THE 



MONTHLY AMERICAN JOURNAL 



OP 



GEOLOGY 



AND NATURAL SCIENCE. 



Vol. I. Philadelphia, December, 1831. No. 6. 



AN EPITOME OF THE PROGRESS OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 



{^Concluded from, page 158.) 



Although the nature of the universe began at an early period 

 to attract the attention of philosophic minds, and individuals from 

 time to time appeared, to advance the knowledge of the laws 

 which govern the motions of the earth, as well as of its geometrical 

 relations ; yet it was reserved for the nineteenth century to pro- 

 duce a school of learned, acute, and disinterested men, incessantly 

 directing the energy of their minds to the study of the structure 

 and the ancient history of this globe. The universities of Oxford 

 and Cambridge, which, during the past ages, had nurtured so 

 many of those great minds which have enlarged the boundaries of 

 physical science, have been the first to cherish geology. At the 

 first of these Roger Bacon, in the thirteenth century, might, per- 

 haps, but for the influence* of the scholastic bigotry of the day, 

 have left a renown behind him, only second to that of the immortal 



* The following anecdote was related to us at Oxford, in 1827, by a venerable clergy- 

 man, who had been connected with the university about sixty years; 



" When Blackstone prepared to deliver his law lectures, he too was considered an 

 innovator, and was made to feel, in various ways, the influence of the established 

 opinions. In an introductory lecture of his, which unfortunately has not been published, 

 he turned the tables very successfully upon his opponents, by the following sally : — ' In 

 those scholastic days, when the inquisitive and original mind of Roger Bacon was di- 

 rected to the investigation of the laws of nature, the theological animus conspired 

 against him, and he was accused of holding communion with evil spirits. Upon a 

 particular occasion, when he intended to exhibit some curious experiments to a few 

 select friends, the secret having got out, the whole town and all the colleges of this 

 university, were in an uproar. Priests, and fellows, and students, were seen flying 

 about in every direction, with their gowns streaming behind them, and screaming out, 

 'No conjurer, no conjurer!' The cry of no conjurer resounded from hall to hall, 



Vol. I.— 31 241 



