OF THB COUNTY OF LEICESTER. 



19 



remained undisturbed by convulsions from below, and as far as we 

 can tell, augmented by depositions from above, until a comparatively 

 most recent period ; wben water exercising a degrading and denud- 

 ing power, acted on the previously formed rocks, broke off pieces of 

 them, and after washing them about in strong currents, till they were 

 rounded into pebbles, broken down into sand, or ground into clay, 

 has left the materials thus accumulated strewed irregularly over the 

 surface. What was the character of these waters, whether they 

 rushed as strong floods over previously clay land, or whether they 

 were currents caused in a sea by the elevation of its bed, I shall not 

 pretend to determine, though my own opinion leans to the latter sup- 

 position. At all events, ever since the accumulation of those loose 

 materials to which for convenience sake the term diluvium is attached, 

 Leicestershire, in common with the rest of England, has remained 

 permanently uplifted above the level of the sea, unchanged save by 

 the slow and silent action of the atmosphere, or in these our days by 

 the trifling scratches inflicted by the hand of man. 



The science of Geology is sometimes regarded by practical men as 

 a mere mass of theory from which no results can be derived useful 

 for practical purposes: in any operations, however, connected with the 

 mineral matters of our globe, it surely never can be supposed a use- 

 less thing to know the causes which produced them, and the forces 

 of disturbance which have acted on them, since from such knowledge 

 alone can we tell, previously to actual experiment, the probable cha- 

 racter and position of the matters in question. In this respect, too 

 much is sometimes required of Geology in its present state ; the sci- 

 ence is the creation of the last few years, and already has it accumu- 

 lated a vast amount of information respecting the structure of those 

 parts of the earth which are accessible to our investigations, that will 

 for ever preclude the recurrence of many wild and ruinous undertak- 

 ings in search of coal and other minerals, that have formerly been 

 blindly set on foot. New facts are every day gathered together, and 

 the science is fast approaching the condition when it will be enabled 

 to bring most powerful aid to many operations that are useful or ne- 

 cessary to our existence, that administer to our comfort and enjoy- 

 ment, or that augment our individual and social powers and resources. 

 It must, however, be borne in mind that all these are but means to 

 an end, that end being the elevation of ourselves in the scale of moral 

 and intellectual existence, and that independently of all other consi- 

 derations. Geology directly and most powerfully conduces to this 



