employed
in the consolidation of our earth, and in the erection of that
consolidated body into the place of land. The prejudices of mankind, who
cannot see the steps by which we come at this conclusion, are against
the doctrine; but, prejudice must give way to evidence. No other Theory
will in any degree explain appearances, while almost every appearance is
easily explained by this Theory.

We do not dispute the chymical action and efficacy of water, or any
other substance which is found among the materials collected at the
bottom of the sea; we only mean to affirm, that every action of this
kind is incapable of producing perfect solidity in the body of earth
in that situation of things, whatever time should be allowed for that
operation, and that whatever may have been the operations of water,
aided by fire, and evaporated by heat, the various appearances of
mineralization, (every where presented to us in the solid earth, and the
most perfect objects of examination), are plainly inexplicable upon the
principle of aqueous solution. On the other hand, the operation of
heat, melting incoherent bodies, and introducing softness into rigid
substances which are to be united, is not only a cause which is proper
to explain the effects in question, but also appears, from a multitude
of different circumstances, to have been actually exerted among the
consolidated bodies of our earth, and in the mineral veins with which
the solid bodies of the earth abound.

The doctrine, therefore, of our Theory is briefly this, That, whatever
may have been the operation of dissolving water, and the chymical action
of it upon the materials accumulated at the bottom of the sea, the
general solidity of that mass of earth, and the placing of it in
the atmosphere above the surface of the sea, has been the immediate
operation of fire or heat melting and expanding bodies. Here is a
proposition which may be tried, in applying it to all the phenomena of
the mineral region; so far as I have seen, it is perfectly verified in
that application.

We have another proposition in our Theory; one which is still more
interesting to consider. It is this, That as, in the mineral regions,
the loose or incoherent materials of our land had been consolidated by
the action of heat; so, upon the surface of this earth exposed to the
fluid elements of air and water, there is a necessary principle of
dissolution and decay, for that consolidated earth which from the
miner