Note 108 — Chapter IV

In allusion to the theories of Burnet, Woodward, and other physico-theological writers, he declared that they were as fond of changes of scene on the face of the globe, as were the populace at a play. "Every one of them destroys and renovates the earth after his own fashion, as Descartes framed it: for philosophers put themselves without ceremony in the place of God, and think to create a universe with a word."—Dissertation envoyée a l'Academie de Boulogne, sur les Changemens arrivés dans notre Globe. Unfortunately, this and similar ridicule directed against the cosmogonists was too well deserved.