which are the result of disturbing forces, that appear to a certain degree to have acted at random and fortuitously.
Elevations and subsidence's, inclinations and contortions, fractures and dislocations, are phenomena, which, although at first sight they present only the appearance of disorder and confusion, yet when fully understood, demonstrate the existence of Order, and Method, and Design, even in the operations of the most turbulent, among the many mighty physical forces which have affected the terraqueous globe.[1]
Some of the most important results of the action of these forces have been already noticed in our fourth and fifth chapters; and our first Section, Pl. 1, illustrates their beneficial effect, in elevating and converting into habitable Lands, strata of various kinds that were formed at the bottom of the ancient Waters; and in diversifying the surface of these lands with Mountains, plains, and Valleys, of various productive
- ↑ "Notwithstanding the appearances of irregularity and confusion in the formation of the crust of our globe, which are presented to the eye in the contemplation of its external features, Geologists have been able in numerous instances to detect, in the arrangement and position of its stratified masses, distinct approximations to geometrical laws. In the phenomena of anticlinal lines, faults, fissures, mineral veins, &c. such laws are easily recognised." Hopkin's Researches in Physical Geology. Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc. v. 6. part 1. 1835.
"It scarcely admits of a doubt," says the author of an able article in the Quarterly Review, (Sept. 1826, p. 537,) "that the agents employed in effecting this most perfect and systematic arrangement have been earth-quakes, operating with different degrees of violence, and at various intervals of time, during a lapse of ages. The order that now reigns has resulted therefore, from causes which have generally been considered as capable only of defacing and devastating the earth's surface, but which we thus find strong grounds for suspecting were, in the primeval state of the globe, and perhaps still are, instrumental in its perpetual renovation. The effects of these subterranean forces prove that they are governed by general laws, and that these laws have been conceived by consummate wisdom and forethought."
"Sources of apparent derangement in the system appear, when their operation throughout a series of ages is brought into one view, to have produced a great preponderance of good, and to be governed by fixed general laws, conducive, perhaps essential, to the habitable state of the globe." Ibid. p. 539.
