ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



281 



years after his death. He conceived that both fire and 

 water l had been at work in forming the surface of the 

 earth, and suggested that similar examinations of other 

 localities 2 would be required in order to arrive at general 

 conclusions. Such were subsequently supplied by Werner, 

 de Saussure, Pallas, Hutton, Cuvier, and William Smith, 

 before the systematic exploration of the whole globe 

 became in the nineteenth century one of the tasks of 

 geological science. A few years after the publication of 

 Leibniz's speculations, which pointed to an accumulation 

 of local observations as the means of arriving at a history 



des pierres oh se trouvent des em- 

 preintes de poissons ou de plantes 

 qui ne sont point du pays, midailles 

 incontestables du deluge," &c., &c. 

 How very much Leibniz was in 

 this as in many other ideas in 

 advance of his age can be seen 

 from his correspondence with the 

 Swiss naturalist Scheuchzer of 

 Zurich : " Merentur Alpes vestrse, 

 si quis alius Europse locus, hanc 

 eruditi inquilini curam et cseteros 

 monies utili exemplo praeibunt, 

 quern admodum magnitudine vinc- 

 unt. . . . Germanorum nos- 

 trorum non ea est diligentia quarn 

 vellem : itaque Historias regionum 

 naturales habemus nullas, cum 

 Angli Scotique nobis egregiis ex- 

 em jSlis prseiverint" (quoted by 

 Guhrauer in the note referred to). 

 An interesting reference is made in 

 xvii. of the ' Protogsea ' to the 

 use of the microscope, then only 

 recently invented, and largely used 

 by Leuwenhoek in connection with 

 the examination of the formation 

 and crystals of the celebrated 

 " Baumann cave": " Et velim 

 microscopia ad inquisitionem ad- 

 hiberi, quibus tantum praestitit 

 sagax Leuwenhoekii diligentia, ut 

 saepe indigner humanae ignavhe, 



quae aperire oculos, et in paratam 

 scientia possessionem ingredi non 

 dignatur." A very fair account of 

 the contents of the ' Protogaea ' is 

 given in W. D. Conybeare's ' Re- 

 port on the Progress ... of 

 Geological Science ' in the first 

 volume of Brit. Assoc. Reports, 

 p. 366, &c. 



1 ' Protogaea,' iv. : "Donee 

 quiescentibus causis atque aequilib- 

 ratis consistentior emergeret sta- 

 tus rerum. Unde jam duplex origo 

 intelligitur iirmorum corporum ; 

 una, cum ab ignis fusione refriges- 

 cerent, altera cum reconcrescerent 

 ex solutione aquarum. Neque igitur 

 putandum est lapides ex sola esse 

 fusione. Id enim potissimum de 

 prima tantum massa ac terra; basi 

 accipio." 



2 Ibid, v. : " Haec vero utcum- 

 que cum plausu forte dici possint de 

 incunabilis nostri orbis, seminaque 

 contineant scientiae novae, quam 

 Geographiam naturalem appelles. 

 . . . Et licet conspirent vestigia 

 veteris mundi in praesenti facie 

 rerum, tamen rectius omnia de- 

 finient posteri, ubi curiositas mor- 

 talium eo processerit, ut per regiones 

 procurrentia soli genera et strata 

 describunt." 



