of the most instructive speculation to the philosopher, who studies the wisdom of nature through the medium of things.  As, on the one hand, the summit of the mountain may be supposed the point of absolute sterility, so, on the other, the sandy desert, moved by nothing but the parching winds of continents distant from the sources of abundant rains, finishes the scale of natural fertility, which thus diminishes in the two opposite extremes of hot and dry, of cold and wet; thus is provided an indefinite variety of soils and climates for that diversity of living organised bodies with which the world is provided for the use of man.  But, between those two extremes, of mountains covered with perpetual snow, and parched plains in which every living thing must perish, we find the most pleasant subject of contemplation, in studying the means employed in nature for producing the beautiful and benevolent system of hills and valleys, of fertile soils and well watered plains, of the most agreeable circumstances and proper situations for every thing that lives, and for the preservation of an indefinite variety of organised bodies which propagate their species.

Without this philosophic view of things, the prospect of the surface of this earth is far from giving always satisfaction or contentment to the mind of man, who is subject to be continually displeased with that which is presented to his view, and which, in his opinion, is not the best; in his partial views of things, it is either too high or too low, too cold or too warm, too moist or too dry, too stiff for the labour of his plough, or too loose for the growing of his corn.  But, considering nature as the common parent of living growing propagating bodies, which require an indefinite variety of soils and climates, the philosopher finds the most benevolent purpose in the end proposed, or effect which is attained, and sees perfect wisdom in the effectual means which are employed.  This is the view that I would wish men of science to take; and it is for this purpose that I am now to examine the phenomena of the surface of this earth.

If strata, formed at the bottom of the sea, had been consolidated by internal operations proper to the earth, and afterwards raised for the purpose of a habitable world; and if, for the purpose of vegetation, the solid land must be resolved into soil by the dissolution and separation of its parts, as is required in the theory, the strata, instead of being entire immediately below the soil, should be found in a mutilated state; the ends of hard and solid beds should present their fractures or abrupt sections immediately under the confused materials with which they are covered; and the softer strata should appear to suffer gradual resolution and decay, by which may be perceived their transition into soil, the most important part of all the operations of the globe which do not immediately concern our life.

These are facts which every person of observation has it in his power to verify; they are facts for which nothing further can be laid than that the thing is truly so; and they are facts from which the most important arguments might be formed, were any doubt to be entertained concerning the justness of the theory which has now been given.