Neither is it required in the actual system of this earth, that every part of the land should be dissolved in its structure, and worn away by attrition, so as to be floated in the sea.  Parts of the land may often sink in a body below the level of the sea, and parts again may be restored, without waiting for the general circulation of land and water, which proceeds with all the certainty of nature, but which advances with an imperceptible progression.  Many of such apparent irregularities may appear without the least infringement on the general system.  That system is comprehended in the preparation of future land at the bottom of the ocean, from those materials which the dissolution and attrition of the present land may have provided, and from those which the natural operations of the sea afford.

In thus accomplishing a certain end, we are not to limit nature with the uniformity of an equable progression, although it be necessary in our computations to proceed upon equalities.  Thus also, in the use of means, we are not to prescribe to nature those alone which we think suitable for the purpose, in our narrow view.  It is our business to learn of nature (that is by observation) the ways and means, which in her wisdom are adopted; and we are to imagine these only in order to find means for further information, and to increase our knowledge from the examination of things which actually have been.  It is in this manner, that intention may be found in nature; but this intention is not to be supposed, or vainly imagined, from what we may conceive to be.

We have been now supposing, that the beginning of our present earth had been laid in the bottom of the ocean, at the completion of the former land; but this was only for the sake of distinctness.  The just view is this, that when the former land of the globe had been complete, so as to begin to waste and be impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the present land began to appear above the surface of the ocean.  In this manner we suppose a due proportion to be always preserved of land and water upon the surface of the globe, for the purpose of a habitable world, such as this which we possess.  We thus, also, allow time and opportunity for the translation of animals and plants to occupy the earth.

But, if the earth on which we live, began to appear in the ocean at the time when the last began to be resolved, it could not be from the materials of the continent immediately preceding this which we examine, that the present earth had been constructed; for the bottom of the ocean must have been filled with materials before land could be made to appear above its surface.