218 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PT. in. 



great roads to wealth, and that even the history of nations 

 often depended upon the kind of ground which they had 

 under their feet. By facts such as these he opened men's 

 eyes to see the wonders of the earth's crust, so that people 

 began to talk everywhere of the geological lectures of Werner, 

 and numbers flocked from distant countries, and even learnt 

 the German language, that they might come and hear him. 



In this way he spread the love of geology all over Eu- 

 rope. He was so eager and earnest himself that his pupils 

 could not fail to catch some of his enthusiasm, and to try to 

 follow out his ideas. But, unfortunately, this very enthu- 



FIG. 36. 



Diagram of rocks which have been rent apart at the point f, and tilted up. i, i, 2, 2, 

 &c., Beds which before the disturbance were continuous. 1 



siasm led him to insist upon a theory which kept back his 

 favourite science for many years. 



Neptnnists and Vulcanists. Werner had only studied a 

 small part of Germany, and there were then very few de- 

 scriptions of other parts of the world which he could read ; 

 and so, from want of knowledge, he formed the mistaken 

 idea that in olden times, after the globe had cooled down 

 and become fit for living beings, there were no volcanoes 

 for long ages, but that basalt and other rocks, which we 

 now know were made by volcanic heat, were all laid down 

 by water. There were men living in Werner's time who 

 knew that this was a wrong theory, but he would not listen 

 to their arguments, and the two parties became so violent 

 that many years were lost in angry disputes between the 



1 Kindly drawn for me by Professor Ramsay. 



