Il
n'occupoit point des cavites particulieres, il n'y paroissoit le
produit d'une infiltration qui auroit rempli des cavites, mais il etoit
incorpore avec les feld-spath, le mica, et le quartz, faissoit masse
avec eux, et ne pouvoit se rompre sans les entrainer avec lui."
This great naturalist is convinced that the spar had not been here
introduced by infiltration, although that is the very method which he
employs to form concretions, not only of spar but of crystal, zeolite,
and pyrites, in the closest cavities of the most solid rocks of
basaltes. These four substances in this stone were so mixed together
that nothing but the fusion of the whole mass could explain the state in
which they appeared; but, thinking that such a supposition could not
be allowed, this naturalist, like a man of science when his data fail,
leaves the matter without any interpretation of his own. This however is
what he has not done in the case of basaltes, or that which he mistakes
for proper lavas, as I shall have occasion to show.]
Here is an infinite operation, but an operation which is easily
performed by the natural arrangement of substances acting freely in
a fluid state, and concreting together, each substance, whether more
simple or more compound, directing itself by its internal principle of
attraction, and affecting mechanically those that are concreting around
it.
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