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Kirch er inmuncL subset.

A Philosophical Discourse

of Earth; and lastly, how we may best improve it to the Uses of theHusbandman, the Forester, and the Gardiner ; which is indeed o*large and profitable Extent, though it be but poor and mean in found)compar’d to Mines of Gold and Silver, and other rich Ores v'hichlikewise are the Treasures of the Earth, but less innocent and useful-I intend not here to amuse this noble Audience, or my self, vatlthose nice Enquiries, concerning what the real Form of that Body ° rSubstance is, which we call Earth , denudated and stripp’d of allrogenity, and reduced to its Principles: As whether it be compossandy , central , nitrous , or other Salts, Atoms, and Particles?ther void of all Qualities but Dryness, and the like, ( as they common,ly enter into the several Definitions of Philosophers,) nor of what rgure and Contexture it confists, which causes it to adhere and combine t^gether, so as to affirm any thing dogmatically thereupon; much &shall I contend, whether it be a Planet moving about the Sun, orfix'd in the Centre of the Universes all which have been the curio* 3researches and yelitations of our later Theorists : but content mywith that Body or Mass of Glebe , which we Both dwell on, and evwday cultivate for our-necessary subsistence, as It affords us Corn. * fe s cPlants , and other Vegetables of all lorts, useful for human life, ° r1:innocent refreshments of it. , r

Those who have written de Arte Combinatoria, reckon up n o y'than One hundred seventy nine millions one thousand and sixtyrent sorts of Earths; but of all tfijs enormous number, as of all otgood things, it seems they do not acquaint us, with above eight ot n ^eminently useful to our purpose; and truly I can hardly yet arriV e ^ <jmany. Such as I find naturally and usually to tile from the Pit, Ihere lpread before you in their order. oil i r- ul >

The most beneficial fort of Mould or Earth, Appearing on th e ^face ( for we shall not at present penetrate lower than is necessaryplanking and propagation of Vegetables) as it consists of a mix*o $is the natural (as I beg leave to call it) underturf-Earth, and th ewhich commonly succeeds it, in strata, or layers, still we arrive *° a jC ,barren and impenetrable Rock, be it fat or lean, Loam, Clay ,Figuline, or Smeftic ; as Chalk, Marie , Fullers-Earth, .f^eGravelly , Stony, Rock , Shelly, Coal, or Mineral ; such asAntients were the Creta, Argilla, $meEiica , lophacea , pulla* jpRufa. Calumbina , Macra, Cariojd , Rubrica, (I name themcuousty ) to be found in the old Geoponic Authors, to whom I re eCritical. , aJl0 -

Most, or all, of these lying ( as I affirnfd ) in Beds, one upther, from softer to harder, better to worse, usually determine i n ,',iGravel , Stone , Rock, ox Shell, which last we frequently meCt ^' jpgfrMarsh, and Fenny Delves, and sometimes even at the foot , ^ ofMountains , and sometimes on the very Tops, after divers fu#^

dSXfiS and , at th l borwmof theprosoundest Pits, *>Stlit-Alrl An " 8 ?-1 Am p r4am - in order to the building ° l ^several rÆ, Ch > “ d of thc Cause of the Successions

6loke (after all ^ c - sodded, thro’ the whole 1 er ' c j! t ,

tri butes ^ to. ,1 “°njectures hitherto) the Ingenious Dr. Woo4w>s‘Original Fahr,’ of the Materials which constituted

of the Water« k -°^ Antediluvian fVorld ; when the comnmegmnmg to calm and relax, the disunited floating