Our land is wasted by the sea; and there is also a natural progress to be observed which necessarily takes place on this occasion; for, the coast is found variously indented, that is to say, more or less, according as the land is exposed to this wasting and wearing operation of the sea, and according as the wasted land is composed of parts resisting with different degrees of power the destroying cause.  The land, thus being worn and wasted away, forms here and there peninsulas, which are the more durable portions of that which had been destroyed around; and these remaining portions are still connected with the main land, of which they at present form a part.

But those promontories and peninsulas are gradually detached from the main land, in thus forming islands, which are but little removed from the land.  An example of this we have in Anglesay, which is but one degree removed from the state of being a promontory.  These islands again, in being subdivided, are converted into barren rocks, which point out to us the course in which the lost or wasted land upon the coast had formerly existed.

To be satisfied of this, let us but look upon the western coast of Scotland; from the islands of St. Kilda to Galloway, on the one side, and to Shetland on the other; in this tract, we have every testimony, for the truth of the doctrine, that is consistent with the nature of the subject.  The progress of things is too slow to admit of any evidence drawn immediately from observation; but every other proof is at hand; every appearance corresponds with the theory; and of every step in the progress, from a continent of high land to the point of a rock sunk below the surface of the sea, abundant examples may be found.  We do not see the beginning and ending of any one island or piece of country, because the operation is only accomplished in the course of time, and the experience of man is only in the present moment.  But man has science and reason, in order to understand what has already been from what appears; and we have but to open our eyes to see all the stages of the operation although not in one individual object.  Now, where the nature of things will not admit of having all and every step of the progress to be perceived in one object, an indefinite progression in the various states of different objects, showing the series or gradation from a continent to a rock, must form a proof in which no deficiency will be found.

I have given for example the coast of Scotland; but all over the world where there is a coast not covered with sand, or where it is exposed to the violence of the sea, it is the same.  Take the map of any country, provided it be sufficiently particular, and you will see the breaking of continents or islands, first, into promontories or peninsulas; secondly, into islands which stand on the same solid basis with the continent; and, lastly, into rocks which are related to the islands, in like manner as those parasitical