or extent. They may change, and gradually assume the nature of
each other, so far as concerns the materials of which they are formed;
but there cannot be any sudden change, fracture, or displacement,
naturally in the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are cemented by
the heat of fusion, and erected with an expansive power acting below,
we may expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and
contortion, in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a
horizontal towards a vertical position.

The strata of the globe are actually found in every possible position:
For, from horizontal, they are frequently found vertical; from
continuous, they are broken and separated in every possible direction;
and, from a plane, they are bent and doubled. It is impossible that they
could have originally been formed, by the known laws of nature, in their
present state and position; and the power that has been necessarily
required for their change, has not been inferior to that which might
have been required for their elevation from the place in which they had
been formed.

In this cafe, natural appearances are not anomalous. They are, indeed,
infinitely various, as they ought to be, according to the rule; but all
those varieties in appearances conspire to prove one general truth, viz.
That all which we see had been originally composed according to certain
principles, established in the constitution of the terraqueous globe;
and that those regular compositions had been afterwards greatly changed
by the operations of another power, which had introduced apparent
confusion among things first formed in order and by rule.

It is concerning the operation of this second power that we are now
inquiring; and here the apparent irregularity and disorder of the
mineral regions are as instructive, with regard to what had been
transacted in a former period of time, as the order and regularity of
those same regions are conclusive, in relation to the place in which a
former state of things had produced that which, in its changed state, we
now perceive.

We are now to conclude, that the land on which we dwell had been
elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which had been
employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and
preparing them for the purpose of the living world. This agent is matter
actuated by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing force.

If this has been the case, it will be reasonable to ex