33(5 Geographical Articles in T)r. Rees*s Cyclopcsdia. 



up, in occasional communications* to your and other periodical 

 Publications, until 1811; when Mr. Sniitl), having yet published 

 nothing on the subject, seemed in danger of lessening, if not 

 perhaps being judged to have forfeited, his well merited claims, 

 I gave such an abstract of the history of his proceedings and his 

 results, in my Derbyshire Report, as seemed to me best calcu- 



of, and I received some time after the delivery of this MS., assurances, 

 that the same should appear, along with the accounts of the principal sy- 

 stems of Geology and Theories of the Earth, that had been previously 

 published: — what, however, was roy surprise and tiiat of many others, on 

 the appearance in 1810 of this article Geo/o^'j/, promised to be a very com- 

 prehensive and full one, to find a mere statement of the Wernerian Theory, 

 witli suitable flattery to its author; and consistently ei)0!i<;h, this was pre- 

 faced, by such remarks as the following; viz. — This interestinp; jtnrt of mi- 

 neralogy (the new Geognosy) principally owes the distinguished rank it now 

 holdsamong theScienres, to thccelebratcd Professor of Freyberg, who hasse- 

 paratedGf()i,'7/osvfi"omGeo/o^3/,"considering the latter as a merely speculative 

 branch of knowledge, and as having nearly the same relation to the former, 

 Ti/iich (iStrologij has to astronomr/ .' '' — The fiainers of most of these tissues 

 of extravagant notions, known by the appellati«n's of t/teorits nf't/te eurlh, 

 liave been satisfied with a very moderate share of materials for their struc- 

 tures — nothing is better calculated to flatter self-love than to be mentioned 

 as the creator of a theory of the Earth — in short — " who would be de- 

 ^irous to waste K\» time in refuting, or even remembering all (or unt/ of) the 

 theories of the F.arth now extant.'" — (and doubtless ihe liberal foreigner in 

 British p;iy, who wrote tliis, meant to msiuuafe)— or what Geognost would 

 wish, to contiiiue to he told, of anything that En^liiilniieu have, or can do in 

 Geology.' — And accordingly it has occurred, throu<;hout the articles since 

 furnished, from this unii- British source, that Mr. Smith or any of his co- 

 adjutors (;r their discoveries, are not mentiooed , or have scarcely any of 

 the rapidly accunudating facts of the British stiatificatioii been brought 

 lorward, in tliis extensive English Dictionary, evei) »vliere theyhad been pro- 

 juiscd /uirf referred to, in some instances; hut the Dogmas oi* the idol of 

 Geognost^, Werner ! and the observations and opinions of his followers 

 abroad, with those of a few of the lately initiated amongst ourselves, have 

 been iield to be all-sufficient, for the mt'ormatiou of English lleaderb ! ! 



It gives iTic pleasure however to add, that the serious evil above com- 

 plained of, stems at length to have worked its own cure, since on readmg 

 part of the particle JRoc.^-, in the last published leaf of this Work, the same 

 plainly appears to lie from another pen ; — begins by restoring the Geological 

 nieanmg of c,ne of the most common and useful English terms, which in- 

 considerate An«lo-German Geognosts had endeavoured to alter, so essen- 

 tially, as to make rock niean,vt ry conjniouly, a soft and eurtliy stratum, like 

 clay, marl, sand, and the like !— the infallibility of the Geognost/, as detailed 

 ill thearticleGeo/oirv/, is plainly called in question ; — and the writer, tiberally 

 assigns to Mr. S. the discovery, to which your pages, Mr. Editm-, have so 

 often stated him to be well entitled, with regard to the distribution of fossil 

 shells and other organic remains in the Strata, and their uses in identifying 

 the same, &c. 



♦ The earliest and most explicit of tliese communications, was on the 

 practicability of tlir proposed Archway under the Thames at Rotherhithe 

 in 180G, in your xxvth vokmie, p. 41. 



latedj 



