"terrestrial globe. But, although the disso- PART I. "lution was general, it will not follow that every precipitate was such, and that each "formed originally a stratum which enveloped "the whole globe. While the dissolution deposited one substance, or one rock, in one place, it is very possible that it produced no precipitate of the same species in another; "either because the constituent principles of "the rock were not in sufficient quantities "in that part of the dissolution, or because "the causes of the precipitation did not there "exercise their action, or lastly, because other causes obstructed them. In this place, they deposited granite; and a little further, "micaceous schist, because the elements of "mica were, perhaps, in a greater quantity in "that part of the dissolution which covered "the latter place'. 66 15. "When the observer enters into the "details of the formation of minerals, he sees 66 nothing but precipitations, crystallizations, and "dissolutions. The powers which produced the "minerals, and which collected and united "their elements, were the powers of affinity. "He will not be able to appreciate correctly "their effects, without a profound knowledge "of general chemistry. But he will stand in 1 D'AUBUISSON, i. p. 326, 7. CHAP. III. PART I. "need of great reserve and discrimination, "when he would conclude, from what takes "place in our laboratories, to that which takes CHAP. III. 66 66 66 place in nature. Nature acts upon immense masses; she has time at her disposal, it is nothing to her; and these two circumstances "will often be sufficient to render entirely "dissimilar the effects of the same agent, and 66 - the products of the same cause. — Time, " which has such narrow limits for us, has none at all for Nature; for her, it is as inde"finite as space: both of these exceed even "the conception of our imagination1. It is "further to be observed, that we cannot "flatter ourselves with being able to know all "the means which Nature employs in her forma❝tions; and we are not to conclude that an "effect is impossible to her, because we have "not been able to produce it in our labora"tories; for instance, we are not to conclude "that a given substance is undecomposable, merely because we have not been able to decompose it 2. 66 66 16. "It will be sufficient to recollect; that "the science of physics makes known to us the "laws which appear to govern matter, and that, by continually keeping before our eyes the 1 D'AUBUISSON, tom. i. p. 241, 2. 66 CHAP. III. "phænomena of Nature, and the causes which PART I. produce them, it renders us competent to ap"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 experienced1. 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 geology3.—General 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 3." 66 66 3 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 themselves" at last into the order, and correspondence of parts, which it now possesses, PART 1. by a gradual process of "precipitation and crystallization," according to certain "laws CHAP. III. 66 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 66 CHAP. III. them, that produced and constituted that PART I. 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 truths'. 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 |