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CHAP. I.

PART 1. for truth; nor shall we think it necessary to apologize for the earnestness with which we may deem it requisite to conduct it. The disciple of Werner, who holds his mind in that state of subordination to truth, that he is at all times ready to pass from the Neptunian to the Plutonian scheme of geology, if the latter can only exhibit proof that the balance of reason weighs on its side, must be equally ready to surrender the mineral geology altogether to the Mosaical, provided that the latter should be found, after a trial of their respective authorities by some common conventional standard, to be that which can best sustain the test of the criterion.

Now, it is not difficult to find such a criterion, because mineral geology itself proposes one for the trial of its own validity, and the Mosaical geology consents to submit itself, unconditionally, to the same: so that the whole operation will be reduced to the simple process of applying, successively, to the same standard, the root or fundamental principle of the two geologies, with respect to the modes of the primary and secondary formations of the mineral substances composing this globe.

The test to which mineral geology appeals, is the reformed philosophy of BACON and NEWTON. Our object will therefore be, to ascertain whether the mineral or the Mosaical geology

And, PART I.

can best endure the trial of that test.
since the former, which challenges the trial,
is of very recent origin, whereas the latter
is of very great antiquity, it will be in pro-
priety and order, that we should bring first to
the test the quality of the new pretender. Let
us therefore inquire- What is Mineral Geology?

CHAP. I.

CHAP. II.

CHAPTER II.

PART I. MINERAL GEOLOGY, as it is properly characterized by Cuvier', or, according to a more recent denomination, GEOGNOSY, is no other than mineralogy, or the science of minerals; determining the mode of the first formations of the mineral substances composing this earth, and the mode of the changes which those substances appear to have subsequently undergone.

That this is a true definition or description of this geology, is attested, both by the statements of its teachers, and by their reports of the history of its origin.

"The principal object which geognosy has "in view, (says the able writer from whom "I have just quoted *,) is,

"1. The knowledge of the mineral masses, "or rather of the different groups or systems

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of mineral masses, whose assemblage com66 poses the solid portion of this terrestrial globe. It considers the mineralogical composition, structure, and extent of each of these systems. It treats of their reciprocal

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2

! CUVIER, Theory of the Earth, sect. 22, p. 67. Tom. i. p. 1.

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CHAP. II.

dispositions, of the circumstances of their PART I. superposition one to the other, and of the "different relations subsisting between them : "Secondly; Of every thing which relates to THE MODE of their FIRST FORMATION: And, "Thirdly; To THE CHANGES which they "have undergone."

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In this exposition, the first article describes simple mineralogy; the two other articles describe the same science converting itself into mineral geology.

If we consult the historical accounts of the origin of this science, as they are delivered by its professors, we shall find that they exactly answer to the preceding description. They relate, that the experience which had been acquired in a long course of mineralogical practice, the numerous observations which had been successively made by a series of able and acute mineralogists, and the light diffused over mineralogy by the improvement and reformation of chemistry, engendered an ambition in succeeding mineralogists to advance beyond the mere investigation of the actual properties of minerals; their description and classification; and to endeavour to detect, by means of physical principles, the mode by which they were first formed, and by which they were afterwards' altered in their circumstances. And it is this

CHAP. II.

PART I. new and extraneous exercise of mineralogy that properly constitutes the new science, which is called mineral geology, and which exercises such exalted functions at the present day.

Thus, both the description of this geology and its history, as delivered by its most distinguished and zealous conductors, confirm the position; that it is no other than simple mineralogy, or the science of minerals, pretending to determine the truth, in two remote and extensively important facts pertaining to the history of this globe.

The first thought which a consideration of these pretensions awakens in a reflecting and reasoning mind, is this question: - Can mineralogy be competent to determine, by means of physical principles alone, the matter of fact in those points? For, the proper sphere of mineralogy is confined to the characters and qualities, that is, to the actual sensible phœnomena of mineral matter; and can actual sensible phænomena alone supply the means of determining, with the evidence which sound philosophy and sound reason demand, the certainty of the two past facts in question?

To this doubt it thus replies: that it is competent to determine these two points of fact, and with the evidence which reason and philosophy demand; that "the happy revolution

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