Page:Theophrastus - History of Stones - Hill (1774).djvu/27

 Manner; For perhaps it is effected in ome Caes by one; and in others by other of thee Means The Author has here jutly, clearly, and uccinctly given the general Manner, in which the contituent Matter of Earths and Stones has been brought together; and hinted at the various other Means by which it is done in other particular Caes.

The two general Ways he allows are by Afflux and Percolation: and nothing is more certain than that, by thee two Methods, the two great Claes 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 Crytals, Spars, and other Bodies of that Kind, by Percolation.

The Agent, in the firt of thee Caes, has been Gravity; and in the other, the continual paing of Water through the olid Strata.

When we look up to the original Formation of thee Subtances, we find the Particles, of which they were to be compoed, in looe Atoms, diffued, and floating in that confued and irregular Mas of Matter (for that is evidently the Sene of the Word which we find tranlated the Deep) out of which this Earth was to be formed. The great Agent in gathering thee cattered Atoms into a Mas, and eparating them from the Water in which they were before floating, eems to have been what in the Moaic Account of the Creation is called the Spirit of the Creator.

On the Action of this powerful Miniter, the contituent Particles of Matter were collected into a Body, by their own Weight eparated themelves from the Fluid in which they before wam; and ubided, ome ooner, ome later, in Proportion to their different Gravities,

By this Means the Particles of Stone, for Intance, precipitated themelves and formed a Stratum entire, homogene, and pure; before thoe of Clay began to ubide: and thee afterwards falling in a Mas on the Stratum of Stone already formed, contituted another of Clay over it: After all this, a Quantity of yet lighter Matter, ettling on the Surface of this lat formed Stratum, added to that another of what we call vegetable Mould, or omething of like Kind. In this Manner were the different Strata of the Earth formed, and the Difference of the Matter, which was to ubide in different.