introductory Remarks. 7 
this research has now assumed a more sober character; the 
science of geology has been reared upon numerous and accu- 
rate observations of facts ; and standing thus upon the basis of 
induction, it is entitled toa rank among those sciences which 
Lord Bacon’s Philosophy has contributed to create. Geologi- 
cal researches are now prosecuted, by actually exploring the 
structure and arrangement of districts, countries, and conti- 
nents ; the obliquity of the strata of most rocks, causing their 
edges to project in many places above the surface ; their expo- 
sure in other instances, on the sides or tops of hills and 
mountains ; or, in consequence of the intersection of their 
strata, by roads, canals, and river-courses, or by the wearing 
of the ocean; or their direct perforation, by the shafts of mines ; 
all these causes, and others, afford extensive means of reading 
the interior structure of the globe. 
The outlines of American geology appear to be particularly 
grand, simple, and instructive; and a knowledge of the im- 
portant facts, and general principles of this science, is of vast 
practical use, as regards the interests of agriculture, and the 
research for useful minerals. Geological and mineralogical 
descriptions, and maps of particular states and districts, are 
very much needed in the United States ; and to excite a spirit 
to furnish them will form one leading object of the contempla- 
ted journal. 
The science of natural philosophy, with its powerful auxilia- 
ry, mathematics, and the science of chemistry, the twin sister 
of natural philosophy, are of incalculable importance to this 
country. A volume would not suffice to trace their applica- 
tions, and to enumerate the instances of their utility. 
As one which may be allowed to stand, insfar omnium, we 
may mention the steam engine ; that legitimate child of physi- 
cal and chemical science—at once more powerful than the uni- 
ted force of the strongest and largest animals, and moré*ma- 
nageable than the smallest and gentlest ; raising from the bow- 
els of the earth the massy treasures of its mines, drawing up 
rivers from their channels, and pouring them, in streams of 
life, into the bosom of cities ; and, above all, propelling against 
the currents, the winds, and the waves, of the ocean, those 
