ould also incline to believe that this is truly the case;
but, though we may acknowledge the growth of land upon the coast of
Holland, we must deny that a stable country can be formed in the bed of
the sea by such means. For, however increasing may be the sand in the
German sea, and however great additions may be made of habitable country
to the coast of Holland, yet, as the islands of Great Britain and
Ireland are worn by attrition on the shores, and are wasted by being
washed away into the ocean, the causes for the accumulation of sand in
the German sea must cease in time, when, in this progress of things, the
sand banks, on which depends the existence of Holland, must diminish,
and at last be swept away, in leaving the solid coast of Germany to be
again buffeted by the waves, as is at present the coasts of Ireland,
France, and Spain.

This reasoning is, indeed, very far removed from that which is commonly
employed for the purpose of conducting human operations, or establishing
the political system of a nation; it is not, however, the less
interesting to man, in that it cannot direct him immediately in his
worldly affairs; and it is the only way of reasoning that can be
employed in order to enlighten man with a view of those operations which
are not to be limited in time, and which are to be concluded as in the
system of nature, a system which man contemplates with much pleasure,
and studies with much profit.

Thus we have shown, that, from the top of the mountain to the shore of
the sea, which are the two extremities of our land, every thing is in
a state of change; the rock and solid strath dissolving, breaking, and
decomposing, for the purpose of becoming soil; the soil travelling along
the surface of the earth, in its way to the shore; and the shore wearing
and wasting by the agitation of the sea, an agitation which is essential
to the purposes of a living world. Without those operations, which wear
and waste the coast, there would not be wind and rain; and, without
those operations which wear and waste the solid land, the surface of the
earth would become sterile. But showers of rain and fertile soil are
necessarily required in the system of this world; consequently, the
dissolution of the rocks, and solid strata of the earth, and the
gradual, flow, but sure destruction of the present land, are operations
necessary in the system of this world; so far from being evils, they are
wisely calculated, in the system of