Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/413

 Rh a provision, entire Coal fields might be occasionally burnt out and destroyed.

It is impossible to contemplate a disposition of things, so well adapted to afford the materials essential to supply the first wants, and to keep alive the industry of the inhabitants of our earth; and entirely to attribute such a disposition to the blind operation of Fortuitous causes. Although indeed it be dangerous hastily to have recourse to Final causes, yet since in many branches of physical knowledge, (more especially in those which relate to organized matter,) the end of many a contrivance is better understood, than the contrivance itself] it would surely be as unphilosophical to hesitate at the admission of final Causes, when the general tenor and evidence of the Phenomena naturally suggest them, as it would be to introduce them gratuitously unsupported by such evidence. We may surely therefore feel ourselves authorized to view, in the Geological arrangements above described, a system of wise and benevolent Contrivances, prospectively subsidiary to the wants and comforts of the future inhabitants of the globe; and extending onwards, from its first Formation, through the subsequent Revolutions and Convulsions that have affected the surface of our Planet.

result attending the Disturbances of the surface of the Earth has been, to produce Rents or Fissures in the Rocks which have been subjected to these violent