It may be said of this author, that he attempted to raise an immense monument on a less solid base than the moving sand, and to construct a world with dust; for he pretends, that at the time of the deluge a total dissolution of the earth was made. The first idea which presents, after having gone through his book,[132:A] is, that this dissolution was made by the waters of the great abyss. He asserts, that the abyss where the water was included opened all at once at the command of God, and dispersed over the surface an enormous quantity of water necessary to cover the tops of the highest mountains, and that God suspended the cause of cohesion which reduced all solid bodies into dust, &c. He did not consider that by these suppositions he added other miracles to that of the universal deluge, or at least physical impossibilities, which agree neither with the letter of the holy writ, nor with the mathematical principles of natural philosophy. But as this author has the merit of having collected many important observations, and as he was better acquainted with the materials of which the globe is composed than those who preceded him, his system, although badly conceived, and worse digested, has nevertheless dazzled many people, who, seduced by the truth of some particular circumstances, put confidence in his general conclusions; we shall, therefore, give a short view of his theory, in which, by doing justice to the author's merit, and the exactness of his observations, we shall put the reader in a state of judging of the insufficiency of his system, and of the falsity of some of his remarks. Mr. Woodward speaks of having discovered by his sight that all matters which compose the English earth, from the surface to the deepest places which had been dug, were disposed by beds of strata, and that in a great number of these there were shells and other marine productions; he afterwards adds, that by his correspondents and friends he was assured, that in other countries the earth is composed of the same materials, and that shells are found there, not only in the plains but on the highest mountains, in the deepest quarries, and in an infinity of different places. He perceived their strata to be horizontal and disposed one over the other, as matters are which are transported by the waters, and deposited in form of sediment. These general remarks, which are true, are followed by particular observations, by which he evidently shews, that fossils found incorporated in the strata are real shells and marine productions, not minerals and singular bodies, the sport of nature, &c. To these observations, though partly made before him, which he has collected and proved, he adds others less exact. He asserts, that all matters of different strata are placed one on the other in the order of their specific gravity.