earth's motion, through the waters of the deep, the consequences will be the same as if there were this actual and strong current. For while the waters will be continu

phere remain fixed in such a manner, as that the part of it, which our antipodes are respiring at this moment, is to furnish our diet our pabulum vitæ twelve hours hence ? Certainly not; the atoms which compose the atmosphere are, we know, in spite of the earth's diurnal and annual motion, agitated and impelled in every direction ; and so also, we equally well know, are the waters of the

ocean.

If the Inquirer, when he says that "the motion of the earth is communicated to every part of it, whether solid or fluid," intend that the motion of the loose and fluid particles of the ocean take, from the earth, a flux among themselves to the east, the result would be an actual current to the east; which is not pretended. If he mean, that the globules of the ocean, unaffected by any other cause than the motion of the earth, would always maintain the same position in relation to each other, he may, indeed, allege a principle which is well established; but as it does not meet the approbation of my reason, and aș

ally accumulated on the eastern coast of this pinnacle, it is obvious that on the western coast, (protected, as it would be, from the current, by the newly risen earth,) the

I am not in the habit of reading merely that I may understand and believe. I must beg permission to enter my dissent to the principle. It would be difficult, if not impossible, so close as we are in the neighbourhood of the earth's attraction, to invent any apparatus by which a decisive experiment could be made on this subject. But, by the way of illustration, let us suppose the earth at rest; let us suppose the atmosphere, by the hand of the great chemist who raised it into its present aeriform state, once more reduced to a fluid; let us suppose it, like a great ocean, to surround the earth within the torrid zone, (partitioned at right angles, by two or three mountains running from north to south) and all its parts reposing in a halcyon calm: let us then suppose the earth whirled on its axis to the east; what would be the probable effect? it is clear that the lower region of this superincumbent ocean would be most strongly bound by the earth's attraction; it is equally clear that the stratum of globules, immediately in contact with the earth, would adhere more strongly there

waters will always be comparatively low and calm. The result is clear. The sands, borne along by the ocean's current over the northern and southern extremities of this

to, than to the fluid stratum which rested upon it; while this adhesion to the surface of the earth would be assisted by the many rugged protuberances on that surface. Hence the first motion of the earth, the lowest part of this circumambient ocean, being most powerfully attracted and attached to the earth, would slide under the fluid mass above it, and thereby produce an inequality in the upper surface of the water itself; an elevation in the eastern, a concavity in the western side of each partition; while the waters, from their tendency to seek their level, would strive to restore the balance, by falling constantly from east to west.

Whether this effect would continue for ever, or how long it would continue in our oceans as they are at present arranged, it is not easy to solve. But that a current from the east to the west would be at first produced, is as evident as the light of heaven: if it be denied, I demand the solution of the following phenomenon: if a plate be filled with oil or other fluid, and the plate be then drawn in any

pinnacle, will always have a tendency to settle in the calm behind it; and thus, by perpetual accumulations, form a western coast, more rapidly perhaps than an eastern one; direction, how does it happen that the fluid will manifest a tendency to flow in the opposite direction; insomuch that if the draught of the plate be sudden, the fluid, running rapidly over the adverse edge of the plate, shall discharge itself completely; leaving little behind but the inferiour stratum? I take it, that the man who solves this phenomenon, satisfactorily, will be compelled to resort to principles, which, when applied to our oceans resting loosely as they do on the earth which rolls under them, would inevitably produce a western current; and this current once produced it will be difficult to say why and when it should cease. A current thus produced would be unequal, from the nature of its cause, at various depths: it would be subject to temporary affections and alterations near its surface, by the winds, the tides and the diversified shapes of the coasts on which the ocean rolls. The general tendency, however, of the great mass of the waters would be to the west.

I see no sound reason in renouncing Mr. Buffon's theory either on account of the eloquent and beautiful man

as we may see in miniature, by the capes and shallows collected by the still water, on each side, at the mouths of creeks, or below rocks, in the rapids of a river.

ner in which it is explained; nor because it has long had its just portion of admirers; nor because there are other more modern theories. While we are children, it may be well enough to lie passively on our backs and permit others to prepare and feed us with the pap of science; but when our own judgments and understandings have gained their maturity, it behoves us, instead of being "a feather for every wind that blows," instead of floating impotently before the capricious current of fashion and opinion, to heave out all our anchors; to take a position from which nothing shall move us but reason and truth, not novelty and fashion. In the progress of science, many principles, in my opinion, have been dropped to make way for others, which are newer but less true. And among them Mr. Buffon's theory of the earth. The effect of alluvion is so slow, that any one generation is almost unable to perceive the change wrought by it; hence, many people, unable to sit down and reflect on the wonders which time can do, fly off with a kind of puerile impatience, and resort to any thing, even