Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/48

 44 by heat: or whether they have been produced, (as was maintained by Werner) by chemical precipitation from a fluid, having other powers of solution than those possessed by the waters of the present ocean. It is of little importance to our present purpose, whether the non-appearance of animals and vegetables in these most ancient strata was caused by the high temperature of the waters of the ocean, in which they are mechanically deposited; or by the compound nature and uninhabitable condition of a primeval fluid, holding their materials in solution. All observers admit that the strata were formed beneath the water, and have been subsequently converted into dry land: and whatever may have been the agents that caused the movements of the gross unorganized materials of the globe; we find sufficient evidence of prospective wisdom and design, in the benefits resulting from these obscure and distant revolutions, to future races of terrestrial creatures, and more especially to Man.