1 92 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



upon close observation and carefully devised experiment. 

 Among these men there was only one teacher the gentle 

 and eloquent Playfair ; but his functions at the University 

 were to teach mathematics and natural philosophy. He 

 had thus no opportunity of training a school of disciples 

 who might be sent forth to combat the errors of the 

 dominant Wernerianism. He did what he could in that 

 direction by preparing and publishing his admirable " Illus- 

 trations," which were widely read, and, as Hall has re- 

 corded, exerted a powerful influence on the minds of the 

 most eminent men of science of the day. 



But another influence strongly antagonistic to the pro- 

 gress of the Huttonian philosophy was established in 

 Edinburgh at the very time when the prospect seemed so 

 fair for the creation of a Scottish school which might do 

 much to further the advance of sound geology. Eobert 

 Jameson (1774-1854) studied for nearly two years at 

 Freiberg under Werner, and after two more years spent 

 in continental travel, full of enthusiasm for his master's 

 system, returned to the Scottish capital in 1804, when he 

 was elected to the Chair of Natural History in the Univer- 

 sity. His genial personal character, and his zeal for the 

 Freiberg faith soon gathered a band of ardent followers 

 around him. He had much of Werner's power of fostering 

 in others a love of the subjects that interested himself. 

 Travelling widely over Scotland, from the southern borders 

 to the furthest Shetland Isles, he everywhere saw the rocks 

 through Saxon spectacles. From the very beginning, the 

 books and papers which he wrote were drawn up after the 

 most approved Wernerian method, pervaded by the amplest 

 confidence in that method, and by hardly disguised con- 



