o far as there is a certain
quantity of these actually found unconsumed in the strata of the earth.
Our author's conclusion is the very opposite; let us then see how he
is to form his argument, by which he proves that the supposition of
subterraneous heat for hardening bodies is gratuitous and unnecessary,
as being inconsistent with my theory.

According to my theory, the strata of this earth are composed of the
materials which came from a former earth; particularly these combustible
strata that contain plants which must have grown upon the land. Let
us then suppose the subterraneous fire supplied with its combustible
materials from this source, the vegetable bodies growing upon the
surface of the land. Here is a source provided for the supplying of
mineral fire, a source which is inexhaustible or unlimited, unless
we are to circumscribe it with regard to time, and the necessary
ingredients; such as the matter of light, carbonic matter, and the
hydrogenous principle. But it is not upon any deficiency of this kind
that our author founds his estimate; it is upon the superfluity of
combustible materials which is actually found in this earth, after it
had been properly consolidated and raised above the surface of the sea.
This is a method of reasoning calculated to convince only those who do
not understand it; it is as if we should conclude that a person had died
of want, because he had left provision behind him. Our author certainly
means to employ nothing but the combustible minerals of the present
earth, in feeding the subterraneous fire which is to concoct a future
earth; in that case, I will allow that his provision is deficient; but
this is not my theory.

I am not here to enter into any argument concerning subterraneous
fire; the reader will find, in the foregoing theory, my reasons for
concluding, That subterraneous fire had existed previous to, and ever
since, the formation of this earth,--that it exists in all its vigour
at this day,--that there is, in the constitution of this earth, a
superfluity of subterranean heat,--and that there is wisely provided a
proper remedy against any destructive effect to the system, that might
arise from that superabundant provision of this necessary agent. Had our
author attended to the ocular proof that we have of the actual existence
of subterraneous fire, and to the physical demonstrations which I have
given of the effects of heat in melting mineral bodies, he must have
seen t