Of the 'Relation of Tradition to Talcetiology 259 



an important bearing upon these sciences. All changes in the 

 condition and extent of land and sea, which have taken place 

 within man's observation, all effects of deluges, sea- waves, 

 rivers, springs, volcanos, earthquakes, and the like, which come 

 within the reach of human history, have a strong interest for 

 the palgetiologist. Nor is he less concerned in all recorded 

 instances of the modification of the forms and habits of plants 

 and animals, by the operations of man, or by transfer from one 

 land to another. And when we come to the Palaitiology of 

 Language, of Art, of Civilization, we find our subject still more 

 closely connected with history ; for in truth these are histori- 

 cal, no less than palsetiological investigations. But, confining 

 ourselves at present to the material sciences, we may observe, 

 that, though the importance of the information which tradi* 

 tion gives us, in the sciences now under our consideration, as, 

 for instance geology, has long been tacitly recognised ; yet it 

 is only recently that geologists have employed themselves in 

 collecting their historical facts upon such a scale and with such 

 comprehensive views as are required by the interest and use of 

 collections of this kind. The Essay of Von HofF,* On the Na- 

 tural Alterations in the Surface of the Earth which are proved 

 hy Tradition^ was the work which first opened the eyes of 

 geologists to the extent and importance of this kind of investi- 

 gation. Since that time the same path of research has been pur- 

 sued with great perseverance by others, especially by Mr Lyell ; 

 and is now justly considered as an essential portion of geology. 

 2. Connection of Tradition and Science. — Events which we 

 might naturally expect to have some bearing on geology, are 

 recorded in the historical writings which, even on mere human 

 grounds, have the strongest claim to our respect as records of 

 the early history of the world, and are confirmed by the tra- 

 ditions of various nations all over the globe, namely, the for- 

 mation of the earth and its population, and a subsequent de- 

 luge. It has been made a matter of controversy how the nar- 

 rative of these events is to be understood, so as to make it 

 agree with the facts which an examination of the earth's sur- 

 face and of its vegetable and animal population discloses to us. 

 Such controversies, when they arc considered as merely arch- 



Vol.i.,1822j vol. ii., 1824. 



