936 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



Geology is, perhaps, yet too young 

 to afford complete satisfaction on 

 the complicated subject of which it 

 treats. But the most probable of 

 its general results or conclusions, 

 as far as it has hitherto advanced, 

 in our opinion, are exhibited in Pro- 

 fessor John (not Principal James) 

 Playfair's Illustrations of the Hut- 

 tonian system ; and that in a very 

 perspicuous, pleasing, and masterly 

 manner. How far the observations 

 made by Mr. Humboldt concerning 

 the secondary formations of nature 

 in the equatorial regions, may in- 

 validate, or appear, at first sight, 

 to invalidate the Huttonian system, 

 Professor Playfair will judge, and 

 will conduct himself on his usual 

 maxim of being equally candid to 

 acknowledge, and resolute to de- 

 fend, the truth. Some of the re- 

 marks on this volume of De Luc's 

 too, though not very many, seem 

 to be of a nature to attract the at- 

 tention of the professor, and to draw 

 a reply ; whether in any future edi- 

 tion of his Illustrations of the Hut- 

 tonian system, or in a separate pub- 

 lication. 



The systems of geologists, Mr. 

 Playfair remarks, are usually re- 

 duced to two classes, according as 

 they refer the origin of terrestrial 

 bodies to the agency of fire or of 

 water; and that, conformably to 

 this division, their followers have 

 of late been distinguished by the 

 names of Vulcanists and Neptun- 

 ists. He thinks that the leading 

 facts in zoology are now known ; 

 and he remarks that a tendency 

 may be observed in geological 

 systems to approach to one ano- 

 ther, and all of them to the Hut- 

 tonian system. The countenance 

 and support that is given, by this 



concurrence, to the Huttonian sys- 

 tem, Mr. Playfair judiciously re- 

 marks, is the greater as it was ex- 

 torted by the nature of things, not- 

 withstandinganoppositionfrom the- 

 oretical principles. This, he says, 

 ought to be considered as a strong 

 proof that the phsenomena known 

 to mineralogists are sufficient to 

 justify the attempts to form a the- 

 ory of the earth, being such as lead 

 to the same conclusions, where there 

 was not only no previous concert, 

 but even a very marked opposition. 



Of the two great systems which 

 atpresent divide geologists, theVul- 

 canic and the Neptunian, Dr. Hut- 

 ton belongs much more to the for- 

 mer than the latter; though, as he 

 employs, in his system, the agency 

 of both fire and water, he cannot, 

 with strict propriety, be classed 

 with either. In his system, water 

 is first employed to deposit and ar- 

 range, and then fire to consolidate, 

 mineralize, and, lastly, to elevate 

 the strata. But with respect to 

 unstratified or crystallized sub- 

 stances, he recognizes onlj- the ac- 

 tion of fire. 



Mr. de Luc is altogether a Nep- 

 tunist, and consequently adverse to 

 the Vulcanic system. The whole of 

 his present volume is a controversy 

 with Mr. Playfair, whom he treats in 

 a very respectful and gentlemanlike 

 manner, about the erroneousness of 

 the Huttonian, and the truth and 

 certainty of his own system. This 

 work (we are told in an advertise- 

 ment), containsonly thelatest of his 

 journeys. He has not yet been able 

 to prepare for publication his ear- 

 lier travels in Switzerland, and in 

 Germany, from the year 1792 to 

 1799. But he considers the pre- 

 sent volume (marked in the title- 

 page 



