Observations on the Nature and Importance of Geology, 295 



hibit in relation to this science one of the most important appli- 

 cations, as well as one of the most unerring standards, by which 

 they are distinguished. 



When the geometer, by his measurements, proves that the fi- 

 gure of our earth mayj like that of other planets, be determined 

 by its revolutions, and hence draws conclusions regarding its ori- 

 ginal state of fluidity, we find, that the phenomena of geology 

 lead to the same result. When he weighs its mass in a balance, 

 whose arm is the semidiameter of the sun's orbit, we are unable 

 to confirm his statement by immediate observation ; but we ob- 

 tain, in this way, a basis on which we can, in some measure, rest 

 our conclusions regarding the internal structure of the earth. 



If we contemplate its surface, with all its inequalities, it is geo- 

 logy alone that can give us a distinct representation of them. All 

 local descriptions, not springing from this source, either leave be- 

 hind them indistinct and erroneous conceptions, or are entire- 

 ly fanciful. This surface being the habitation of our species, 

 its figure and its changes must, therefore, be closely connected 

 with the history of the human race ; and though the most im- 

 portant of those changes may be far anterior to their origin, and 

 to the period of history, we may yet, in more than one geognos- 

 tic fact, find suggestions and disclosures, which cannot be unac- 

 ceptable to the historical investigator. These facts concur with 

 historical testimony, in representing the elevated platforms of 

 Asia as the cradle of the human race, and in explaining their dif- 

 fusion from that centre ; and the traditions of deluges, found 

 among all the nations of antiquity, are corroborated by the still 

 existing traces of those violent events. 



The monuments concealed in the bosom of the earth, and ex- 

 tending to the whole organic creation, are still more instructive. 

 Between the dead and the living there yawns a chasm, indeed, 

 A^hich we can never overleap ; but if any thing can lift the veil 

 that hangs over the origin and progress of the organic world, it 

 must be those remains of it, for the knowledge of which we are 

 indebted to geology. So far as we have examined the crust of 

 the earth, we have discovered in its structure and materials no 

 transition from simple to compound. The order of time has 

 established no relation, according to which the strata of simple 



