h then would fall of itself as
having no foundation.

But in order to see this author's notion of the theory which he is here
examining, it may be proper to give a specimen of his reasoning upon
this subject of heat. He says, "That my supposition of heat necessary
for consolidating strata is _gratuitous_, not only because it is
unnecessary, as we have already shown, but also because it is
inconsistent with our author's own theory." Let us now consider those
two propositions. _First_, it is unnecessary, _as we have already
shown_;--I have already taken particular notice of what we have been
shown on this occasion, viz. That the earth at a certain depth _may
have been originally in a solid state_; and, that, where it is to be
consolidated, this is done by the _mutual attraction of the stony
particles_. Here is all that we have been shown to make subterraneous
heat, for the consolidation of strata, unnecessary; and now I humbly
submit, if this is sufficient evidence, that mineral heat is a
gratuitous supposition.

Secondly, "_it is inconsistent with our author's own theory._" Here
I would beg the readers attention to the reasoning employed on
this occasion. He says, "according to him these strata, which were
consolidated by heat, were composed of materials gradually worn from a
preceding continent, casually and successively deposited in the sea;
Where then will he find, and how will he suppose, to have been formed
those enormous masses of sulphur, coal, or bitumen, necessary to produce
that immense heat necessary for the fusion of those vast mountains of
stone now existing? All the coal, sulphur, and bitumen, now known, does
not form the 100,000 part of the materials deposited within one quarter
of a mile under the surface of the earth; if, therefore, they were, as
his hypothesis demands, carried off and mixed with the other materials,
and not formed in vast and separate collections, they could never
occasion, by their combustion, a heat capable of producing the smallest
effect, much less those gigantic effects which he requires."

Here is a comparative estimate formed between two things which have not
any necessary relation; these are, the quantity of combustible materials
found in the earth, on the one hand, and the quantity which is supposed
necessary for hardening and consolidating strata, on the other. If this
earth has been consolidated by the burning of combustible materials,
there must have been a superfluity, s