58 



Publica lex hominum naturaque continet hoc fas, 

 Ut teneat vetitos inscitia debilis actus. 



Yet, I am afraid, that, while, upon the credit of Mr. 

 D'Alembert, Ave admit Mr. Desmarest to be a man of merit 

 and sound 'philosophy; we must, upon his own evidence, 

 convict him of being little acquainted with the fossil, upon 

 the nature of Avhich he undertook to instruct the world; 

 and ignorant of the varieties of basalt, and the modes in 

 Avhich nature has been pleased to arrange it. 



Men of genius, and warm imagination, have sometimes 

 dashed rapidly into topics, with which they had not taken 

 time to make themselves sufficiently acquainted. Thus, 

 Mr. Desmarest, from his zeal to co-operate in the vieAVS 

 of his friends, D'Alembert and Voltaire, may have hur- 

 ried into his basaltic Memoir, before he had taken suf- 

 ficient time to examine this fossil. But he has since had 

 leisure enough. He saAV the Avorld, for thirty years, busied 

 upon the basaltic topics he had throAvn out to them: he 

 alone gave himself no troiible on the subject; for, at the 

 end of thirty years, he shews, that he is perfectly unac- 

 quainted Avith most of the circumstances attending basalt. 



After this long interval, Mr. Desmarest resumes his pen, 

 and publishes another Memoir, in the fourth A^olume of 

 the National Institute, and noAv talks of basalt Avith autho- 

 rity, lie there tells us (page 320), that basalt pillars are 

 formed by tine retriiiie et le reserretnent, equally applicable 

 to desiccation. 



Again 



