CHAP. X. PART III. to the mountainous chains, and, in the form of rain, or snow, continually replenish the sources, in perpetual circulation; constitute a system so profoundly stamped with the characters of intelligence and power, that they can never be attributed by any one, whose mind is in the smallest degree imbued with Bacon's or Newton's philosophy, to any other cause, than that which originally caused the universal system of animal and vegetable life which that circulation of waters is destined to sustain; and which likewise contrived the ducts and channels, in which the circulating fluids of the first animal and vegetable structures were conducted throughout their respective systems : so intimate and inseparable was the mode of first formation, in all the three kingdoms of terrestrial matter. If, therefore, the mineral geology asks, what was the mode of the first formation of the fluvial circulating system; I reply, that it was the same as that of the first formation of the vascular circulating system; if it will name to me that mode, I will alsó name to it the mode of the former. If it hesitates, or replies, our odaμe" we cannot tell?” I also shall reply, after the highest example ουδε εγω λεγω ύμιν -"neither tell I you!" Is it not astonishing, that the author of so masterly a work as the section "of mountains ( CHAP. X. "and chains of mountains," in the Traité de PART III. Géognosie, should conclude, by ascribing the admirable and stupendous fluvial system to the same blind cause which furrows a sloping footpath after a violent shower; rather than to the Intelligent Cause, which contrived and executed the vascular system in created animals and vegetables? especially, since he dwells much upon the rules for forming a correct chart of that fluvial system, namely, the rivers of the globe1? How could such a delineation combine itself in his superior mind with that of the fortuitous rain-furrows, and form no combination at all with the delineation of the arterial and venal conduits, to which they bear so much sounder and more philosophical an analogy? From whence can have proceeded so strange an oversight in a writer, than whom no one has displayed more ability, acuteness, general circumspection, and integrity? It has arisen, solely, from the seduction of SENSIBLE PHENOMENA, in physics; and from a neglect to inquire, philosophically, into their real competency to reveal the MODE of FIRST FORMATIONS. However" naturally" the rain-furrows may tend "to lead us to admit an identity of cause" 1 D'AUBUISSON, tom. i. pp. 111, 115. CHAP. X. PART III. with the formation of valleys, it is certain, that it is in the highest degree unphilosophical, to suffer ourselves to be so led by them. If we view the subject from higher ground, we must at once disclaim the conclusion. This is a case, in which the contradiction of fact and phænomena, is easily detected. If we had nothing else to consider, but how the earth's surface might be furrowed by streams of water having no reason for their course, it would be of minor consequence to contest the analogy, or to point out its deficiencies. But, there is an essential disparity in the effect; and, therefore, there must be an equal disparity in the cause, of the two operations. The rainwater, which runs down a sloping footpath, works its way at random; it is a matter of indifference, every inch it moves, whether it travels on this side or on that side, in this direction or in that direction. But, how widely different are the directions of the streams and rivers which flow over the surface of the earth, from their sources to their mouths ! These are all so skilfully and so equally distributed over that whole surface, for the necessary service of the animal and vegetable creations; so artfully diverted, in many places, from the nearest seas, and conducted through extensive inland regions, as the Danube in Eu CHAP. X. rope, the Ganges in Asia, the Nile in Africa, PART III. and the Amazon in America; that they disclose an irresistible evidence of uniformity of plan and contrivance. The direction of all these rivers is determined, in the first instance, by the direction of the valleys in which they commence their course; the first formation of those valleys must, therefore, in sound philosophy, be ascribed to the Designer and Artificer of the general system so manifestly intended for irrigating the whole surface of the globe; and without which system of irrigation, the entire system of vegetation must necessarily have perished. And, if the vegetable system is to be ascribed to the divine intelligence; how much more rational and philosophical is it to suppose that the correlative irrigating system, to which the formation and direction of valleys and river-beds was as necessary as the formation of arteries and veins to the animal frame, was a corresponding part of the same intelligent ordinance; than that it was effected by the mechanical chance, by which rain trickles down a footway; and that it was by that chance alone, that the vegetable system, created by intelligence, was prevented from perishing through a lack of providence! CHAPTER XI. PART III. THE formation of coal, is a problem which still CHAP. XI. engages the researches and speculations, not of the mineral geology only, but of pure mineralogy and chemistry. M. D'Aubuisson entertains a philosophical doubt, whether this substance ought to be classed with intermediate, or with secondary formations; and he therefore leaves the point undecided. Upon the nature of coal, he defers to the judgment of Mr. Hatchett; whom he duly designates, as "one of the most "able chemists of our time, and who has applied himself, more than any other, to the "discovery of the origin of coal." This distinguished chemist pronounces this question to be" a difficult problem in the natural history "of minerals. He states the different opinions, which have been propounded with respect to the origin of this substance; and he then declares his own. The different opinions which Mr. Hatchett 1. Tom. ii. p. 298. Note. 2 Philosoph. Trans. vol. xcvi. p. 135. |