‘Theory of the Earth. Part IT*

CHAP. VIII.

The present Form of the Surface of the Earthexplained, •with a View of the Operation ofTime upon our Land.

I T is not to common observation that it be-longs to fee the effects of time, and theoperation of physical causes, in what is to beperceived upon the surface of this earth ; theJhepherd thinks the mountain, on which hefeeds his flock, to have been always there, orJince the beginning of things ; the inhabitantof the valley cultivates the foil as his fatherhad done, and thinks that this foil is coeval■with the valley or the mountain. But theanan of scientific observation, who looks intothe chain of physical events connected withthe present state of things, fees great changesthat have been made, and foresees a differentstate that must follow in time, from the con-tinued operation of that which actually is innature. '