it might be concluded, whether or not the
present state of their consolidation has been actually brought about by
means of that agent.

If water had been the menstruum by which the consolidating matter was
introduced into the interstices of strata, masses of those bodies could
only be found consolidated with such substances as water is capable of
dissolving; and these substances would be found only in such a state as
the simple separation of the solvent water might produce.

In this case, the consolidation of strata would be extremely limited;
for we cannot allow more power to water than we find it has in nature;
nor are we to imagine to ourselves unlimited powers in bodies, on
purpose to explain those appearances by which we should be made to know
the powers of nature. Let us, therefore, attend, with every possible
circumspection, to the appearances of those bodies, by means of which we
are to investigate the principles of mineralogy, and know the laws of
nature.

The question now before us concerns the consolidating substances of
strata. Are these such as will correspond to the dissolving power of
water, and to the state in which these substances might be left by the
separation of their menstruum? No; far, far from this supposition is the
conclusion that necessarily follows from natural appearances.

We have strata consolidated by calcareous spar, a thing perfectly
distinguishable from the stalactical concretion of calcareous earth,
in consequence of aqueous solution. We have strata made solid by the
formation of fluor, a substance not soluble, so far as we know, by
water. We have strata consolidated with sulphureous and bituminous
substances, which do not correspond to the solution of water. We have
strata consolidated with siliceous matter, in a state different from
that under which it has been observed, on certain occasions, to be
deposited by water. We have strata consolidated by feld-spar, a
substance insoluble in water. We have strata consolidated by almost all
the various metallic substances, with their almost endless mixtures
and sulphureous compositions; that is to say, we find, perhaps, every
different substance introduced into the interstices of strata which had
been formed by subsidence at the bottom of the sea.

If it is by means of water that those interstices have been filled with
those materials, water must be, like fire, an universal solvent, or
cause of fluidity, and we must change entirely our