s. But has the earth already
undergone so great changes, and is it not yet arrived at the period
of its perfection? How can a philosopher, who is so much employed
in contemplating the beauty of nature, the wisdom and goodness of
Providence, allow himself to entertain such mean ideas of the system as
to suppose, that, in the indefinite succession of time past, there has
not been perfection in the works of nature? Every material being exists
in motion, every immaterial being in action and in passion; rest exists
not any where; nor is it found in any other way, except among the parts
of space. Surely it is contrary to every species of philosophy, whether
ancient or modern, to found a system on the inutility of repose, or
place perfection in the vacuity of rest, when every thing that truly
exists, exists in motion; when every real information which we have is
derived from a change; and when every excess in nature is compensated,
not by rest, but by alternation.

M. de Luc allows the rivers to carry matter always to the sea; but
then, at a certain period, this matter carried by the floods is to be
compensated to the mountains by the vegetable earth received from the
air and rains. Here is a proposition which should be well considered,
before it be admitted as a principle, which shall establish the
perpetuity of these mountains, if it be true; or, if false, assure us of
their future demolition. Let us now examine it.

If from air and rain there is produced earth which cannot afterwards be
resolved by the operation of those elements, and thus again dissolved
in the air and water of the land, then this author might have had some
pretext, however insufficient, for alledging that it might be possible
to compensate the loss of mineral substances, carried off the surface of
the earth, by the production of this vegetable matter from the air and
rain; but, when there is not sufficient reason to conclude that any
substance, produced in vegetation, can resist the continued influences
of the air and water, without being decomposed in its principles, and at
last entirely dissolved in water, the cautious argument here employed by
this author, for the permanency of mountains, must appear as groundless
in its principle as it would be insufficient for his purpose, were it to
be admitted; but this will require some discussion.

That which preserves vegetable bodies so long from dissolution in water,
is what may be called the inflammable or