43^ 



foot! acquired a ftrong partiality, and became zealous to procure profe- 

 lytes to it. 



Hence the progrefs of natural hiftory was fmall, and our know- 

 ledge doubtful ; the caufes of which did not efcape the fagacious Bacon, 

 who fays, " the principal reafon of uncertainty feems to be, that every 

 " enquirer carries his own Idol, or fome preconceived notion along 

 " with him, to which he wrefts all the fads, and the pha-nomena." 



Had this great philofopher lived in our day, he could not have 

 better defcribed the feelings of the naturalifts who have vifited, and 

 publiflied accounts of the bafaltic coaft of Ireland ; every one of them 

 avows his favourite theory, and twifts trifling fads to fupport it, letting 

 the great features of nature, and the arrangement of her materials 

 efcape him, when a very flight attention to thefe would inftantly have 

 fhewn him the infufEciency of his own theory. 



Encouraged by the authority of Chancellor Bacon, I will venture to 

 difcufs fome of the theories, which of late have become fo fafhionablc, 

 and try them by the tell of fads, an ordeal which few of them can 

 fland. 



Lord Bacon fays, " We cannot, perhaps, deferve better of man- 

 " kind, than by endeavouring to free them from the tyranny oi falfe 

 " dodrines, and theories, and bring them by a kind of learned expert- 

 " ence to a more clofe and exaft acquaintance with things themfelves." — 

 Lord Bacon thus expreffed his difapprobation of theories, merely 

 becaufe they impeded the progrefs of fcience, and efpecially of natu- 

 ral hiftory ; he did not forefee that, at a future period, in the hands 

 of Anticbriji an Confp'u ators, they would be made inftruments to fupport 

 infidelity, concealed under the maflc of mere phyfical opinions, whofe 

 objecl was ("as the ingenious Abbe Barruel clearly proves) to fliew, 

 " '1 hat a much longer fpace of time is required for the formation of 

 " the univerfe, than the hiftory of the creation, as delineated by 



*' Mofes, leaves us room to fuppofe." 



That 



