so much of inherent infirmity, that geologists may well be excused for an occasional transgression of due and discretional limits. If they err, they at least supply the means of detecting their errors and if they are too prompt in hastening to conclusions, we obtain the means of rectifying the effects of their rashness, from the results of their own accurate observation, widely extended and liberally communicated.

For a long season, the Romish Hierarchy forbade the conveyance of sound astronomical instruction, by absolutely prohibiting the adoption of the Copernican system as the basis of academical institution. Compelled at length to make some concession to increasing knowledge, it was permitted to be taught, not as the system of the universe, nor even as the theory of Copernicus, but under the more guarded phrase of his hypothesis. Something of this sort seems to have suggested itself to our professors of geology. The large phraseology of a former day seems to have been dismissed. We no longer hear of theories of the earth; nor are systems of creation built up with the rapidity which distinguished the speculators of those imaginative times. A more specious term, a phrase more insinuating, and less likely to stir suspicion, has been taken up; and the scheme which might have startled us under the oldfashioned names, passes current as a 'splendid generalization'. It behooves scientific men to be on their guard against this besetting sin. Very little is gained by the mere shifting of a title; and the change becomes positively mischievous, when it is used as a pretext for the perpetuation of error.

After all, it appears exceedingly absurd, that, in the present stage of inquiry concerning the changes and component substances of the globe, anything should be put forward in the shape of system, or even of generalization. Among the 'Sec'tions and Views' of Mr. de la Beche's valuable publication, he has given an expressive diagram, shewing the proportion which the depth hitherto explored of the earth's bulk, bears to the whole. The loftiest mountains are like grains of sand scattered on a smooth surface; and a concentric line drawn at the interval of one hundred miles from the exterior, makes the portion above it shew like the rind of an orange. Now, when this is the case, when we have not even turned up a furrow on this immense mass, when, in reality, we have only scratched the epidermis of this vast sphere; it does, in sober truth, seem rather too early for an exhibition of skill in generalizing. Nor are we sufficiently advanced, even in this mere surface knowledge, to afford a justification of this inferential process. Our facts are, as yet, too few: they may be contradicted or modified, so far as our views of their circumstances and relations are concerned, by other facts not yet ascertained. We are

'yet acquainted', observes Mr. de la Beche, in his Geological Notes, with so small a portion of the real structure of the 'earth's exposed surface, that all general classifications of rocks ' are premature.' And in the preface to his volume of Sections, he emphatically urges, that the progress of science has led to 'new views, and that the consequences that can be deduced 'from the knowledge of a hundred facts, may be very different from those deducible from five. It is also possible that the 'facts first known, may be the exceptions to a rule, and not the 'rule itself; and generalizations from these first-known facts, ' though useful at the time, may be highly mischievous, and im'pede the progress of the science, if retained when it has made some advance.'

These considerations become of immense importance when applied to the great question concerning the origin of the world. We can have no fears on the score of facts, but we must acknowledge that we are exceedingly sensitive about generalizations. We are told, (and, with some restriction, we admit the distinction,) that there is no connexion between geology and cosmogony: but at the same time, we are disposed to consider the Mosaic history as an element of inquiry; and we are quite convinced that its judicious application to ascertained facts, may go far in aiding correct investigation, and in restraining undue speculation. On this subject, we shall probably gratify our readers by citing a paragraph or two from the eloquent speech of Professor Sedgwick, on resigning the presidency of the Geological Society.

Are then the facts of our science opposed to the sacred records? and do we deny the reality of a historic deluge? I utterly reject such an inference. Moral and physical truth may partake of a common essence, but, as far as we are concerned, their foundations are independent, and have not one common element. And in the narrations of a great fatal catastrophe, handed down to us, not in our sacred books only, but in the traditions of all nations, there is not a word to justify us in looking to any mere physical monuments, as the intelligible records of that event: such monuments, at least, have not yet been found, and it is not perhaps intended that they ever should be found. If, however, we should hereafter discover the skeletons of ancient tribes, and the works of ancient art, buried in the superficial detritus of any large region of the earth; then, and not till then, we may speculate about their stature, and their manners, and their numbers, as we now speculate among the disinterred ruins of an ancient city.

We might, I think, rest content with such a general answer as this. But we may advance one step further. History is a continued record of passions and events unconnected with the enduring laws of mere material agents. The progress of physical induction, on the contrary, leads us on to discoveries, of which the mere light of history would not indicate a single trace. But the facts recorded in history

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may sometimes, without confounding the nature of moral and physical truth, be brought into a general accordance with the known phanomena of nature; and such general accordance I affirm there is between our historical traditions and the phænomena of geology. Both tell us in a language easily understood, though written in far different characters, that man is a recent sojourner on the surface of the earth. Again, though we have not yet found the certain traces of any great diluvian catastrophe which we can affirm to be within the human period; we have, at least, shewn, that paraxoysms of internal energy, accompanied by the elevation of mountain chains, and followed by mighty waves desolating whole regions of the earth, were a part of the mechanism of nature. And what has happened, again and again, from the most ancient, up to the most modern periods in the natural history of the earth, may have happened once during the few thousand years that man has been living on its surface. We have therefore taken away all anterior incredibility from the fact of a recent deluge; and we have prepared the mind, doubting about the truth of things of which it knows not either the origin or the end, for the adoption of this fact on the weight of historic testimony.'

The address, from which we have taken this extract, and from which we shall, before quitting our present subject, have to make further citation, was delivered at the Society's Anniversary, February 18, 1831, and is printed in the 20th number of the Proceedings.' It contains a great variety of admirably condensed matter, and exhibits a general view of what has been recently done in the way of geological investigation*.

