larity of
the system be weakened?--would he cease to assume that there was
permanency in the laws of nature?--would he no longer be guided in his
speculations by the strictest rules of induction? To these questions it
may be answered, that, had he previously presumed to dogmatize
respecting the absolute uniformity of the order of nature, he would
undoubtedly be checked by witnessing this new and unexpected event, and
would form a more just estimate of the limited range of his own
knowledge, and the unbounded extent of the scheme of the universe. But
he would soon perceive that no one of the fixed and constant laws of the
animate or inanimate world was subverted by human agency, and that the
modifications now introduced for the first time were the accompaniments
of new and extraordinary circumstances, and those not of a _physical_
but a _moral_ nature. The deviation permitted would also appear to be as
slight as was consistent with the accomplishment of the new _moral_ ends
proposed, and to be in a great degree temporary in its nature, so that,
whenever the power of the new agent was withheld, even for a brief
period, a relapse would take place to the ancient state of things; the
domesticated animal, for example, recovering in a few generations its
wild instinct, and the garden-flower and fruit-tree reverting to the
likeness of the parent stock.

Now, if it would be reasonable to draw such inferences with respect to
the future, we cannot but apply the same rules of induction to the
past. We have no right to anticipate any modifications in the results of
existing causes in time to come, which are not conformable to analogy,
unless they be produced by the progressive development of human power,
or perhaps by some other new relations which may hereafter spring up
between the moral and material worlds. In the same manner, when we
speculate on the vicissitudes of the animate and inanimate creation in
former ages, we ought not to look for any anomalous results, unless
where man has interfered, or unless clear indications appear of some
other _moral_ source of temporary derangement.

CHAPTER X.

SUPPOSED INTENSITY OF AQUEOUS FORCES AT REMOTE PERIODS.

Intensity of aqueous causes--Slow accumulation of strata proved by
fossils--Rate of denudation can only keep pace with
deposition--Erratics, and effects of ice--Deluges, and the causes to
which they are referred--Supposed universality of ancient deposits.