XXXVl. HUGH MILLER. 



geological acquirements. He confesses that he wrote the first 

 edition of his work in a land of inspiration I and it is not 

 difficult to estimate the intelligence of the inspiring idol that 

 announced to the German sage that the globe was a vast crys- 

 tal, a little flawed in the facets, and that quartz, feldspar, and 

 mica, the three constituents of granite, were the hail-drops of 

 heavy showers of stone that fell into the original ocean, and 

 accumulated into rocks at the bottom ! 



Such is the unscientific parentage of the theories promul- 

 gated in the "Yestiges." But the author of this work ap- 

 peals in the first instance to science. Astronomy, Geology. 

 Botany, and Zoology, are called upon to give evidence in his 

 favour; but the astronomer, geologist, botanist, and zoolo- 

 gist, all refuse him their testimony, deny his premises, and 

 reject his results. " It is not," as Mr Miller happily observes, 

 "the illiberal religionist that casts him off; — it is the induc- 

 tive philosopher." Science addresses him in the language of 

 the possessed : — " The astronomer I know, and the geologist 

 I know j but who are ye V Thus left alone in a cloud of 

 star-dust, or in brackish water between the marine and ter- 

 restrial flora, he " appeals from science to the want of it," 

 casts a stone at our scientific institutions, and demands a jury 

 of " ordinary readers," as the only "tribunal" by which "the 

 new philosophy is to be tnilj and righteously judged." 



The last snidffteenth chapter of Mr Miller's work, "On 

 the Bearing of Final Causes on Geologic History," if read 

 with care and thought, will prove at once delightful and in- 

 structive. The principle oi final causes, or the conditions of ex- 

 istence, aflbrds a wide scope to our reason in Natural History, 

 but especially in Geology. It becomes an interesting inquiry, 

 if any reason can be assigned why at certain periods species 

 bojran to exist, and became extinct after the lapse of lengthened 

 periods of time ; and why the higher classes of being succeeded 

 the lower in the order of creation. The incompleteness of 



