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the immediate cause both of the being and perfect PART I. arrangement of all first formations; and unless his natural philosophy shall proceed by a course, which shall at the same time equally advance the progress of moral philosophy.

CHAP. X.

CHAPTER X.

PART I. WE have now determined the question, concerning the authority of sensible phænomena, for deciding the mode of first formations in the mineral kingdom of matter, by applying the same question to the animal and vegetable kingdoms; and sound philosophy clearly perceives, that their authority is precisely the same in all the three; and that the mineral geology can advance no one plea in objection, which might not have been equally advanced, and with equal futility, by anatomy and natural history. It therefore concludes of the "skeleton, or frame-work of this globe," the "magnæ ossa parentis," as of the skeleton of created man: That it was not produced by any secondary cause, but by the immediate act of the First, Intelligent, Omnipotent Cause; and that it is unphilosophical, to seek any other origin for its form and composition, or to pretend, that these might have arisen out of a chaos, chaotic ocean, or confused assemblage of elements, by the mere laws of Nature. And thus, the whole order of first mineral formations, or simple primitive rocks and earths, together with all their strata and all their varieties, are withdrawn from the specula

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tions of the mineral geology, respecting the mode PART I. of their production; so that it may only exercise those speculations, philosophically, upon that remaining order of minerals, which, by bearing incontestable evidence of alteration, either by decomposition, recomposition, or mechanical action, prove themselves to be distinct in circumstance from the former.

To what cause, then, it will exclaim, are we to ascribe the regular successive strata in the first mineral formations, previous to the disturbance of which they bear the evidence? I ask, in reply: To what cause are we to ascribe the regular successive lamina in the shell of the first tortoise; or the regular successive folds in the wood of the first tree; or the regular successive compartments in the pulp of the first orange? The final cause, in each, was the end to which it was to serve; the efficient cause, was the intelligent power which sought those ends; to whom, all created magnitudes are equal.

To what cause, it will again exclaim, are we to ascribe the characteristic diversities of granite, porphyry, serpentine, &c.? I again reply, by asking: To what cause are we to ascribe the diversity, of the ivory of the first elephant, and the horn of the first elk; of the wool of the first sheep, and the fur of the first ermine? Those

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PART I. were first formations, then, as the granite, the porphyry, and the serpentine, continue to be first formations, now. To what cause are we to ascribe the diversity, of spots in the first formed panther, of stripes in the first formed tiger, and of a plain hide in the first formed lion? To what are we to ascribe the differing textures, of bone, cartilage, and muscle, in the created animal? We may as well ascribe all these to differences of secretion and accretion, which never took place, as the diversity of primitive rocks to differences of precipitation and crystallization, which never took place. Of true first formations, the cause of the being and of the diversity must be the same. Are not use, beauty, and variety, manifest ends in this creation? and, if they are so in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, why are they not to be the same in the mineral? And, as the Creator at first planted the earth with every tree, not only "good for food," but also " pleasant to "the sight"-that is, the sight of man; as He adorned it with the gaiety of flowers, and enlivened it, not only with melody of sounds, but likewise with variety and splendour of colours; so He provided its interior with mineral substances both of use and beauty, to be afterwards drawn forth to light by the activity and industry of man; imbedding within it His treasuries of ores and gems, and causing to

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arise from its surface the useful and beautiful PART I. varieties which are found among His primitive mineral formations. The philosophy of Bacon and Newton, will never consent to derive these from an elemental chaos.

I know, that the mineral geology wishes to establish a distinction between the mineral, and the other two kingdoms; and that it claims a sort of scientific property in the former, to which it does not lay equal pretension in the latter; but, as the distinction it intends is unreal, so its claim can never be realized. 'Man," it says, "who has weighed the planets, " and measured their distances, may presume "to trace the operations by which the surface

of the globe has been arranged1." What true analogy can be found between the two cases, or what possible consequence can flow from the one to the other? What just comparison can be made, between the measurement of present objects of sense, and the recovery of past facts of history? Because we can apply rules of arithmetic or mathematics to present objects, we are not therefore capacitated to recal past events. In the former case, we carry the evidence of the truth along with us; in the latter,

See above, p. 15.