THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL. 



Ofi the Geology of Auvergne, particularly in connexion with the 

 Origin of Trap Rocks and the Elevation Theory. By Pro- 

 fessor Forbes. Communicated by the Author.* 



It can hardly at the present day be required that I should 

 present any formal apology for offering my speculations on a 

 subject removed, as some may suppose, from those to which, 

 professionally, my attention is habitually directed. Yet I will- 

 ingly take the occasion of presenting to the Society, together 

 with the few and somewhat desultory observations which these 

 remarks are intended to introduce, some reflections on the posi- 

 tion which geology ought to hold in relation to the other sci- 

 ences ; reflections which the recent application of mathematics to 

 the elevation theory of Von Buch and Elie de Beaumont render 

 the more fitted to the present occasion. 



If geologists have had reason to congratulate themselves upon 

 the escape of their science from the hands of the cosmogonists 

 of a century ago, they may perhaps one day discover that, as 

 regards the progress of knowledge towards the end which all 

 consider as the ultimate aim of science, the discovery of causes^ 

 the reform which was happily wrought in geology, has been car- 

 ried to an extreme. 



The great mass of exertion which has, within the last forty 

 years, been brought to bear upon the subject, has been, I fear 

 we must confess it, rather the exertion of the hand than of the 

 head. With a self-denial, in moderation pre-eminently praise- 

 worthy, have geologists, especially those of England and Germa- 

 ny, been accumulating and classifying ^c^^, which in inductive 

 philosophy essentially form the basis of reasoning. Of this we 



• Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 7 th and 21st Dec. 1835. 

 A collection of specimens illustrative of the paper, was at the same time pre- 

 sented to the Society. 



VOL. XXI. NO. XLI. — JULY 1836. A 



