300 Observations on the Nature and Importance of Geology. 



with the varied destiny of our own species, these monuments have 

 been buried in the earth, and, by that means, have been secured 

 against destruction. The Siberian and Chinese popular tradi- 

 tions of the mammoth living in the interior of the earth, are at 

 least figuratively correct ; and, in conjunction with the remains of 

 a former world, bear evidence of an earlier state of things. 

 The remains of all plants and classes of animals, whose struc- 

 ture permitted it, have been preserved in great abundance ; 

 and, although the distinction of species not unfrequently con- 

 fronts us with unsurmountable obstacles, a knowledge of them 

 must lead to important results ; at least, if we admit that the 

 various forms have been evolved from a primitive model, and 

 that the species have arisen from an original generic form. But 

 to perform what may be expected from it, the doctrine of petri- 

 factions should keep pace with the improvement of botanical 

 and zoolo^cal methods, and renounce names and distinctions 

 which have no longer any meaning. 



Independent also of this connection between the inorganic 

 and the organic world, between geology, botany, and zoology, 

 it is surely no unprofitable occupation for a rational being, to in- 

 quire what this earth upon which we live consists of, how it is 

 constructed, what changes it may have suffered, and what it 

 may still be destined to undergo. Whoever is still unsatisfied, 

 whoever estimates the value of science, not by intellectual de- 

 sires but by practical advantage, ought to recollect that there 

 are few of the arts of life to which geology is not more or less 

 applicable. It is one of the foundations of agriculture, which 

 cannot flourish without a knowledge of the soil : it instructs us 

 in the course and operation of water, whether we wish to pre- 

 vent it from doing injury, or to turn it to advantage ; it enables 

 us to search out materials for our habitations and furniture, and 

 the art of working mines, with which geology originated, and 

 which in return yields its most valuable productions. We hence 

 conceive that the study of geology brings us in continual con- 

 tact with the most exalted scenes of nature, with all that can 

 captivate our imagination, and fill our souls with vast concep- 

 tions, and thus explains the interest that is daily more and more 

 excited by it, and which warrants the most sanguine expecta- 

 tions of its future progress. 



