132 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



exploration in unravelling the structure of the earth. 

 The devout Wernerian put mines before mountains as 

 a field for geological investigation. 1 Indeed the whole 

 system of the Freiberg school, with its limited knowledge, 

 its partial view of things, its dogmatism and its bondage to 

 preconceived theory, is suggestive rather of the dim lamp- 

 light and confined outlook of a mine than of constant 

 and unfettered contact with the fresh and open face of 

 nature. 



These characteristics of Werner's teaching were keenly 

 felt by some of the more clear-sighted of his contem- 

 poraries, who, though they recognized his genius and the 

 vast services he had rendered to mineralogy by solid 

 achievement, as well as by the enthusiasm he had excited 

 in many hundreds of pupils, yet felt that in regard to 

 geological progress his influence had become retrogressive 

 and obstructive. This judgment was forcibly expressed 

 in the article which appeared in the Edinburgh Review 

 in the year 1811 from which I have already quoted. I 

 have reason to believe that this article was from the pen 

 of Dr. W. H. Fitton, who afterwards became one of the 

 leaders of English geology. A few sentences from it may 

 find a fitting place on the present occasion. 



" The Wernerian school obstructs the progress of dis- 

 covery. The manner in which it does so is plain. By 

 supposing the order already fixed and determined when 

 it is really not, further inquiry is prevented, and pro- 

 positions are taken for granted on the strength of a 

 theoretical principle, that require to be ascertained by 

 actual observation. It has happened to the Wernerian 



1 See, for example, Jameson, op. cit. p. 43. 



