of the globe, in the economy of life and vegetation.

"The immense time necessarily required for the total destruction of
the land must not be opposed to that view of future events which is
indicated by the surest facts and most approved principles. Time, which
measures everything in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes,
is to nature endless and as nothing; it cannot limit that by which alone
it has existence; and as the natural course of time, which to us seems
infinite, cannot be bounded by any operation that may have an end, the
progress of things upon this globe that in the course of nature cannot
be limited by time must proceed in a continual succession. We are,
therefore, to consider as inevitable the destruction of our land, so far
as effected by those operations which are necessary in the purpose of
the globe, considered as a habitable world, and so far as we have
not examined any other part of the economy of nature, in which other
operations and a different intention might appear.

"We have now considered the globe of this earth as a machine,
constructed upon chemical as well as mechanical principles, by which its
different parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, and quantity, to a
certain end--an end attained with certainty of success, and an end from
which we may perceive wisdom in contemplating the means employed.

"But is this world to be considered thus merely as a machine, to last no
longer than its parts retain their present position, their proper forms
and qualities? Or may it not be also considered as an organized body
such as has a constitution, in which the necessary decay of the machine
is naturally repaired in the exertion of those productive powers by
which it has been formed?

"This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe; to see if
there be, in the constitution of the world, a reproductive operation
by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired and a duration of
stability thus procured to the machine considered as a world containing
plants and animals.

"If no such reproductive power, or reforming operation, after due
inquiry, is to be found in the constitution of this world, we should
have reason to conclude that the system of this earth has either been
intentionally made imperfect or has not been the work of infinite power
and wisdom."(1)

This, then, was the important question to be answered--the question of
the constitution of the globe. To accompli