162 Rev. Mr Wheweirs Address to the Geological Society. 



ber must at once occur to our minds, we have many experi- 

 mental data to collect, many intricate calculations to follow 

 out. And it would be easy to point out problems of a still 

 more abstruse kind, in which we no less require aid from the 

 mathematician, before we can proceed in our generalizations. 

 May we not hope to see some fortunate man of genius unveil 

 to us the mechanics of crystalline forces ? And when that is 

 done, can we doubt that we shall have a ray of new light 

 thrown upon those extraordinary phenomena of slaty cleavage 

 in mountain masses which have lately been brought under our 

 notice ? Or, recollecting the experiments of Sir James Hall 

 (a striking step in geological dynamics), may we not hope then 

 to learn how those crystalline forces are stimulated by heat ; 

 and thus follow the metamorphic process into its innermost re- 

 cesses ? These and a thousand such questions lie before us ; 

 —tangled and arduous inquiries no doubt, but connected by 

 their common bearing upon one great subject ; — " a mighty 

 maze, but not without a plan." And through this maze we 

 must force our way in order to advance towards any sound 

 geological theory. The task is one of labour and difficulty ; 

 but I well know, gentlemen, that you will not shrink from it 

 on that account. Those who aspire to the felicity of knowing 

 the causes of things, must not only trample under foot the fears 

 of a timid unphilosophical spirit, which the poet deems so ne- 

 cessary a preparation, but they must look with a steady eye up- 

 on difficulty as Avell as violence. They must regard the ter- 

 rors of the volcano and the earthquake, the secret paths by 

 which hot and cold and moist and dry ran into their places, 

 the wildest rush of the fluid mass, the latent powers which give 

 solidity to the rock, — as operations of which they have to trace 

 the laws and measure the quantities with mathematical exact- 

 ness. And though there can be no doubt that the greater part 

 of us shall be more usefully employed in endeavouring to add 

 to the stores of descriptive geology, than in these abstruse and 

 difficult investigations, yet we must always receive, with great 

 pleasure, any communications containing real advances in the 

 mathematical dynamics of geology, from those whose studies 

 and whose powers enable them to lay an effectual grasp upon 

 these complex and refractory problems. 



