nsported from place to place in the mineral regions. But
it is in this preliminary step that lies all the difficulty; for, could
we see how every different substance might be dissolved, and every
dissolved substance separated from its solvent at our pleasure, we
should find no difficulty in admitting the cohesion of hard bodies,
whether by means of this doctrine of polished surfaces, or by the
principle of general attraction, a principle which surely comprehends
this particular, termed a cohesive power.

It must not be alleged, that seeing we know not how water dissolves
saline bodies, therefore, this fluid, for any thing that we know, may
also dissolve crystal; and, if water thus dissolves a mineral substance
in a manner unknown to us, it may in like manner deposit it, although
we may not be able to imagine how. This kind of reasoning is only
calculated to keep us in ignorance; at the same time, the reasoning of
philosophers, concerning petrifaction, does not in general appear to be
founded on any principle that is more sound. That water dissolves salt
is a fact. That water dissolves crystal is not a fact; therefore, those
two propositions, with regard to the power of water, are infinitely
removed, and cannot be assimilated in sound physical reasoning. It is
no more a truth that water is able to dissolve salt, than that we never
have been able to detect the smallest disposition in water to dissolve
crystal, flint, quartz, or metals. Therefore, to allege the possibility
of water being capable of dissolving those bodies in the mineral
regions, and of thus changing the substance of one body into another, as
naturalists have supposed, contrary to their knowledge, or in order to
explain appearances, is so far from tending to increase our science,
that it is abandoning the human intellect to be bewildered in an error;
it is the vain attempt of lulling to sleep the scientific conscience,
and making the soul of man insensible to the natural distress of
conscious ignorance.

But besides that negative argument concerning the insolubility of
crystal, by which the erroneous suppositions of naturalists are to
be rejected, crystal in general is found regularly concreted in the
cavities of the most solid rock, in the heart of the closest agate, and
in the midst of granite mountains. But these masses of granite were
formed by fusion; I hope that I shall give the most satisfactory proof
of that truth: Consequently, here at least there