existence, if they lead them to meditate seriously on the origin and end of terrestrial things, and to improve their brief span by the contemplation of the works and ways of Providence. Thus, as the stream of civilization advances towards the general diffusion of knowledge, truth, and piety, over the earth, new chambers of nature are unlocked, new scenes of instruction are disclosed, and new means and motives of intellectual and moral excellence are presented to our view.

The above demonstrative documents, however subversive of the reveries of Brydone and Voltaire, will hardly be held decisive, by resolute doubters. Freethinkers have, in fact, little freedom of thought. Slaves to the dark power, which their appetites and passions worship, they dare not admit the light of truth into their bosoms. Philosophy must therefore be allowed to have its bigots as well as Religion; and the former are certainly neither the most amiable nor the least dangerous of the two. Let such as withold their assent from this proposition, consult the Memoirs of Baron Grimm and his associate Annalists. There they will see how far the Idolatry of scepticism tends to cherish purity of life, generosity of heart, gentleness of temper, elevation of sentiment, truth, humility, candour, and all the germs of moral excellence. And let us bear in mind that the individuals so graphically portrayed, were of highly accomplished minds, and polished manners. Yet it is among them particularly, that we may discern the infant form of that philosophic Hydra, which soon thereafter reared its hundred heads in France, sickening the nations with its breath. The atmosphere, though purified by the supervening storms, which desolated Europe, still contains some of the effluvia, ready to enter every predisposed breast. But their agency is no longer restricted, as at first, to the upper sphere of speculative savans. Their grosser particles have settled down among the lower grades of society; they are disseminated in the trade-wind of periodicals; and

FALSE SCIENCE HOW COUNTERACTED.

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have converted many a workshop and cottage, erewhile scenes of honest industry and quiet, into arenas of deceit, misrule, and intemperance.

Beings thus perverted with the pride of corrupt doctrines, lose all relish for pure knowledge. They turn a deaf ear to the strains of divine philosophy, however wisely she may charm. These are a few of the miserable trophies of antitheism; these the fruits of a little learning, divorced from its divine origin and end.

To stem this foul torrent by forcibly raising mounds in its way, would be a useless labour. We must remount to its sources, and give them a wiser and a safer direction. We must lead the lofty streams of science into the legiti mate channels, wherein they will flow without disastrous inundation, and spread happiness and fertility on every side. Thus they may once more become the waters of life, refreshing its labours here, and guiding it onwards to the regions of a blessed eternity.

Placed for a quarter of a century, at the head of the Parent Seminary for diffusing Science among the people, and an eyewitness of many of the evils above described, it will not, I presume, be deemed unbecoming my character and functions, if I shall humbly endeavour to draw forth the accordances of Science and Revelation, in the Structure and Revolutions of our globe. May I indulge the hope of strengthening by this means, the faith of the pious, and of removing many chimeral obstructions, in the path of truth, so as to enable the candid student to discard his turbulent doubts, and "find joy and peace in believing."

A NEW SYSTEM OF GEOLOGY.

BOOK I.-THE PRIMORDIAL WORLD.

CHAP. I.-GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE FORMS OF MATTER.

The Objects to be examined in this Book are the General Forms of Matter, Light, the Atmosphere, and the Primitive Structure of the Terraqueous Globe.

UNIFORM experience proves that every species of matter, however different its essence may be, is susceptible of assuming three most distinguishable forms; the solid, the liquid, and the gaseous or aerial; of which forms we have familiar examples in ice, water, and vapour or steam. We learn, by scientific research, that each particular form depends on the relation between two opposite and contending powers; the attractive and repulsive. When the former power predominates, solidity prevails; when the latter, gaseity or the aerial state; and when the two are nearly balanced, the liquid condition results. Intermediate or transitive forms are also possible, such as the semi-fluid, and the semi-gaseous, but to these two no importance is attached, in our present inquiry.

E

The attractive force is that, which under various modifications, gives origin to cohesion, tenacity, hardness, crystallization, and gravitation. Had it reigned alone in the terrestrial system, every thing would have been condensed into a motionless mass, in which water and air would have been as fixed as the solid rock.

This, therefore, is the natural condition into which the attractive particles of matter spontaneously tend to come, and at which they do arrive, unless counteracted by the divellent force, called caloric or heat.

Chemical experimentalists have been too easily led away in their notions of this power, by certain vague analogies with their own familiar elements; and have spoken of it as a peculiar elastic fluid, pervading the pores of all bodies, in different quantities, according to their specific heats, and their actual temperatures. They talk of its transfer from one body to another, upon any change of capacity, or any disturbance of the thermometric equilibrium; of its radiating from surfaces by a continuous efflux, and thus projecting its particles to the greatest distances with inconceivable velocity. But insuperable difficulties attend the very conception of such a radiating and self-acting fluid. Associated with light in the sunbeam, heat must also follow its theoretic fortunes. If light consist in certain vibratory affections of an elastic ethereous medium, so must heat. Experiments demonstrate that the calorific power extends beyond the limit of the red rays, in the prismatic spectrum, or is less refran