Although we have felt it expedient to make these remarks in connexion with an important subject, they are not to be considered as prefatory to any thing in the shape either of general discussion, or of special analysis. We have placed at the head of this article, the titles of certain works which have appeared rather recently on the subject of geology, and which seem to us likely to convey useful information to such of our readers as may feel interested in these matters. Were we to undertake even a slight survey of their contents, we should trespass most inconveniently both on our limits, and on the forbearance of

In the previous delivery of the Wollaston medal, the President had taken opportunity to recapitulate the high claims of the individual to whom that prize was, for the first time since the death of its illustrious institutor, awarded. The Resolution stated, that it was given to Mr. William Smith, in consideration of his being a great original discoverer in English Geology; and especially for his having been the first, in this country, to discover and to teach the identification of ' strata, and to determine their succession by means of their imbedded fossils.' We have adverted to this circumstance, merely that we might direct attention to the very extraordinary merits of this profound, though self-taught geologist.

average readers; we shall, therefore, do little more than point out their object and character.

Mr. Lyell's volume, which contains only the earlier portion of his inquiries, is a bold and able effort to deduce all the changes of the earth's surface from causes now in operation. Volcanic action, atmospheric influences, vegetable deposits, tides and currents, with other agencies both direct and incidental, are held forth as constituting the grand machinery of the destructive and renovative principles. That Mr. Lyell has developed and maintained his hypothesis with much skill, there can be no difficulty in admitting: that he has effected any thing beyond this, is, we apprehend, something more than doubtful. Professor Sedgwick has taken a very decided part in opposition; and as the pamphlet which contains his animadversions is not likely to fall in the way of our readers, we shall trespass on it for an extract. Independently, however, of every thing connected with system, Mr. L.'s work will be found invaluable as a collection and arrangement of facts and geological phenomena. It is, moreover, most interesting reading; and the student who shall have mastered its contents, will have put himself in possession of abundant materials for the effective prosecution of scientific inquiry.

If,' observes Mr. Sedgwick, the principles vindicated in Mr. Lyell's work be true, then there can be no great violations of continuity either in the structure or position of our successive formations. But we know that there are enormous violations of geological continuity and though, relatively speaking, many of them may be local, of this at least we are certain, that they have been produced by forces adequate to the effects, and co-extensive with the phænomena. . . In the speculations I am combating, all great epochs of elevation are systematically, and I think unfortunately, excluded. Volcanic action. is essentially paroxysmal; yet Mr. Lyell will admit no greater paroxysms than we ourselves have witnessed-no periods of feverish spasmodic energy, during which the very framework of nature has been convulsed and torn asunder. The utmost movements that he allows are, a slight quivering of her muscular integuments.'

*

Of the origin of volcanic forces we know nothing: but we do know that they are the irregular, secondary results of great masses of matter, obeying the primary laws of atomic action,-that they differ in their intensity-are interrupted in their periods and are aggravated or constrained by an endless number of causes, external and purely mechanical. Of all modes of material combination, those of which I now speak are perhaps the most complicated. To assume, then, that volcanic forces have not only been called into action at all times in the natural history of the earth, but also, that in each period they have acted with equal intensity, seems to me a merely gratuitous hypothesis, unfounded on any of the great analogies of nature, and I believe also unsupported by the direct evidence of fact. This theory

confounds the immutable and primary laws of matter with the mutable results arising from their irregular combination. It assumes, that in the laboratory of nature, no elements have ever been brought together which we ourselves have not seen combined; that no forces have been developed by their combination, of which we have not witnessed the effects. And what is this but to limit the riches of the kingdoms of nature by the poverty of our own knowledge; and to surrender ourselves to a mischievous, but not uncommon philosophical scepticism, which makes us deny the reality of what we have not seen, and doubt the truth of what we do not perfectly comprehend?"

On the design of Dr. Ure's volume, we can bestow unqualified praise: concerning its execution, we cannot speak quite so highly. He has communicated much valuable instruction in a very impressive and gratifying manner; but we cannot say that he has given a picture by any means complete, of geological science in its present advanced state. As an introduction to geology, however, it will be found highly useful, while the number and distinctness of the graphic illustrations, add essentially to the clearness of the description and the general value of the book. That the work is written with spirit and right feeling, the following extract will sufficiently evidence.

The monuments of changes in the constitution of animal and vegetable beings, and of an universal deluge which was fatal to them both, are so marvellous and multiform, that Baron Cuvier, by their means, has had the talent to create as lively an interest for the ancient empire of the dead, as for the kingdoms of living nature. In accompanying him through the dark cemeteries of the earth, a mysterious gleam from the primeval world penetrates our soul, and solemnly awakens its deepest faculties. We seem to walk among new orders of beings, endowed with extraordinary forms, and exercising paradoxical functions. In one sepulchre we meet with a sloth, not dwarfish as a small dog, like our existing species, but of the gigantic stature of a rhinoceros, provided with enormous arms and claws for suspending itself, according to the instincts of its kind, from trees of colossal growth. In others, we find quadrupeds bearing wings on their toes, crocodiles furnished with fins, but no feet, and lizards of whale-like dimensions. These all speak of a world unlike our own, the fashion of which has long passed away. But that world, the victim of sin, will not have perished in vain; if its mighty ruins serve to rouse its living observers from their slumberous existence, if they lead them to meditate seriously on the origin and end of terrestrial things, and to improve their brief span by the contemplation of the works and ways of Providence.'-Ure.

Few words will suffice to characterise the publications of Mr. de la Beche. They are purely and ably practical; and while they will afford effectual assistance to the geological student, and supply much useful and intelligible explanation to the general reader, they may assist the more advanced inquirer by