiltration of that
water which falls from the heavens; this cannot be allowed, so far as
whatever of the earth is bibulous, in that place, must have been always
full of water, consequently cannot admit of that supposed infiltration.
But allowing those suppositions to be true, there is nothing in them
like a theory of the earth,--a theory that should bring the operations
of the world into the regularity of ends and means, and, by generalizing
these regular events, show us the operation of perfect intelligence
forming a design; they are only an attempt to show how certain things,
which we see, have happened without any perceivable design, or without
any farther design than this particular effect which we perceive.
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