quiry farther on the
subject, and thus to lead us back into the science of darkness and of
scepticism. But let us proceed to see our author's sentiments on this
subject.

As I had proved from matter of fact, or the actual appearances of
nature, that all the strata of the earth had been formed at the bottom
of the sea, by the subsidence of those materials which either come from
the decaying land, or are formed in the sea itself, it was necessary
that I should consider in what manner those spongy or porous bodies of
loose materials, gathered together at the bottom of the sea, could have
acquired that consolidated state in which we find them, now that they
are brought up to our examination. Upon this occasion, our author says,
"The particles which now form the solid parts of the globe need not be
supposed to have originally been either spongy or porous, the interior
parts at the depth of a few miles might have been originally, as at
present, a solid mass." If, indeed, we shall make that supposition, we
may then save ourselves the trouble of considering either how the strata
of the earth have been formed or consolidated; for, they might have been
so originally. But, how can a naturalist who had ever seen a piece of
Derbyshire marble, or any other shell limestone, make that supposition?
Here are, to the satisfaction of every body of common understanding who
looks at them, bodies which are perfectly consolidated, bodies which
have evidently been formed at the bottom of the sea, and therefore which
were not originally a solid mass. Mr Bertrand, it is true, wrote a book
to prove that those appearances were nothing but a _lusus naturae_; and,
I suppose he meant, with our author, that those strata had been also
originally, as at present, a solid mass.

With regard to the consolidation of strata, that cardinal point for
discussion, our author gives the following answer: "Abstracting from his
own gratuitous hypothesis, it is very easy to satisfy our author on this
head; the concreting and consolidating power in most cases arises from
the mutual attraction of the component particles of stones to each
other." This is an answer with regard to the _concreting power_, a
subject about which we certainly are not here inquiring. Our author,
indeed, has mentioned a _consolidating power_; but that is an improper
expression; we are here inquiring, How the interstices, between the
collected materials of strata, deposited at the bottom of the