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describe the terrestrial constitution, which preceded and gave birth to the one, which they see, just as if an astronomer were to trace out the nascent forms and movements of the sun and planetary orbs. But neither, possesses the data, requisite for the solution of his problem. The astronomer, well aware of this defect, and trained in the severe discipline of geometry, abstains from such vain speculations. But the geologists of the above schools, disdaining to acknowledge incapacity, and restrained by no rigid calculus, advance fearlessly into their pristine chaos, and assuming the creative function, construct their favourite terrestrial schemes out of pre-existing confusion. They find no difficulty in bringing ancient chaos to its end, and in originating an entirely new order of things. To produce an effect without a cause never disturbs their philosophy. Their chaos of eternal, or at least, indefinite duration, changes under their direction, into systematic arrangement and succession. Elemental strife is speedily converted into the most friendly affinities; a confused mixture and turmoil, into crystalline forms, and parallel strata.

Now, such procedure as this, indicates a march of presumption, wholly unlike the modest pace of inductive science. Nor will its arrogance appear less odious when we consider, that in travelling into an ideal chaos out of the actual world, in order to forge a series of transition links between them, these theorists disdain to inquire. whether their natural darkness might have had the benefit of a few rays of supernatural light; whether the origin of the earth, a fact beyond the cognizance of man, and yet of great moral interest to him, may not have been kindly communicated to his race, by the same Being, who gives him life, and breath, and all things. Such deference might have been expected, at least, in Werner and Playfair, who acknowledged the divine inspiration of the Bible. But it does not appear that either of these ingenious men, regarded the Mosaic narrative of creation, as giving any

physical instruction whatever concerning the origin of the earth. We shall afterwards find, that the Mosaic chronology throughout, was equally disregarded by our learned countryman. It would have been well for his mathematical reputation, had he, in this instance, bestowed a little of that faith on Moses, which he unluckily lavished on Bailly.

Amid our absolute ignorance concerning the origin of our terrestrial system, it would therefore seem not unreasonable to consider such facts as the Deity has thought fit to reveal concerning the formation and garnishing of this globe as an abode of vegetable and animal beings. These facts may be very few, no more than are merely sufficient to teach the pious mind to confide in the GREAT FIRST CAUSE, instead of losing itself in an endless labyrinth of conjecture. But still they should be held as fixed points, in neglecting which we shall probably deviate into error. It must be remembered, that science has here no fulcrum to rest her leverage upon. Vainly, therefore, would she strive to move the earth out of the place assigned to it by the inspired historian. "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof?" Job, chap. xxxviii. These questions accurately circumscribe the boundaries of Cosmogony. They say to it, "Hitherto shalt thou come and no further; and here shall thy proud thoughts be staid."

None of our physical records are better fitted to inculcate humility, than the geological systems of the 18th century. They exhibit the human mind, in gesture proudly eminent, but yet the perpetual dupe of phantasms, as extravagant and unreal as the prodigies of oriental fiction. They remind one of the reveries which were afloat in zoqlogy at an earlier period. That animals might be produced without parents or ora, by the fortuitous fermentation of

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stagnant pools, was a favourite dogma with some theorists, under the name of equivocal generation. Thus they concealed their ignorance by giving a technical term, a verbal quibble, instead of an explanation of phenomena; and thus also they set entirely aside Divine agency in the creation and conduct of the world. This monstrous dogma necessarily disappeared, when natural history proved that every animal has a parental germ of life. The Pyrrhonists, dispossessed of the animal kingdom, have latterly seized on the mineral, and boldly adventured to account for its origin and arrangement by their old scheme of equivocal generation. The execution of this scheme has not, however, been so easy as its abettors had fondly hoped. These worldmakers split into several sects, whose chief delight was to demolish the work of their rivals. By this philosophic warfare, the older and more ricketty combatants have been driven from the field, leaving it in possession of two reckless champions, Werner and Hutton, the worshippers of Water and Fire. Both agree in only one respect; the original crudeness and imperfection of that terraqueous mass, which they have undertaken to refine and complete. Diverging from this point, each proceeds to show how the present appearances of the earth have been produced by the action of the ordinary forces of nature. By successive developments and catastrophes, which they profess to detail, the clumsy offspring of Deity or Chance, for the parentage is not well defined by them, becomes, in a countless lapse of ages, fitted to discharge its functions in the material system.

