ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



937 



page 1.) containing his observa- 

 tions on some parts of the Baltic 

 and North Seas, and in different 

 parts of England, as sufficient to 

 establish all the propositions of the 

 theory, of which the critical dis- 

 cussion forms the subject of his 

 " Elementary Treatise on Geo- 

 logy ;" and the descriptions con- 

 tained in the last of these travels 

 will, he thinks, in this country 

 (England), be attended with the 

 particular advantage of being easily 

 verified. 



The nature, object, and preten- 

 sions of his work are set forth in 

 the following introduction : 



" In the ' Elementary Treatise 

 on Geology' lately published, I 

 have set forth and discussed all the 

 fundamental points of natural phi- 

 losophy and natural history which 

 concern the history of the earth, 

 presenting them in such a manner 

 as I have thought most proper for 

 clearly pointing out the most es- 

 sential monuments of that history, 

 amidst the crowd of less important 

 phenomena which surround them. 

 The natural intermixture of these 

 monuments creates, at first view, 

 a certain confusion ; in conse- 

 quence of which a traveller cannot 

 be fully sensible of their import- 

 ance, till long observation has 

 taught him to arrange them in dif- 

 ferent classes, as produced by 

 causes, which have operated at dif- 

 ferent times ; unless he has already 

 been instructed by those who have 

 made this the object of their study. 

 " The metliod which I have fol- 

 lowed, in order to direct the at- 

 tention towards geological pheno- 

 mena, has been, in every class of 

 them, to compare together the va- 

 rious opinions of those who iiave 



treated on the subject ; no other 

 course having appeared to me so 

 proper for determining the points 

 requiring particular examination. 

 And since, among the theories 

 which I do not admit, that of Dr. 

 Hutton, defended by Mr, Playfair, 

 has appeared to me most methodi- 

 cal, and at the same time that 

 which, in its exposition, embraces 

 the greatest number of the true 

 characters of our continents, I 

 have taken it principally as my 

 object in these critical discussions. 

 " As a solid geological theory 

 must necessarily be founded on 

 facts, which form a basis exposed 

 to general view, it may seem at 

 first surprising that controversies 

 respecting this science have been 

 carried on so long ; I ought there- 

 fore to show what, in the course of 

 my study, has appeared to me to 

 be the cause of their protraction. 

 In discussing so extensive a theory, 

 it would be impossible, at every 

 step, to enter into all the details of 

 the phenomena of each class; the 

 deduction of consequences, whe- 

 ther direct or critical, would then 

 be too much impeded in its course. 

 For this reason, those geological 

 works which contain theories, al- 

 ways present facts under general 

 forms ; I was myself often obliged 

 to employ them in this manner in 

 my late work ; but 1 was careful 

 to show, from the very beginning, 

 that to oppose thus one generaliza- 

 tion of phenomena to another, 

 was, in fact, only opposing asser- 

 tion to assertion, until sufficient 

 details should be adduced, to de- 

 cide which was the true represen- 

 tation of the correspondent objects 

 of nature ; and these details, the 

 first foundation of every thing in 



geology, 



