of facts, -we shall perhaps conclude in favour of the latter
opinion. The expansive force of steam, under certain circumstances,
is beyond calculation ; and steam is unquestion-
ably formed in all volcanic explosions, as the presence of a
vast body of water seems to be indispensably necessary in
these operations o f nature: for the greater part of, if not all,
real volcanoes are either islands, or are situated so near the
sea as to have received a supply of water from it. I t is well
known that a torrent of boiling water rolled down the sides
of mount Etna about the middle of last century, and the
same circumstance has happened more than once in Vesuvius.
I t is also now understood that the earth contains a variety of
substances, and those in large quantities, which, in contact
with water, will cause ignition, and others that will support
it without the presence of air. I f then, by means of a rent
or chasm in the bottom of the sea, a sufficient quantity of
water be brought to act on a proportionate mass of materials
capable of supporting ignition, the steam generated in consequence
must heave up the superincumbent earth, and probably,
on some occasions, without disturbing the arrangement
of its parts as they existed at the bottom of the sea previous
to the eruption, except immediately in those places where
the explosion burst out. Thus we see in many islands of volcanic
origin, as TenerifFe and Madeira, large portions of the
surface where the action of fire is not in the least discernible.
That new islands are produced from time to time, and probably
in this manner, history affords us various instances.
One of the most considerable of the Lipari islands, called
Vulcano, was created in the time of the Roman republic.
Since the seventh century of the Christian sera three distinct
7
islands have been thrown up in the Archipelago. In 1638,
an island about the size of Amsterdam was thrown up
among the Azores, or Western Islands ; and m 1757, m the
same cluster near that called St. George, eighteen small
islands appeared above the surface of the sea, after a tremendous
and destructive earthquake winch continued eight
days; but they gradually subsided, and at last altogether disappeared
; that part of the sea where they rose being, however,
very materially decreased in the depth of water-
Since then it admits-of proof that islands and mountains do
spring up from time to time, and no grounds can be produced
to shew that the smallest hill has been left uncovered by the
retreat of the ocean, an ingenious theorist might employ this
argument with success to prove that the sea, m the lapse o
ages, may totally disappear within the crust of the earth,
which would thus revert to the egg of the ancient philosophers
; whose shell again bursting might cause anew deluge
and a new creation. What changes may happen in eternity
of duration and infinity of space, equally incomprehensible
to the mind of man,, are hidden, no doubt for wise and good
purposes, from finite beings; but reason and observation, independent
of sacred or profane history,., clearly point out t at
the earth we inhabit has undergone, and is continually undergoing,
a great variety of changes but when or m what manner
the most important of them have been brought about, we must
either be content with what the sacred writings have communicated
on the subject, attributing them to an omnipotent
orM Tweternatural cause, or continue to amuse ourselves with