Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole].

  • Cole, William, active 1807.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cursory remarks on some parts of a work, entitled Studies of nature ; originally written by M. de Saint Pierre, and translated into English by ... Henry Hunter / [William Cole]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We shall therefore take a slight view of some other absurd notions which our author has adopt* ed? apd which naturally follow7 from his theory. In wThat he denominates objections to provi¬ dence, [Study III.] he has introduced many of the visionary ideas of M* De Buff on, who has surmised, that the earth vras struck off from the sun by the collision of a comet, and that before it took its present form, it w7as in a state of fu- sion. To these absurd notions, which could not have originated in an imagination less fertile than his own, M. De Saint Pierre subjoins a variety of conclusions equally visionary, merely for the purpose of contradicting them. He states as the opinion of some, and he seems to insinu¬ ate that it is the general opinion of the Newto¬ nians, that the mountains of the torrid zone, and particularly near the equator, were formed by the centrifugal force occasioned by the diurnal rota¬ tion of the .earth. For [Page 124, Vol. 1.] he declares, “ If a centr ifugal force had swelled the mountains of the globe while it was in a state of fusion there must have been mountains much more elevated” In opposition to this opinion, which was ne-