L. A. Necker de Saussure Voi/age en Ecossc. 167 



the Alps, render him well qualified to discuss ; while strict 

 attachment to truth, in contempt of the allurements of hypo- 

 thesis or system, g:ives a rare value to his descriptions. This 

 quality will be most gratefully acknowledged by all the dis- 

 passionate readers of the polemical geognosy of Scotland, in 

 which identical phenomena are very frequently painted in totally 

 different colours and forms, by the contending votaries of 

 Neptune and Pluto. Whether tlie actual position and distri- 

 bution of the inert mineral masses which compose the crust of 

 our globe, have resulted from the agency of water or fire, 

 must appear to every man of common sense, a question in 

 science, susceptible of very tranquil investigation, one little 

 calculated to kindle dissension or awaken animosity. It is, 

 however, too true, that the northern capital of this island con- 

 tinued for many years a scene of such strife among its geologists 

 and geognosts, as their subject itself could alone have rivalled, 

 had Vesuvius burst forth in the middle of their Firth. 



This world-making mania which split Edinburgh into fac- 

 tions, is itself not the least geological curiosity in Scotland, and 

 deserves inquiry into its causes, as well as the juxta-posilion of 

 barren rocks. Contemplated simply with a philosophical eye, 

 without any sarcastic reference towards the intellectual city, the 

 above phenomenon might perhaps be traced to some or all of the 

 following causes: 1st. To the practice at the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh, of entering into a verbal discussion, often somewhat 

 animated, on the papers which are read before them. 2cl. To the 

 predominance of metaphysical disquisitions in the Scotch Univer- 

 sities, from which a habit of indefinite argumentation is often ge- 

 nerated ; the reverse frame of mind to that required in physical 

 investigation. A person of this temper, will dispute for victory 

 with unwearied vehemence. To this cause we must ascribe 

 the extraordinary number of debating societies in Edinburo-h. 

 3d. To the great influence which the men of law, whose task 

 it too often is to refine on trifles, and " make the worse appear 

 the better reason," exercise on Edinburgh Society ; an in- 

 fluence due to their acknowledged talents, as well as numbers. 

 These concurring circumstances give, perhaps, an undue pre- 

 dominance to the syllogistic logic which costs nothing, over 

 the sounder but less shewy logic, of Bacon. It was, perhaps, 

 this scholastic spirit which unhappily operating on the powerful 

 and elegant mind of the late Professor Playfair, led it, though 

 admirably calculated for inductive research, to expend itself 

 less profitably on the hypotheses of Dr. Hutton. Having thus 

 enumerated what appear to be the main causes of the late geo- 

 logical frenzy of the Scottish capital, we shall now proceed on 

 our luur with the Genevese philosopher. 



Though mineralogy was the chief end of Mr. Necker's 

 journey through Scotland, he judiciously exleiukd his views 



