Masterpieces of Science 



by universal consent; while the method of specu- 

 lating on a former distinct state of things and 

 causes has led invariably to a multitude of 

 contradictory systems, which have been over- 

 thrown one after the other have been found 

 incapable of modification and which have often 

 required to be precisely reversed. 



The remainder of this work will be devoted to 

 an investigation of the changes now going on in 

 the crust of the earth and its inhabitants. The 

 importance which the student will attach to such 

 researches will mainly depend on the degree of 

 confidence which he feels in the principles above 

 expounded. If he firmly believes in the resem- 

 blance or identity of the ancient and present 

 system of terrestrial changes, he will regard 

 every fact collected respecting the causes in 

 diurnal action as affording him a key to the in- 

 terpretation of some mystery in the past. Events 

 which have occurred at the most distant periods 

 in the animate and inanimate world will be ac- 

 knowledged to throw light on each other, and the 

 deficiency of our information respecting some 

 of the most obscure parts of the present creation 

 will be removed. For as, by studying the ex- 

 ternal configuration of the existing land and its 

 inhabitants, we may restore in imagination the 

 appearance of the ancient continents which have 

 passed away, so may we obtain from the deposits 

 of ancient seas and lakes an insight into the 

 nature of the subaqueous processes now in opera- 

 tion, and of many forms of organic life which, 

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