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THEORY OF THE EARTH. 4(51 lias read what has now been written, will see how much further he may venture, even till he loses him self in a series of ages, which, to our narrow concep tions, is almost an eternity. And have I not shown that what is thus consistent with the Conduct of the Deity is also not inconsistent with His revealed YV ord? If I have not, I have proved nothing; if there were aught in geology which contradicted that Word, I should he among the first to say, the science is in error. But it is not in error : it is one of the strongest evidences, towards natural religion, as it is also a new one. For thus too do we discover the wisdom and the goodness, which, never leaving the earth without that Life which it was capable of supporting, has ever adapted its forms to those capacities: just as, during our own period, it changes the balances of the present ones, as the habitation itself changes, under His direct power, or under the subsidiary and appointed powers of Man. And does it not also teach us, that His Will interposes when needful ; that not even a secondary cause can, always, act, under that previous appoint ment which an antient philosophy had supposed, and a modern one has, unwarily or censurably, followed ? Can the periods of revolution have occurred without His immediate interposition and command ? And this is H is Pi •ovidence. Worthy surely therefore of regard is a science which thus demonstrates the chief attri butes of the Deity, and thus elevates our minds to the Creator and Governor of all: which teaches us fur ther, that all progression is improvement; almost also assuring us, that the destruction in which we have been taught to believe, shall be succeeded by a better and a fairer earth, when He shall think fit to issue the Command. THE END.