Such various inconsistent opinions, respecting petrifaction or mineral concretion, as I have now exposed, opinions that are not founded on any sound physical principle, authorise me to conclude that they are all erroneous.  If this be admitted, it will follow that we have no proof of any proper mineral concretion except that which had proceeded by congelation from the fluid state of fusion.  This has been the doctrine which I have held out in my Theory of the Earth; and this will be more and more confirmed as we come to examine particular mineral appearances.

CHAP.  VIII.

The Nature of Mineral Coal, and the Formation of Bituminous Strata, investigated.

SECT.  I.—­Purpose of this Inquiry.

In the first chapter, I have given a perfect mark by which to judge, of every consolidated stratum, how far that had been the operation or effect of water alone, or if it had been that of heat and fusion.  This is the particular veins or divisions of the consolidated stratum, arising from the contraction of the mass, distended by heat, and contracted in cooling.  It is not an argument of greater or lesser probability; it is a physical demonstration; but, so far as I see, it would appear to be for most mineralists an unintelligible proposition.  Time, however, will open the eyes of men; science will some day find admittance into the cabinet of the curious.  I will therefore now give another proof,—­not of the consolidation of mineral bodies by means of fusion, for there is no mineral body in which that proof is not found,—­but of the inconsistency of aqueous infiltration with the appearances of bodies, where not only fusion had been employed for the consolidation, but where the application of heat is necessary, and along with it the circumstances proper for distillation.

Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water issuing from the earth, one forming calcareous incrustations, the other depositing bituminous substances.  Here is enough for them to make the theory of a world; on the one hand, solid marble is explained, on the other, solid coal.  Ignorance suspects not error; their first step is to reason upon a false principle;—­no matter, were they only to reason far enough, they would soon find their error by the absurdity into which it lands them.  The misfortune is, they reason no farther; they have explained mineralogy by infiltration; and they content themselves with viewing the beautiful specimens in their cabinet, the supposed product of solution and crystalization.  How shall we inform such observators; How reason with those who attend not to an argument!