• 276 Sketch of tlie Life of Mr. David Douglas. 



sea, farther up, those of more temperate climes, until we arrive 

 at similar verdure to that found on the Scottish Alps, and lastly 

 we reach the region of snow and ice, where nature forever denies 

 to the wearied visitant the refreshing relief to the fatigued eye, 

 of a blade of grass or even a ilioss. But to behold even verdure 

 clinging to the craggy land perpetually bathed in vapours, com- 

 posed of hydrosulphurous gas and other combinations, which to 

 all other kind of vegetables would be utter, nay almost instant 

 annihilation is a fact that claims attention. Thus, we behold 

 apparent discordance in the great operations of nature, which ma- 

 nifest an infinite intelligence and power in the Almighty hand ; 

 in each being the life of the Eternal \ in each climate, His unity ; 

 in every distant planet His ubiquity ; in every provision the ful- 

 ness of His mercy ; and in the constancy of their action, His truth. 

 The geological world knows nothing yet of the origin of volcanic 

 forces, but we do know that they are the irregular secondary 

 results of great masses of matter, obeying the primary laws of 

 atomic action, that they differ in their intensity, are interrupted 

 in their periods, and are aggravated, or restrained by an endless 

 number of causes, external and purely mechanical. Of all modes 

 of material combinations, this is perhaps the most complicated. 

 To assume then that volcanic forces have not only been called into 

 action at all times in the natural history of the earth, but also, 

 that in each period they have acted with equal intensity, seems to 

 be merely a gratuitous hypothesis, not formed on any of the great 

 analogies of nature, and I believe unsupported by the direct evi- 

 dence of fact. This theory confounds the immutable and pri- 

 mary laws of matter with the mutable results arising from their 

 irregular combination. It assumes that in the laboratory of nature 

 no elements have ever been brought together, which we ourselves 

 have not seen combined ; that no forces have been developed by 

 their combinations, of which we have not witnessed the effects. 

 And what is this but to limit the riches of nature by the poverty 

 of our own knowledge, and to surrender ourselves to a mischievous 

 but common scepticism, which forces us to deny the reality of 

 what we have not seen, and even to doubt the truth of what we 

 do not perfectly comprehend ? In no place on the globe can the 

 geologist better devote his time to reconcile and render harmo- 

 nious this obscure but beautiful part of this exalted science, than 

 at these islands. Ail that my feeble capacity can do is but 

 a bubble. 



