of life and sense, of reason and intellect, are necessarily maintained.  If again we shall admit, that there is intention in the cause by which the present earth had been removed from the bottom of the sea, we may then inquire into the nature of that system in which a habitable earth, possessed of beauty, arranged in order, and preserved with economy, had been formed by the mixture and combination of the different elements, and made to rise out of the wreck of a former world.

In examining the structure of our earth, we find it no less evidently formed of loose and incoherent materials, than that those materials had been collected from different parts, and gathered together at the bottom of the sea.  Consequently, if this continent of land, first collected in the sea, and then raised above its surface, is to remain a habitable earth, and to resist the moving waters of the globe, certain degrees of solidity or consolidation must be given to that collection of loose materials; and certain degrees of hardness must be given to bodies which were soft or incoherent, and consequently so extremely perishable in the situation where they now are placed.

But, at the same time that this earth must have solidity and hardness to resist the sudden changes which its moving fluids would occasion, it must be made subject to decay and, waste upon the surface exposed to the atmosphere; for, such an earth as were made incapable of change, or not subject to decay, could not afford that fertile soil which is required in the system of this world, a soil on which depends the growth of plants and life of animals,—­the end of its intention.

Now, we find this earth endued precisely with that degree of hardness and consolidation, as qualifies it at the same time to be a fruitful earth, and to maintain its station with all the permanency compatible with the nature of things, which are not formed to remain unchangeable.

Thus we have a view of the most perfect wisdom, in the contrivance of that constitution by which the earth is made to answer, in the best manner possible, the purpose of its intention, that is, to maintain and perpetuate a system of vegetation, or the various race of useful plants, and a system of living animals, which are in their turn subservient to a system still infinitely more important, I mean, a system of intellect.  Without fertility in the earth, many races of plants and animals would soon perish, or be extinct; and, without permanency in our land, it were impossible for the various tribes of plants and animals to be dispersed over all the surface of a changing earth.  The fact is, that fertility, adequate to the various ends in view, is found in all the quarters of the world, or in every country of the earth; and, the permanency of our land is such, as to make it appear unalterable to mankind in general, and even to impose upon men of science, who have endeavoured to persuade us that this earth is not to change.  Nothing but supreme power and wisdom could have reconciled those two opposite ends of intention, so as both to be equally pursued in the system of nature, and both so equally attained as to be imperceptible to common observation, and at the same time a proper object for the human understanding.