Masterpieces of Science 



It appeared to them far more philosophical 

 to speculate on the possibilities of the past, than 

 patiently to explore the realities of the present; 

 and having invented theories under the influence 

 of such maxims, they were consistently unwilling 

 to test their validity by the criterion of their 

 accordance with the ordinary operations of 

 Nature. On the contrary, the claims of each 

 new hypothesis to credibility appeared enhanced 

 by the great contrast, in kind or intensity, of the 

 causes referred to and those now in operation. 



Never was there a dogma more calculated to 

 foster indolence, and to blunt the keen edge of 

 curiosity, than this assumption of the discord- 

 ance between the ancient and existing causes of 

 change. It produced a state of mind unfavour- 

 able in the highest degree to the candid reception 

 of the evidence of those minute but incessant 

 alterations which every part of the earth's surface 

 is undergoing, and by which the condition of its 

 inhabitants is continually made to vary. The 

 student, instead of being encouraged with the 

 hope of interpreting the enigmas presented to 

 him in the earth's structure instead of being 

 prompted to undertake laborious enquiries into 

 the natural history of the organic world, and the 

 complicated effects of the igneous and aqueous 

 causes now in operation was taught to despond 

 from the first. Geology, it was affirmed, could 

 never rise to the rank of an exact science; the 

 greater number . of phenomena must for ever 

 remain inexplicable, or only be partially eluci- 

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