374 Analysis of Scientific Books. 



as before, which broke up and triturated the projecting angles, 

 and these were again deposited by subsidence. And then the 

 ocean became peopled ; and as portions of the strata had been 

 elevated above the waters, vegetables were produced, and their 

 fragments becoming carbonized, were washed into the sea, and 

 became entangled among the subsiding strata, forming coal-beds. 

 Subsequently, the temperature diminished, and the present crea- 

 tion appeared. 



The final conclusion (since we fear that we are exceeding our 

 bounds,) is, that the " grand mineral masses of every age, com- 

 posing the known crust of the globe," are attributable to three 

 primary causes : first, solution of certain minerals in water ; 

 second, suspension of fragments of various kinds and sizes ; and 

 third, the elevation of crystallized matter by intumescence or ex- 

 pansion, in a solid or fluid state. 



And these causes, being perfectly original and new, " have an 

 immense advantage over most, perhaps over all, of the hypotheses 

 that have as yet been brought forward to explain the same ap- 

 pearances, and which speaks volumes in their favour : and this 

 is, that they are still in operation — with diminished energy, it is 

 true, but this is the necessary result of their nature." 



The author concludes by remarking, that other geologists have 

 erred by considering rather what might be than what is ; that the 

 laws of nature are invariable ; that other geological theories have 

 chiefly been dictated by a love of the marvellous, as the dark ages 

 had recourse to supernatural causes ; that this " wonder-working 

 spirit" had inspired most of the geologists who have hitherto 

 published theories to account for the mineral appearances of our 

 planet ; and that though the theory of the globe which he has 

 himself proposed will require " much ulterior developement," 

 " its truth will be established on the soundest possible basis ;" 

 because it proceeds by the application of those modes of opera- 

 tion, which nature still employs, and on that law on which all 

 our knowledge rests, " on every subject whatsoever," namely, 

 that similar results always are, have been, and will be produced 

 by similar preceding circumstances. \ 



