fact. Its own order and arrangement will remain exactly the same, whether granite, and limestone, be the products of Chaos, and of precipitation, or the products of Creation, and of oceanic aggeration and desiccation : it will be still the same, whether we denominate the four great mineral formations of the globe-primary, intermediary, secondary, and tertiary, or whether we denominate them-creative, fragmentary, sedimentary, and diluvial. The only difference will be; that, in the first case, Mineralogy will allege effects without any historical knowledge of their causes; and, in the second case, it will allege them with positive and distinct historical knowledge of their causes. 33. It is, no doubt, most highly gratifying and remunerating, after labour taken, to obtain the approval of those who are competent judges of our work; but, if the following Treatise shall be found to impart nothing tending to serve the cause which it aspires to serve, I am the last person to wish that it should be propped by the favour of any Reviews. If, on the other hand, it shall be found to contain any thing possessing that tendency, it will maintain its ground and work its effect, in despite of all the literary or scientific parties of the day; which may, indeed, somewhat impede its course for their own generation, but cannot for posterity: Truth, not being as frail and as mortal as themselves. To that issue, I shall very contentedly leave it; since, I write not in prospect of present fame, but in full confidence of ultimate efficiency. 34. With respect to the many eminent and distinguished names with which the argument has inevitably brought me into collision; it cannot be supposed, it will not be supposed by minds of any elevation, that I have written with feelings of acrimony, hostility, or disrespect towards the individuals, merely because I have strenuously assailed the errors which their arguments are calculated to extend; every hostile feeling is absorbed by the errors, and the only feeling with which they themselves inspire me, is a jealousy of estimation on behalf of that Sacred Authority which rightfully claims the entire devotion of their great and splendid endowments. Though courtesy, by the laws of chivalry, was ever to precede, accompany, and follow the tournament, and never to be relinquished, (from which laws I am not conscious that I have in any instance departed); yet, I never read, that it was accounted courteous to fight feebly, in order to procure the prize for the opposite party. The purpose, for which the lists were entered, was to be actively and energetically pursued; and, whichever party was unhorsed fairly, no want of courtesy was imputed to the vigour of the charge; nor, if they were true knights, would it in any degree corrupt the courtesy of the feeling. As those contended exclusively for honour, so I shall assume, that our contest will be exclusively for truth. We are not to copy the French peasant, who ran in the night to fetch a priest to his dying father; and who knocked at the priest's door for three hours gently, for fear of waking him1. I respect fully invite refutation, and am equally ready to acknowledge with frankness the power of victory in an adversary's argument, or, still further to demonstrate its fallacy "Le père d'un paysan se mouroit. Le paysan fut la nuit "trouver le Curé, et demeura trois heures à sa porte à heurter douce"ment. Le Curé lui dit: Que ne heurtiez-vous plus fort? "J'avois peur, dit-il, de vous réveiller." Dict. d'Anecdotes, tom. ii. p. 212. 66 66 1 or its infirmity. "In pugna pugilum et gladiatorum, plerumque non quia fortis est vincit quis, aut quia non potest vinci, sed quoniam ille qui victus est, "nullis viribus fuit: adeo idem ille victor, bene valenti postea comparatus, etiam superatus recedit 1." I shall honour and esteem that writer, who shall demonstrate the errors of my argument on this great subject, with feelings congenial to those with which I have pointed out the errors of others. Let him only accomplish his task sincerely, and successfully, and he cannot expose too severely for my sensibility the reality of the errors, inconsequences, or absurdities which he may have to reveal; that they may not mislead others, and may cease to mislead myself; οφρα τις ωδ' ειπῇσιν Αχαιων τε Τρώων τε η μεν εμαρνασθην ερίδος περι θυμοβόροιο, But, this supposes an Ajax in an opponent. If I obtain a competent, just, and honourable refuter, "Possum ego censuram scriptoris ferre severi, "Et possum modicâ laude placere mihi." I TERTULLIAN, de Præscriptionibus, &c. cap. 2. 2 Il. vii. 300. ERRATA. VOL I. p. 315, line 1, for 50 lunar years, read 50th lunar year. p. 326, 16, for quid, read quod. VOL. II. p. 114, line 17, dele it. p. 261, note, line ult. for Chorographia, read Chronographia. OF THE MODE OF THE FIRST FORMATIONS OF THE EARTH, ACCORDING TO THE MINERAL GEOLOGY. CHAPTER I. Page OF THE MATERIALS WHICH COMPOSE THE CRUST OF THE EARTHTHEIR DISTINCTIVE AND INDICATORY CHARACTERS-THEIR GENERAL CLASSIFICATION: OF GEOLOGY-TWOFOLD- MINERALMOSAICAL-PROPOSED COMPARISON OF THESE CHAPTER II. ................. OF THE MINERAL GEOLOGY:-ITS DISTINCTION FROM MINERALOGY -ITS APPEAL TO THE PHILOSOPHIES OF BACON AND NEWTON CHAPTER III. 1 .... 17 ITS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE, CHAOTIC AND CHEMICAL VARIOUSLY MODIFIED:-ESSENTIAL OPPOSITION OF THAT PRINCIPLE TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF NEWTON-EXEMPLIFIED-1ST, WITH RELATION TO THE MODE OF FIRST FORMATIONS CHAPTER IV. EXEMPLIFIED, 2DLY, WITH RELATION TO THE CAUSE OF THE SPHERICAL FIGURE OF THE EARTH 23 36 |