Keviews, and Notices respecting Ne'v Books. 127 



This task is one which will call for a powerful effort of the 

 imagination of Mr. Earnshavv, fruitful as it is in objections. 



In conclusion, I beg leave to refer him again to my last 

 paper, as containing answers to his first objections, none of 

 which he has answered. 



King's College, April 19, 1834. 



LXVIII. Reviews, and Notices respecting New Booh. 



Report on the Progress, Actual State, and Ulterior Prospects of Geo- 

 logical Science. By the Rev. W. D. Conybeare, F.R.S., V.P.G.S., 

 Corr. Mcmb. Institute of France, SfC. (Second Report of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1832, p. 365 

 — 414. 



TTAVING reason to believe that certain points discussed and elu- 

 *- J. cidated in this Report have neither acquired the publicity nor 

 received the attention which they merit, andalso that the geological 

 section through Europe which accompanies it is not so widely known 

 as it deserves to be, we deem it proper, although the volume of 

 which it forms a valuable portion has now been for some months 

 before the public, to present our readers with a brief account of 

 Mr. Conybeare 's labours in this highly important contribution to 

 the prosperity of the science of which he has so long been one of the 

 most eminent cultivators. 



Mr. Conybeare having years ago (in the first part of the " Out- 

 lines of the Geology of England and Wales," by himself and the 

 late Mr. William Phillips,) submitted to the public a concise state- 

 ment of the notices of geological observation and geological theorv 

 which are contained in the records of classical antiquity, and of the 

 anticipations of subsequent discoveries, which are to be found in the 

 works of numerous writers in Italy, alter the revival of literature and 

 science; and the outline he then gave having been ably filled up by 

 subsequent writers, especially by Mr. Lyell, (in the first volume oflus 

 ' Principles of Geology,') he confines his remarks on early geology 

 to a notice of the claims of Leibnitz. " The universal Leibnitz," he 

 observes, " honoured this branch of physical speculation by devo- 

 ting to it a portion of his attention, and anticipated, with the pro- 

 phetic sagacity of a powerful mind, its future progress, and the very 

 methods of investigation which would most effectually contribute to 

 its successful development." In the fourth section of his Protogcca, 

 Leibnitz presents us "with a masterly sketch of his general views'; 

 and perhaps, even in the present day, it would be difficult to lay 

 down more clearly the fundamental positions which must be neces- 

 sarily common to every theory attributing geological pha?nomena in 

 great measure to central igneous agency." He attributes the pri- 

 mary and fundamental rocks to the refrigeration of the crust of this 

 volcanic nucleus ; the dislocations and deranged positions of the. 

 strata he ascribes to the breaking in of the vast vaults which the 



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