254 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



of fluid fire, nor is there any better example of 

 the capabilities of purely inductive philosophy 

 than this inquiry affords ua. 



When Dr. James Hutton exploded the 

 Werneriau doctrines, he proceeded, by a 

 purely inductive process, not to explain the 

 origin of things, but to elucidate their exist- 

 ing state by the agency of known causes. In 

 addition to the proposition that the stratified 

 rocks are formed of the debris of more ancient 

 structures, he set forth the doctrine that sub- 

 terranean heat had caused the elevation of 

 continents and mountain- chains, and that the 

 mechanical derangements of the sedimentary 

 strata, as well as the occurrence in them of 

 trap-rocks and metalliferous veins, were due 

 to the same cause, which had been chiefly 

 characterized by wonderful energy and ra- 

 pidity of action. Wherever granite peaks 

 pierce the heaven with their pinnacles of snow, 

 or wherever sections of the earth's crust are 

 made so as to expose the arrangement of the 

 various layers of which it is composed, we 

 meet with the first links in the chain of evi- 

 dence that fire was the first agent employed 

 in the structure of the globe. In the first 

 case, we see protruded enormous masses of 

 rock exhibiting no traces of stratification, 

 but many of a former state of fusion. The 

 structure is crystalline and granular; the 

 masses are never arranged in beds, but occur 

 in enormous blocks and irregular masses, and 

 broken by irregular fissures in different di- 

 rections. Hard as adamant, with no regular 

 cleavage, and so chemically constituted as to 

 set aside all notion of an aqueous origin, these 

 rocks appear before us as " the children of 

 the fire;" the consolidated remains of a past 

 state of incandescent fluidity. 



E-eferring to the arrangements seen in 

 stratified rocks, we always find, when we 

 penetrate deep enough, that these are built 

 on a foundation of granite, while beneath the 

 granite itself, whether it forms the mountain 

 top or bleak escarpment, or underlies many 

 thousand feet of sedimentary strata, no ves- 



tige of a stratified rock is ever found. Thus 

 granite, and its associate forms of porphyry 

 and basalt, are reasonably regarded as the 

 most ancient of all formations, the founda- 

 tions of the world, from the disintegrated 

 elements of which, by the ceaseless action of 

 hurricane and wave and fire, through a suc- 

 cession of illimitable ages, the superincumbent 

 rocks have been formed. 



Though every geologist of note now ad- 

 mits that the granitic and trappean masses 

 are the results of simple fusion, and that fire 

 has been the chief agent in their production, 

 some great differences of opinion exist as to 

 whether similar forces are at present in ac- 

 tion, whether, indeed, the cyclopean forge 

 still roars and blazes below, or has long since 

 become exhausted, and, by this time, utterly 

 extinguished. Though admitted on all hands 

 that fire has played an important part in the 

 past history of our globe, yet more than one 

 eminent geologist has adopted the opinion 

 that whatever heat may have been embow- 

 elled in the earth has long since died out, 

 and that the outbursts of volcanoes, in com- 

 mon with hot springs and earthquakes, are to 

 be attributed not to general but to partial 

 causes, of which chemical affinities are the 

 chief. Let the inductive process guide us 

 where it may in this inquiry, let facts teach 

 us their several lessons, and let our con- 

 clusions be based on the evidence which 

 Nature sets before us. 



The phenomena which most directly bear 

 on this question are volcanic eruptions, earth- 

 quakes, thermal springs, and the peculiar 

 figure of the earth. Each of these offers its 

 own suggestions, and all are equally open to 

 observation, and afford legitimate materials 

 for logical deductions. 



Volcanoes are pretty generally distri- 

 buted over the whole of the world, even more 

 plentifully than is generally supposed. On 

 the continents of the old and new worlds 

 there are about a hundred and ten, while on 

 islands in various oceans there are no less 



