PART I.

CHAP. X.

we must seek it elsewhere, for we can never find it in the subject matter of our study.

What, then, is to become of that vast portion of the mineral kingdom, of which we would thus despoil the Mineral Geology?

It is to be restored to, and to be committed to the charge of, simple and genuine Mineralogy; that sound and valuable science, to which pertains the cognizance of the mineral natures of the globe, as that of the animal natures pertains to zoology, and that of the vege table to botany. The zoologist does not speculate on the mode of the formation of the first animal individuals by secondary causes, nor the botanist on that of the first vegetable: they severally confine their attention to the characters and properties of the individuals themselves; which bound their vast and admirable sciences. In the same manner, the characters and properties of the mineral individuals, bound the science of mineralogy; but yet leave it an equally wide and luxuriant field, for the exercise of its intelligence. When it would attempt to refer to secondary chemical causes, for the MODE of the first formations of those individuals, it then mistakes its sphere, and becomes Mineral Geology: a science, which is so far from conducting us in the same course with Newton, that it leads us quite the contrary way. Newton's course leads upwards, to

CHAP. X.

an open and unimpeded issue; at the erit of PART 1. which we perceive the dawnings of a light, that assures us we are near the sources of divine truth. That of the mineral geology, on the contrary, conducts us downwards, to an obscurity; in which we are presently stopped by a bivium, leading, on the one hand, to a chaos of aqueous solution, and, on the other, to a chaos of igneous fusion. Here we might long hesitate, which path to pursue; and little would it matter, which of the two we take at last, if we are determined to proceed in that direction; for, as both are equally remote from the exit to truth, whichever is most pleasing to the palate of the fancy, will yield the greater gratification; and all that can be obtained from either, is the gratification of the fancy. The Neptunian and Plutonian geologies may here securely contend, in ceaseless equality, for the truth of their respective systems; for, both being equally erroneous in principle, neither can ever become vanquished by the other.

But, can we seriously contemplate this interminable contest, to dogmatize concerning the first formations of this globe by secondary agencies, without hearing the Voice which spoke "out of the whirlwind, and said: Who is this that

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DARKENETH COUNSEL BY WORDS WITHOUT

"KNOWLEDGE? Gird up Thy loins like a man;

PART I.

CHAP. X.

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for I will demand of Thee, and answer Thou ME. Where wast Thou, when I laid the foundations of "the earth? Declare, if Thou hast understanding. Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or, who laid the corner-stone thereof?— "Knowest Thou it, because Thou wast then born? or, because the number of Thy days is great1?” Whereas, if we will take the contrary direction, and travel with Newton; we shall make the nearest approximation, which the light of unaided reason can make, to the truth of the MODE of first formations, in all the THREE kingdoms of terrestrial matter.

1 Job, xxxviii. 1.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

It has been sufficiently shown; that the root, or PART II. chaotic principle, of the Mineral Geology, cannot endure the test of the reformed philosophy of CHAP. I. Newton, to which it appealed. It will hardly expect, that we should enter into an argument to prove that Newton is right; before we infer, from that failure, that its own conclusions are erroneous. Since it has admitted the authority of his philosophy, it must abide by its decision; and the reader will have seen enough, in the progress of this discussion, to convince him of the just title which that authority possesses to decide the question at issue; viz. the MODE, by which all first formations of this globe were really produced. He will be sensible, that the highest probability to which the energies of unassisted reason can attain in this question, is only to be found in that philosophy; and therefore, that it cannot exist in the opposite philo

CHAP. I.

PART II. sophy, which it contradicts, refutes, and reprobates. The conclusions of the mineral geology upon this point are, therefore, in direct opposition to the highest probability; and therefore, to say the least, they must be in the highest degree improbable.

Valuable, however, as the highest probability is, where the certainty of truth cannot be attained; yet, when the mind has once attained to that eminence of secondary evidence, it experiences an eager yearning to advance still higher, in consequence of the innate appetite for truth, which characterizes the intellect of man. Let us then inquire, whether this final gratification is absolutely withheld from us; or, whether we may not be able to add, to the sentiment of the highest probability, the consummation of positive certainty.

That this can only be supplied by competent and positive history, and that physical induction is utterly inadequate to impart it, is a truth felt, and indirectly avowed, by the mineral geology itself. "Before we proceed to deter"mine causes, (says the ingenuous M. D'Aubuisson,) let us endeavour to make ourselves

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acquainted with their effects. All the cir"cumstances of the division of mineral masses "into beds and strata, as well as the presence "of these, both in their primitive and actual