the conditions of the action not changed, then,
the inductive reasoning, which they employ in that comparison, would be
just; but, so far as it is evidently otherwise, to have employed that
inductive conclusion for the explanation of mineral appearances, without
having reason to believe that those changed circumstances of the case
should not make any difference in the action or effect, is plainly to
have transgressed the rules of scientific reasoning; consequently,
instead of being a proper physical conclusion, it is only that imperfect
reasoning of the vulgar which, by comparing things not properly analysed
or distinguished, is so subject to be erroneous. This vague reasoning,
therefore, cannot be admitted as a part of any geological or mineral
theory. Now I here maintain, that philosophers have judged in no other
manner than by this false analogy, when they conclude that water is the
agent by which mineral concretions have been formed. But it will be
proper to state more particularly the case of that misunderstanding
among mineral philosophers.

In forming a geological theory, the general construction of this earth,
and the materials of which it is composed, are such visible objects, and
so evident to those who will take the pains to examine nature, that
here is a subject in which there cannot be any doubt or difference of
opinion. Neither can there be any dispute concerning the place and
situation of mass when it was first formed or composed; for, this is
clearly proved, from every concomitant circumstance, to have been at the
bottom of the sea. The only question in this case, that can be made, is,
How that mass comes now to be a solid body, and above the surface of the
sea in which it had been formed?

With regard to the last, the opinions of philosophers have been so
dissonant, so vague, and so unreasonable, as to draw to no conclusion.
Some suppose the land to be discovered by the gradual retreat of the
ocean, without proposing to explain to us from whence had come the known
materials of a former earth, which compose the highest summits of the
mountains in the highest continents of the earth. Others suppose the
whole of a former earth to have subsided below the bottom even of the
present sea, and together with it all the water of the former sea, from
above the summits of the present mountains, which had then been at the
bottom of the former sea. The placing of the bottom of the sea, or any
part of it, in the atmo