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Manner; For perhaps it is effected in ſome Caſes by one; and in others by other of theſe Means[1].
- ↑ The Author has here juſtly, clearly, and ſuccinctly given the general Manner, in which the conſtituent Matter of Earths and Stones has been brought together; and hinted at the various other Means by which it is done in other particular Caſes.
The two general Ways he allows are by Afflux and Percolation: and nothing is more certain than that, by theſe two Methods, the two great Claſſes of the Bodies he is here to treat of, have been brought into a State of Formation; the Earths and Stones of Strata by Afflux: and the Cryſtals, Spars, and other Bodies of that Kind, by Percolation.
The Agent, in the firſt of theſe Caſes, has been Gravity; and in the other, the continual paſſing of Water through the ſolid Strata.
When we look up to the original Formation of theſe Subſtances, we find the Particles, of which they were to be compoſed, in looſe Atoms, diffuſed, and floating in that confuſed and irregular Maſs of Matter (for that is evidently the Senſe of the Word חהומ which we find tranſlated the Deep) out of which this Earth was to be formed. The great Agent in gathering theſe ſcattered Atoms into a Maſs, and ſeparating them from the Water in which they were before floating, ſeems to have been what in the Moſaic Account of the Creation is called the Spirit of the Creator.
On the Action of this powerful Miniſter, the conſtituent Particles of Matter were collected into a Body, by their own Weight ſeparated themſelves from the Fluid in which they before ſwam; and ſubſided, ſome ſooner, ſome later, in Proportion to their different Gravities,
By this Means the Particles of Stone, for Inſtance, precipitated themſelves and formed a Stratum entire, homogene, and pure; before thoſe of Clay began to ſubſide: and theſe afterwards falling in a Maſs on the Stratum of Stone already formed, conſtituted another of Clay over it: After all this, a Quantity of yet lighter Matter, ſettling on the Surface of this laſt formed Stratum, added to that another of what we call vegetable Mould, or ſomething of like Kind. In this Manner were the different Strata of the Earth formed, and the Difference of the Matter, which was to ſubſide in different
