CHAP. V.
Concerning that which may be termed the Primary Part of the Present
Earth.
In the present theory, it is maintained, that there is no part of the
earth which has not had the same origin, so far as this consists in that
earth being collected at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards produced,
as land, along with masses of melted substances, by the operation of
mineral causes. But, though all those things be similar, or equal, as to
the manner of their production, they are far from being so with regard
to the periods of their original composition, or to the subsequent
operations which they may have undergone.
There is a certain order established for the progress of nature, for the
succession of things, and for the circulation of matter upon the surface
of this globe; and, the order of time is associated with this change of
things. But it is not in equal portions that time is thus combined with
dissimilar things, nor always found, in our estimation, as equally
accompanying those which we reckon similar. The succession of light and
darkness is that which, in those operations, appears to us most steady;
the alternation of heat and cold comes next, but not with equal
regularity in its periods.
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