PART I. trunk, and branches. We have, therefore, only CHAP. I. to direct our attention to the root, without pursuing the process of the trunk, or the ramifications of the branches: such as is the quality of the root, such also will necessarily be that of the process and ramifications which derive their substance and vitality from it. Although many skilful and eminent writers have contributed their assiduous labours to the edification of this science, yet it perhaps owes its fairest and most finished form to a recent French geologist, who, in the execution of his elaborate work, has displayed equal ability and integrity of mind. For, although he has applied the powers of a superior genius to advance the progress of his science, and although he has given to those powers all the impulse of an enthusiastic ardour, inspired by the grandeur of his subject, yet he has, at the same time, affixed to his treatise this honourable and upright profession: "My sole "object is to propagate the truth; and I should "see with satisfaction any work which should " establish it, even if it should overturn any " of the assertions which I have believed, "or which I still believe, to be true. It was "not a desire to maintain or to gain converts to a system, that induced me to take up 66 66 my pen. I positively adopt none; and if, 66 66 CHAP. I. "in treating of mineral masses and strata, PART I. "..I appear to follow an hypothesis with respect "to the mode of their formations, it is, because such a method of proceeding appeared to me simple, and well adapted for representing facts, and connecting them together: much "in the manner of those philosophers, who, "though they are not convinced of the existence of a magnetic fluid, yet suppose it, in "order that they may be the better able to "describe what takes place in the different phænomena of magnetism 1." 66 66 And, that this profession was as sincere as it is positive, this respectable writer affords many proofs; and especially when, though attached to the Neptunian geology of Werner, he yet relinquishes its doctrine, with respect to the cause of the basaltic formations of Saxony, in these terms: The facts which I had just witnessed spoke too plainly; the "truth was, too manifestly exposed before my eyes; I must either have absolutely resisted "the testimony of my sight, not to perceive "it, or that of my conscience, not to declare it." 66 64 To such a dissertator we can, with confidence, address an argument which equally seeks 1 p..17. D'AUBUISSON, Traité de Géognosie, tom. i. Disc. Prel. CHAP. I. PART 1. for truth; nor shall we think it necessary to apologize for the earnestness with which we may deem it requisite to conduct it. The disciple of Werner, who holds his mind in that state of subordination to truth, that he is at all times ready to pass from the Neptunian to the Plutonian scheme of geology, if the latter can only exhibit proof that the balance of reason weighs on its side, must be equally ready to surrender the mineral geology altogether to the Mosaical, provided that the latter should be found, after a trial of their respective authorities by some common conventional standard, to be that which can best sustain the test of the criterion. Now, it is not difficult to find such a criterion, because mineral geology itself proposes one for the trial of its own validity, and the Mosaical geology consents to submit itself, unconditionally, to the same: so that the whole operation will be reduced to the simple process of applying, successively, to the same standard, the root or fundamental principle of the two geologies, with respect to the modes of the primary and secondary formations of the mineral substances composing this globe. The test to which mineral geology appeals, is the reformed philosophy of BACON and NEWTON. Our object will therefore be, to ascertain whether the mineral or the Mosaical geology And, PART I. can best endure the trial of that test. CHAP. I. CHAP. II. CHAPTER II. PART I. MINERAL GEOLOGY, as it is properly characterized by Cuvier1, or, according to a more recent denomination, GEOGNOSY, is no other than mineralogy, or the science of minerals; determining the mode of the first formations of the mineral substances composing this earth, and the mode of the changes which those substances appear to have subsequently undergone. That this is a true definition or description of this geology, is attested, both by the statements of its teachers, and by their reports of the history of its origin. "The principal object which geognosy has "in view, (says the able writer from whom "I have just quoted *,) is, "1. The knowledge of the mineral masses, or rather of the different groups or systems "of mineral masses, whose assemblage com 66 66 66 poses the solid portion of this terrestrial globe. It considers the mineralogical composition, structure, and extent of each of "these systems. It treats of their reciprocal 66 1 CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, sect. 22, p. 67. 2 Tom. i. p. 1. |