■ Werner according to MacCulloch. 257 



If it has not accounted for the " tertiary" strata, a sea so con- 

 venient might always contain the necessary rocks at the neces-. 

 sary places ; while so moveable a substance can ascend and de- 

 scend as often as is needful. The minerals of mineral veins 

 were precipitated in the fissures, from the universal solutions. 

 Rock veins are contemporaneous with the including rocks, and 

 formed by crystallization, as are the fragments in the conglome- 

 rates ; as contortions, fractures, elevations, and so forth, are 

 also modes of crystallization, and as are mountains and valleys ; 

 there being no subsequent process of denudation. The coal 

 deposites were formed by an elective attraction at those points 

 from carbon in solution ; as the vegetable fragments also tend 

 to the same places. The induration of strata near trap, is the 

 result of intermixture during crystallization ; though the former 

 were completed many ages before the latter were produced; 

 and, while volcanos are purely modern, and heated by coal, 

 pumice and obsidian are deposites from water. 



This is a sufficient view of the " Theory" under which all 

 Europe became a land of philosophical geologists, for which 

 much of Europe yet fights, and in which much of the rising 

 generation is still educated. We need not wonder at the pro- 

 gress of geology : when geology shall have forsaixcn all that 

 Freyherg or Werner taught, it will have a clear field. 



3. Hiilton according to Play fair and MacCidloch. 

 (1.) Hidton according to Play fair. — Dr Hutton possessed, 

 in an eminent degree, the talents, the acquirements, and the 

 temper, which entitle a man to the name of a philosopher. Tho 

 direction of his studies, though in some respects irregular ana 

 vmcommon, had been highly favourable to the development of 

 his natural powers, especially of that quick penetration and ori- 

 ginality of thought, which strongly marked his intellectual cha- 

 racter. From his first outset in science, he had pursued the 

 track of experiment and observation ; and it was not till after 

 being long exercised in this school, that he entered on the field 

 of general and abstract speculation. He combined, accordingly, 

 throuo-hout his whole life, the powers of an accurate observer, 

 and of a sao-acious theorist, and was as cautious and patient in 

 the former character, as he was bold and rapid in the latter. 



