in Werner s Geological Succession 131 



which the force of facts was evaded." * They were devised 

 for the purpose of bolstering up a system which was entirely 

 artificial, and to the erroneousness of which new facts 

 were continually bearing witness. 



It was claimed for Werner that he first established the 

 doctrine of geological succession in the earth's crust. We 

 have seen that the idea was already supplied to him 

 by Lehmann and Fuchsel, and it is now evident that, by 

 working into it his notion of universal aqueous precipitates, 

 he introduced an element of hypothesis which threw back 

 for some years the progress of sound geology. What was 

 true in the doctrine was borrowed from his predecessors, 

 what was his own consisted largely of unwarranted assump- 

 tion. He undoubtedly did enormous service by his 

 precise definitions and descriptions of rocks, and by dwell- 

 ing on the fact that there was an observable order of 

 succession among them, even though he mistook this order 

 in some important particulars, and entirely misinterpreted 

 its meaning and history. The full significance of geolo- 

 gical succession was not understood until it was worked 



o 



out independently in England and France by a rigid 

 collection of facts, as I shall describe in a later lecture. 



It was the exigencies of Saxon mining industry that 

 started the Mining School of Freiberg. The teaching there 

 had necessarily constant reference to the underground 

 operations of the district. Much of Werner's practical 

 acquaintance with the relations and structure of rock- 

 masses was derived from what he learnt at the mines. 

 It was only natural, therefore, that he should have incul- 

 cated upon his pupils the vast importance of subterranean 



Review, vol. xviii. (1811), p. 95. 



