nearer to "a solid basis for geology1," than he ever was afterwards, But, it was only for a moment; for, from that period his philosophy retrograded, whilst he imagined that it was advancing. He wanted either the ability, or the resolution, to trace back all the links of the chain which connect the actual phenomena of mineral matter with that great remote principle. He vacillated; he could not stand the intermediate sarcasms of the celebrated physical philosophers who were his contemporaries, and some of them his distinguished fellow-countrymen; and, resorting to his fatal system of compromise and concession, he sought to conciliate the good fellowship of physical science, by surrendering that high and solid principle to the chemical geology of Saussure. "In my letters 66 66 66 on the History of the Earth," says he, I acknowledge that I saw nothing as yet that could "lead me to conceive the formation of primordial substances, the masses of which were unintelligible to me. Since the publication of that work, that of the observations and remarks of "M. de Saussure has become for me a compass by "which to steer.-From that time, the observations "of mineralogists, together with my own, have placed beyond all doubt this great geological fact that all the visible mass of our continents, except volcanic substances, formed itself in suc"cessive beds or strata of different kinds, beginning See above, p. 30. 66 "with granite.-It is impossible to deny this, "after reading the Voyages des Alpes' of M. de "Saussure; in which that great observer has so accumulated the proofs of this truth, that no one can doubt it, and retain any right to the "title of geologist1:"—that is, of mineral geologist. Thus, the importunity of sensible phenomena fascinated and overcame his judgment; and drew down his view from the elevated truth, of which he had just caught a glimpse. He retrograded from the path of Newton, and plunged into the chaos of chemical first formations; and he thereby reduced himself to the necessity of seeking, by a daring and inerudite tampering with texts of Scripture, that visionary and arbitrary chronology for the effects of Creation, which he had before strenuously denied to other mineral geologists, who had demanded the same for the effects of the Deluge. I am well aware, of the power of phenomena on the mind; and, of the difficulty which the mineral geology experiences, in resisting their importunity with respect to the mode of the first mineral formations. But then, I am equally aware of the difficulty which every countryman experiences in renouncing his persuasion, that the sun rises from the earth in the morning, and sets at night, either in the ocean or behind the hills. The difficulty, is exactly of the same kind in both cases, and proceeds from the same cause, viz. the contradiction of "Lettres Géologiques, p. 73, 74, note. the real fact and apparent indications of the sensible phenomena; but, these contradictions of fact and phenomena plainly appear to reveal a law, designed to stimulate the exercise of our rational and moral faculties, and to abstract them from the dominion of sense. If that law is not resisted, the intellect will experience no greater offence or difficulty, in contemplating the crystalline foundations of the globe as the immediate effect of Creative Power; than it experiences, in contemplating each succeeding day as our own revolution from West to East, in contradiction of the powerful sensible suggestion, of the Sun's revolution from East to West. As the countryman cannot entertain the latter contemplation, just so it is, that the mineral geology cannot entertain the former. CHAPTER VIII. THE entertainment of a chaotic philosophy, however modified, within the lights of reformed philosophy and revelation, is a monstrum in the history of the human mind; because, there exists no reason whatever, à priori, for supposing, that an Intelligent and Omnipotent Agent gave imperfect existence to any of His first formations; and, because we have found ample proof, à posteriori, that in two parts of this tripartite system of matter, the first formations must have been produced in their full perfection-perfect bone, and perfect wood. We are therefore directed, by every sound principle of analogical reasoning, to infer; that in the third part, where the first formations were as essential to the structure of the globe, as in the two former to the structures of their respective systems, the first formations were likewise produced in their full perfection-perfect rock; and we have seen, that the indications of sensible phenomena can have no authority whatever in this question. To conclude, then, to a chaos for that third part of matter, in the present state of our knowledge, is far more monstrous, than the conclusion to an universa! chaos in the heathen world. It is the common error of that which calls itself philosophy in our days, to assume, that the movements of the mind are always and necessarily progressive towards truth; whereas, a little reflection on common experience is sufficient to shew us, that they are often retrogressive from it. Among the numerous evidences testifying this fact, none establish it more demonstratively, than the return to a Chaotic principle by our professors of physical science, "Nunc in Aristippi furtim præcepta relapsi,” in order to explain the structure and composition of our globe. The pretended analogies by which that principle is attempted to be maintained, are too obviously fallacious to affect the judgment of any one who is at all at the pains to think for himself, and who does not permit the thread of his thoughts to be intersected. 66 66 66 "In the present order of nature, (says the mineral geology,) we observe that animals and vegetables advance by a comparatively slow progression to maturity; such appears also to have been the order of nature in the progression of our planet to a tranquil state1." The false reasoning of this argument needs scarcely to be pointed out: it first takes ground upon a preassumption, that our planet actually experienced a progression from an originally agitated to a tranquil state, (which is the point refused;) and then it attempts to confirm that pre-assumption, by com 1 BAKEWELL, Elements of Geology, p. 429. |