MacCulloch's System of Geology. 369 



the names, and inheritors of the talents of Davy, Wollaston, 

 and Young, may be equally identified with geology, as the 

 brightest of those who now adorn and uphold its descriptive 

 department. 



That some of the modern school of geologists have exhibited 

 acquirements of both kinds in an eminent degree, we should be 

 the last to deny ; but upon the principle that solid discovery 

 is most likely to attend the efforts of those who circumscribe 

 their energies to a narrow track, we believe that the true inte- 

 rests of science would be better served by some such discrimi- 

 nation of objects as we have pointed at, than by an attempt to 

 grasp at such wide and varied qualifications as belong to the 

 beau ideal of a perfect geologist. * 



It is easily conceivable, upon the principles now laid down, 

 that two works might be written upon geology, each sufficiently 

 complete in their respective departments, yet with hardly a 

 subject in common. From the scientific school in which he has 

 been trained, the strongest part of Mr Lyelfs hook was, as 

 might have been expected, what belongs to natural history ; 

 and we formerly took occasion to express our opinion of the 

 weakness of the physical department of the book, — an opinion 

 which has since been amply confirmed in other quarters. But 

 Dr MacCulloch, with a store of knowledge which well fitted 

 him. for entering upon some parts of this wide field, has shown 



* We believe we run little risk of making an invidious comparison by 

 saying, tbat perhaps the fittest man in Britain for writing upon geology 

 at large is Mr Conybeare. His acquirements in the exact sciences ami in 

 general physics, and bis stock of knowledge up >n the details of geology, to 

 which he has mi largely added, fit him peculiarly for the task ; and wc 

 hopi he will be prevailed upon to give to the world a compact system, io- 

 ta d of continuing the d< taclied fragments which for some time appeared 

 at monthly intervals in the Philosophical Magazine. We may add, tbut 

 in .Mr De La Beche's Geologl tl Manual, which we have only bad 1. 

 to look into since the present article was written, we can perceive, amid I 

 the superabundance of natural- fi Btorioal details, a just sense of where the 

 distinction of physical geology ought to Lie. ' he " Sections and View* oj 

 Geological Phenomena" of the same author, an tuosl valuable; and, as 

 their name expresses, abound in examples of those inestimable traces which 

 natur<' sometimes leave s of her modus / ■ ran ft,— traces which it should be 

 the principal ohject »f the physical to discover and invest: 



and which the mere natural historian may often pas over without a mo- 

 no hi' : >n. 



