For, it is equally easy to suppose a portion of the earth
to have been raised all this height, as to suppose all the rest of the
surface of the globe to have sunk an equal space, while a small portion
of the bottom of the sea, remaining here and there fixed in its place,
became the highest portion of the globe. Consequently, whatever evidence
this philosopher shall find in support of his theory of the present
earth, (a subject which it is not our purpose to examine) it cannot be
allowed that he has here brought any argument capable of disproving the
elevation of the bottom of the sea; a supposition which other theories
may require.
I would now observe, in relation to the present theory, that so far
as this author has reasoned justly from natural appearances, his
conclusions will be found to confirm the present supposition, that there
is to be perceived the distinction of primordial, and that of secondary,
in the masses of this earth, without altering the general theory either
with respect to the original formation of those masses, or to their
posterior production.
Here one of two things must be allowed; either that those strata
of schistus had been broken and distorted under a mass of other
superincumbent strata; or that those superincumbent strata had been
deposited upon the broken and distorted strata at the bottom of the sea.
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