446 Dr. Fitton's Notes on the History of English Geology. 



other writers, who treat professedly of events beyond the limits 

 of human observation*. 



Having thus sketched the progress of facts and opinions, to 

 the period when Mr. Smitli began his researches on the stra- 

 tification of England, we shall next inquire respecting the 

 method of expressing the results of geological observation by 

 means of maps. 



We have seen that Lister, though he did not carry into 

 execution his own ' project for a JVlap of Soiles,' entertained 

 a very philosophic expectation of the benefit that might re- 

 •sult from it : — ' If the limits of eacli soil,' he says, ' appear- 

 ' ed upon a map, something more might be comprehended 

 ' from the whole, and from every part, than I can possibly 

 ' foresee ; but I leave this to the industry of future timesf .' 

 We now know how amply the advantages to science, fore- 

 seen by the author of this project, have been realized. A still 

 more refined, and, as it then may have appeared, more re- 

 mote anticipation of the future progress of geological in- 

 quiry, occurs at the close of Fontenelle's observations on a 

 paper of ])e Reaumur, giving an account of a remarkable 

 accumulation of fossil shells in Touraine: — 'M. de Reaumur 

 ' imagine comment le Golfe de Touraine tenoit a I'ocean, et 



* quel etoit le courant qui y charioit les coquilles; mais ce 

 ' n'est qu'une simple conjecture, formee pour tenir lieu du 

 ' veritable fait inconnu, qui sera toujour quelque chose d'ap- 



* prochant. Pour parler surement sur cette matiere, il fau- 

 ' droit avoir des especes de Cartes Geographiques drcssces selon 

 ' toutes les minieres de coquillages enjouis en terre. Qicelle 

 ' quantite d' observations ne faudroit il pas, et quel temps, pour 

 ' les avoir J Qiii scait cependant, si les sciences n^rontpasttfi 



* Jour jusque-la, du moins en partie J r" '" 



It is now little more than a century since this passage was 

 written : yet, if geology advances during the next hundred 

 years as it has done during the last fifty, is it not highly pro- 

 bable that the prophetic anticipation of Fontenelle will have 

 been fulfilled ? 



* The title of Burnett's eloquent and celebrated work, ' Theoria Sacra,' 

 is as follows: ' The Theory of the Earth, containing an account of the 

 ' original of the earth, and of all the great changes which it hath already 

 ' undergone, or is to undergo, till the consummation of all things.' 3rd 

 edition : London, 1697. 



+ Lister, Phil. Trans, vol. xiv. p. "39, &c. 



X Hisloire de VAcndemie Roy ale des Sciences, 1720, p. 5; and Memoir es, 

 p. 400. — The report here referred to is ascribed to Fontenelle on the 

 authority of Faujas. Qiiivrcsdc I'alissi/, 4to, p. li. 



