In the First Book, we have endeavoured to convey some notion of the “limits which the Deity has been pleased to prescribe to his own power;” or in other words, to briefly describe the properties of the different subordinate agents and elements of our globe; and their laws of operation. We come now, to consider a little more closely, the general distribution of these agents and elements; and the principles upon which this distribution is regulated; so as to produce all the wonderful results, which we see constantly going on around us, in nature.

In the present state of the world, as we have already observed, the general tendency of its constituent principles, seems to be toward a state of equilibrium, or repose. But a very superficial examination of those parts of the earth's crust, to which we can obtain access, is sufficient to convince us, that this quietude has not always existed; and consequently, that the present state of things must have had a beginning. In short, the phenomena of geology appear to show, that our earth during its progress, has undergone, alternately, periods of comparative quietude, like that in which we now live; and periods of derangement and convulsion, in which the preceding states of quietude, and their consequences, have been more or less subverted; and a new order of things, has been induced.