448 Progress oj Geology, 



had entered with all the ardour inseparable from this pursuit, 

 into various departments of research. Information was as 

 freely diffused as circumstances would permit; and that tena- 

 cious adherence to favourite dogmas, which characterised an 

 earlier period, gradually relaxed as men applied themselves to 

 the preliminary acquisition of knowledge, to the rigorous exa- 

 mination of facts on an extended scale, and the consequent 

 developement of irresistible truths. 



The advantages, and indeed the necessity, of cooperation, 

 in such an immense field of investigation, became more and 

 more apparent. Hitherto the discoveries and opinions of in- 

 dividuals were imperfectly known or understood ; their oppor- 

 tunities of personal communication, of collision of sentiment, 

 and of referring to authentic illustrations of British and foreign 

 geology, were unfrequent. They were as yet not far removed 

 from the time, " when the vague and cursory information that 

 every man might glean from the objects that were perpetually 

 before him, when combined and magnified by a powerful ima- 

 gination, was sufficient for all the purposes of geological spe- 

 culation. According to this view of the matter, a man might 

 philosophise very well by himself; it was his business not to 

 discover, but to invent ; and he stood no more in need of the 

 assistance of others, than if he had been at work in the regions 

 of poetry or romance." Under these disadvantages, it is not 

 surprising that the progress of this branch of knowledge had 

 been extremely slow. Such a state of things was obviously 

 unfavourable for concentrating geological data and eliciting 

 important results ; for ascertaining characteristic features, and 

 describing them with precision, and for establishing an appro- 

 priate nomenclature. To facilitate these desirable objects, it 

 was necessary to combine the exertions of those who were 

 engaged in a common pursuit, and its advocates soon became 

 sensible of the impulse it had received from the union of labour. 

 In the year 1807, most of the English geologists formed 

 themselves into a society, which rapidly increased, and whose 

 members have zealously and successfully employed themselves 

 in researches into the geology, not of this country alone, but 

 by degrees of almost every portion of the globe. It is scarcely 

 necessary to add that which is understood and conceded by 

 all geologists of our times, that they have less to do with spe* 

 culations on the earth's formation, than with the acquisition 

 of that evidence, by means of which it is alone probable a clue 

 will be discovered to those parts of the system that are as 

 yet inexplicable ; acting upon the principle with reference to 

 that ultimate object, that, " before attempting an explanation^ it 

 is best to he acquainted with the thing to be explained,'* 



