ch has already
happened, or that natural history by which we are to learn the system of
this world. The object which I have in view, is to show, first, that
the natural operations of the earth, continued in a sufficient space of
time, would be adequate to the effects which we observe; and, secondly,
that it is necessary, in the system of this world, that these wasting
operations of the land should be extremely slow. In that case, those
different opinions would be reconciled in one which would explain, at
the same time, the apparent permanency of this surface on which we
dwell, and the great changes that appear to have been already made.

Now if, in the indefinite course of time, (which we cannot refuse to
nature, and which is only to be traced in those effects), the chymical
and mechanical operations of the surface are capable of diminishing the
mass of land above the level of the sea, (of which fact the appearances
here so well described by M. Reboul, and those which are every where
else to be observed, leave no room to doubt); and, if the wise system,
of a world sustaining plants and animals, requires the long continuance
of a continent above the surface of the sea, What reason have we to look
out for any other causes, besides those which naturally arise from that
constitution of things? And, Why refuse to see, in this constitution of
things, that wisdom of contrivance, that bountiful provision, which
is so evident, whether we look up into the great expanse of boundless
space, where luminous bodies without number are placed, and where, in
all probability, still more numerous bodies are perpetually moving and
illuminated for some great end; or whether we turn our prospect towards
ourselves, and see the exquisite mechanism and active powers of things,
growing from a state apparently of non-existence, decaying from their
state of natural perfection, and renovating their existence in a
succession of similar beings to which we see no end.

We have been comparing similar operations of nature in different
countries; but at present we have something farther in our view than to
compare the distant regions of the earth. We want to see if it be the
same system that is observed in the higher regions of the globe as in
the lower. We shall thus have investigated the subject as far as we can
go.

The high region of the Andes and Cordeliers affords an opportunity of
deciding that question. It is there that we find a habitable count