3S8 Observations on Mr. Fareifs Geological Paper. 



is to explode aU his virulence : but I confidently trust that 

 Mr. Farey will be found a distinguished exception to this, and 

 that he will hail with approbation a liberal criticism which 

 has solely in view the expulsion of error from his favourite 

 pursuit, and the recalling of his attention within those sober 

 limits which experience and observation so justly prescribe. 

 A dwarf stationed on the shoulder of a giant can see further 

 than the giant himself; and if I assume this visual preemi- 

 nence, it is only to acknowledge the Colossus that supports 

 me. 



Certainly the great and most desirable desideratum in ge- 

 ologv is to account, satisfactorily, for the original formation 

 of all stratified countries ; and when that has been clearly 

 accomplished, all irregularities and anomalies in the strata 

 themselves, which have hitherto been almost the only cir- 

 cumstances attended to, will be comparatively an easy at- 

 tainment; for it is impossible to doubt that the same power- 

 ful agent, whatever it may be, that has given mobility and 

 transportation to such massive and diversified materials, and 

 has spread them out, on so gigantic a scale, over the face of 

 the globe, must also be equal to their separation, disruption, 

 denudation, excavation, and almost every other geological 

 appearance which observation has discovered. 



And I have only to advance one step further and add, 

 that the only a^ent in nature, with which we are acquaint- 

 ed, and to whose action we can assign, with any colourable 

 probability, all these extraordinary and stupendous effects, 

 is water. 



To this powerful and incessant operator allow but a suf- 

 ficiency of duration, and a suitable diversity of fluctuating 

 circumstance, and he will have a bold and arduous task to 

 perform who shall undertake to advocate its limitation in 

 geological efficacy. And here it is that I would- more espe- 

 Gialiy solicit the attention of Mr. Farey, by urging him to 

 relinquish his aerial assistant, which does not untie, but 

 clumsily cut, the Gordian knot, and substitute in its stead 

 iinple and natural instrument, in which he will expe- 

 xience a power and pliability (if action competent to the il- 

 lustration of almost every geological phenomenon. It is, 



however, 



