cr 66 66 phænomena of Nature, and the causes which PART I. produce them, it renders us competent to ap- CHAP. III. prehend and form a just notion of the rela tions which may subsist between the effects we see and the causes to which we are led to "attribute them; to be sensible, how necessary this science is to those who apply their thoughts to the revolutions of the terrestrial globe, and who endeavour to account for the changes which its surface experiences, or has experienced'. 66 66 66 17." It is principally, I repeat it, the progress of chemistry, that has conducted us to "this general conclusion, from whence at length "has resulted a solid basis for geology*.-General 66 chemistry, ought here to be our only guide, as "to principles; and it is but very lately, that it "has supplied us with true lights with respect "to these "." Thus, the mineral geology concludes, from the crystalline phænomena of this earth, that it was, originally, "a confused mass of elemental principles, suspended in a vast dissolution, a chaotic 66 66 ocean, or original chaotic fluid;" which, after an unassignable series of ages, "settled them"selves" at last into the order, and correspondence of parts, which it now possesses, 'Id. Disc. Prél. p. 30. 'DE LUC, Lett. Géol. p. 112. Ib. p. iii. CHAP. III. PART I. by a gradual process of "precipitation and crystallization," according to certain " laws "of matter," which it denominates "the laws "of affinity of composition and aggregation;" and that they thus formed successively, though remotely in time, 1. a chemical, 2. a mineral, and lastly, a geognostic, which is its present, structure; and that it was during this long process, and before it attained to its present solidity, that the earth acquired its peculiar figure by the operation of the physical laws which cause it to revolve upon its axis. This is that root, or fundamental principle, of the mineral geology; which we were to extract, and to try by the test of the reformed philosophy of Bacon and Newton. If these conclusions are the genuine fruits of that reformed philosophy, we shall of course find them to be in exact and entire concord with the conclusions of Bacon and Newton upon the same subject; since the mineral geology professes to deduce them, by the method of induction, "from observation, sound principles of physics, and by the rule of an exact logic,” introduced by that philosophy. Bacon and Newton certainly taught, both by doctrine and example, the method of philosophizing by analysis and induction; and it was that method, skilfully and rigidly observed by them, that produced and constituted that PART I 66 66 happy revolution in the studies of the natural "sciences," which mineral geology so justly eulogizes. But, was there not a caveat, which Newton annexed to his process of induction? "The method of analysis,” said he, "consists in "making experiments and observations, and "in drawing general conclusions from them by induction; and in admitting no objections against the conclusions, but such as are taken " from experiments, or other certain truths1." There were, then, some certain truths, which had always authority, in Newton's philosophy, to govern and regulate the process of induction; and even to oppose objections to general conclusions, if these betrayed any defect in the analysis from which they were deduced: for the analysis must be complete, before the induction can be conclusive. If, therefore, any certain truths were disregarded, and if the induction still persisted in going forward in despite of them, it necessarily departed from philosophy and truth exactly in the same ratio; and only wandered, further and further, into the wilderness of fiction and error. And what are the certain truths, which, in consequence of a manifest evidence of original CHAP. III. CHAP. III. PART I. defect in the analysis, have been crying out by the mouth of Newton, during the last ten pages, to the eager and unheeding progress of the mineral geology-Siste, viator!-Halt! They are these: "It seems probable to me, (said "the wise, sober, and circumspect Newton,) "that GOD, in the beginning, formed matter, in 66 solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, of such sizes and figures, and with "such other properties, and in such proportions "to space, as most conduced to the end for which "HE formed them.-All material things seem "to have been composed of the hard and solid "particles above mentioned, variously associated "in the FIRST CREATION by the counsels of an "INTELLIGENT AGENT. For it became HIM "who created them to set them in order; and "if He did so, it is unphilosophical to seek "for any other origin of this world, or to pretend that it might rise out of a CHAOS by the mere laws of Nature; though, being once formed, it may continue by those laws "for many ages '.' 66 66 This is the test, to which we were to bring and apply the root of the mineral geology. Now, it must be evident to every understanding, that the mundane system which supposed the earth to be at rest on the back of a CHAP. III. tortoise, is not more fundamentally in opposition PART I. to the planetary system of Newton, than the conclusions of the mineral geology, which we have just read, concerning the MODE of first formations, are in opposition to the conclusions of Newton upon the same subject; which conclusions constitute the basis of his philosophy. 66 The confused assemblage of elements, or "chaotic ocean," instabilis tellus, innabilis unda, from which the mineral geology derives the figure, symmetry, beauty, and accommodation, which we "observe and experience" in this earthly system, is no other than the CHAOS," which Newton has expressly and pointedly rejected and reprobated. The operation, which he entitles "the setting in order," is the very same which the mineral geology describes as "the forming successively a chemical, a mineral, and a geognostic structure." That operation, Newton ascribed to the immediate intelligence and power of God; the mineral geology, attributes it to general chemistry, and to certain laws of affinity, acting through a long succession of ages; Donicum ad extremum crescendi perfica finem LUCRETIUS, ii. 1115. |