Our age and nation never cease to extol Bacon's inductive logic, and the rigid demonstrations of Newton. One is naturally led to suppose, that those who so loudly profess to be their disciples, should imitate, in some degree at least, the methods of research prescribed and practised by these great masters of reason and science. We should expect to find the facts subservient to any doctrine, collected with labour and skill, examined with scrupulous caution,

and lucidly arranged without deceptive art. It is only facts, thus carefully chosen and candidly compared, which can be generalized into a just theory. If we examine the ablest expositions of the Wernerian and Huttonian geologies by that philosophic standard, we shall find them to fall egregiously short. Phenomena doubtful, or discordant, are indiscriminately pressed into the service of these hostile sects; while the whole structure of their arguments is frequently baseless, resting on no solid facts, nay, hardly countenanced by a plausible analogy. Yet they claim for their hypothetical conclusions, the confidence due to sober induction alone.

The true epoch of philosophical geology can scarcely be traced farther back than Mr. Smith's Mineralogical Map of England, and the foundation of the Geological Society of London. Since then, the Cosmological schools have been waning fast away. But as the above rival systems, engrossed so very lately a large share of attention, and still have many partisans in the world, they merit a slight review, merely considered as sports of the human intellect.

The theory of Hutton was passing fast into oblivion, like its visionary predecessors, when it was re-embodied for a season, by the eloquence of Playfair. Delighted with the imposing boldness of the Huttonian creed, the Professor undertook its exposition with the ardour of a mineralogical neophyte. Bringing to the task, the joint resources of dialectics and geometry, he produced those Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory which have been so highly celebrated by his literary friends, though they will probably add nothing to his fame as a philosopher.

Were a modern naturalist to teach that the various classes, orders, genera, and species of animals and vegetables, were, on their first emergence, crude and shapeless

The cosmologies of Leibnitz, Whiston, Demaillet, Buffon, Dolomieu, Bertrand, &c.

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monsters; but that the several parts progressively acquired their just size and form in the course of successive generations, by the contending actions of the vital and chemical forces, mankind would not hesitate to pronounce the author of such speculations insane. Does the terraqueous globe, on which countless orders of living beings depend for accommodation and subsistence, so nicely suited to their peculiar organs and instincts, does it display no evidence of pre-concerted and pre-adapted wisdom in its structure? Originally a crude and rugged mass, did it gradually acquire its actual form and constitution from the antagonist powers of waste and reconsolidation tending towards their present equilibrium, during indefinite ages? This question, which Professor Playfair answers in the affirmative, contains his favourite proposition, whereby he pretends to give physico-mathematical proof to his adopted theory.

"Now, it is not at all obvious to what physical cause this phenomenon" (the spheroidal figure of the earth) "is to be ascribed. The earth, as it exists at present, has none of the conditions that render the assumption of the figure of equilibrium in any way necessary to it. Constituted as

it is, its parts cohere with forces incomparably too great to obey the laws of statical pressure, or to assume any one figure rather than another, on account of the centrifugal tendency, which results from its revolution on its axis. Though the fluidity of the earth will account for the phenomenon of its oblate figure, it may reasonably be questioned, whether this fluidity can be admitted in consistency with other appearances. According to what was established above, none of the appearances in the mineral kingdom indicate more than a partial fluidity in any former condition of the earth. The present strata, made up as they are of the ruins of former strata, though softened by heat, have not been rendered fluid by it, and have even possessed their softness in parts, and in succession, not altogether nor Since neither the hypothesis

at the same time.