This agent heat, then, is a new principle to be employed in forming a
theory of the earth; a principle that must have been in the constitution
of this globe, when contrived to subsist as a world, and to maintain
a system of living bodies perpetuating their species. It is therefore
necessary to connect this great mineral principle, subterraneous fire
or heat, with the other operations of the world, in forming a general
theory. For, whether we are to consider those great and constant
explosions of mineral fire as a principal agent in the design, or only
as a casual event depending upon circumstances which give occasion to an
operation of such magnitude, here is an object that must surely have its
place in every general theory of the earth.
In examining things which actually exist, and which have proceeded in a
certain order, it is natural to look for that which had been first; man
desires to know what had been the beginning of those things which now
appear. But when, in forming a theory of the earth, a geologist shall
indulge his fancy in framing, without evidence, that which had preceded
the present order of things, he then either misleads himself, or writes
a fable for the amusement of his reader.
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