d; and if, for the purpose of vegetation, the
solid land must be resolved into soil by the dissolution and separation
of its parts, as is required in the theory, the strata, instead of being
entire immediately below the soil, should be found in a mutilated state;
the ends of hard and solid beds should present their fractures or abrupt
sections immediately under the confused materials with which they
are covered; and the softer strata should appear to suffer gradual
resolution and decay, by which may be perceived their transition into
soil, the most important part of all the operations of the globe which
do not immediately concern our life.

These are facts which every person of observation has it in his power to
verify; they are facts for which nothing further can be laid than that
the thing is truly so; and they are facts from which the most important
arguments might be formed, were any doubt to be entertained concerning
the justness of the theory which has now been given.

The theory consists in this, that it is necessary to have a habitable
country situated in the atmosphere, or above the surface of the sea.

It is difficult to say precisely what constitutes a habitable country. A
resting place out of the water suffices for such amphibious animals as,
while they necessarily live in the atmosphere, feed in the sea. Man,
more versatile in his nature than most animals, and more capable of
adapting his manners to his circumstances, is even sometimes found
subsisting in situations where the land affords him little more than
it does the seal on which he feeds. The growth of terrestrial plants,
however, seems necessary to the idea of a habitable country; and, for
the growth of plants, there is required soil: Now, this is only to be
procured by the resolution or decay of solid land.

We are not to consider the resolution of our land as being the effect
of accident, while it is performed by the operations of the sun and
atmosphere, by the alternate action of moisture and of drought, and by
the casual operations of a river in a flood. Nothing is more steady than
the resolution of our land; nothing rests upon more certain principles;
and there is nothing which in science may be more easily investigated.

Calcareous, argillaceous, and other soluble earths, compose many of
the strata; but in many more, which are partly or chiefly composed
of insoluble substances, those soluble earths are mixed in various
proportions. Now, whe