I have minutely examined all the stratified bodies which I have been able, during a lifetime, to procure, both in this country of Britain, and from all the quarters of the globe; and the result of my inquiry has been to conclude, that there is nothing among them in an original state, as the reader will see in the preceding chapter.  With regard again to the masses which are not stratified, I have also given proof that they are not in their original state, such as granite, porphyry, serpentine, and basaltes; and I shall give farther satisfaction, I hope, upon that head, in the course of this work.  I have therefore concluded, That there is nothing to be found in an original state, so far as we see, in the construction of this earth.  But, our author answers, That the interior parts might have been in an original state of solidity.—­So might they have been upon the surface of the earth, or on the summits of our mountains; but, we are not inquiring What they might have been, but What they truly are.  It is from this actual state in which the solid parts of the earth are found, that I have endeavoured to trace back the different states in which they must have been; and, by generalising facts, I have formed a theory of the earth.  If this be a wrong principle or manner of proceeding in a physical investigation, or if, proceeding upon that principle, I have made the induction by reasoning improperly on any occasion, let this be corrected by philosophers, who may reason more accurately upon the subject.  But to oppose a physical investigation with this proposition, that things might have been otherwise, is to proceed upon a very different principle,—­a principle which, instead of tending to bring light out of darkness, is only calculated to extinguish that light which we may have acquired.

I shall afterwards have occasion to examine how far the philosophers, who attribute to aqueous solution the origin of stony substances, have proceeded in the same inductive manner of reasoning from effect to cause, as they ought to do in physical subjects, and not by feigning causes, or following a false analogy; in the mean time, I am to answer the objections which have been made to the theory of the earth.

In opposition to the theory of consolidating bodies by fusion, our author has taken great pains to show, that I cannot provide materials for such a fire as would be necessary, nor find the means to make it burn had I those materials.  Had our author read attentively my theory he would have observed, that I give myself little or no trouble about that fire, or take no charge with regard to the procuring of that power, as I have not founded my theory on the supposition of subterraneous fire, however that fire properly follows as a conclusion from those appearances on which the theory is founded.  My theory is founded upon the general appearances of mineral bodies, and upon this, that mineral bodies must necessarily have