ON THE GENETIC VIEW OF NATURE. 



281 



years after his death. He conceived that both fire and 

 water 1 had been at work in forming the surface of the 

 earth, and suggested that similar examinations of other 

 localities 2 would be required in order to arrive at general 

 conclusions. Such were subsequently supplied by Werner, 

 de Saussure, Pallas, Hutton, Cuvier, and William Smith, 

 before the systematic exploration of the whole globe be- 

 came in the nineteenth century one of the tasks of 

 geological science. A few years after the publication of 

 Leibniz's speculations, which pointed to an accumulation 

 of local observations as the means of arriving at a history 



des pierres oil se trouvent des em- 

 preintes de poissons ou de plantes 

 qui ne sont point du pays, medailles 

 iucontestables du deluge," &c., &c. 

 How very much Leibniz was in 

 this as in many other ideas in ad- 

 vance of his age can be seen 

 from his correspondence with the 

 Swiss naturalist Scheuchzer of 

 Zurich : " Merentur Alpes vestrae, 

 si quis alius Europse locus, hanc eru- 

 diti inquilini curam et caeteros 

 montes utili exemplo prseibunt, 

 quern admodum magnitudine vinc- 

 unt. . . . Germanorum nos- 

 trorum non ea est diligentia quam 

 vellem : itaque Historias regionum 

 naturales habemus nullas, cum 

 Angli Scotique nobis egregiis ex- 

 emplis praeiverint " (quoted by 

 Guhrauer in the note referred to). 

 An interesting reference is made in 

 xvii. of the ' Protogaea ' to the 

 use of the microscope, then only 

 recently invented, and largely used 

 by Leuwenhoek in connection with 

 the examination of the formation 

 and crystals of the celebrated 

 " Baumann cave": "Et velim 

 microscopia ad inquisitionem ad- 

 hiberi, quibus tantum praestitit 

 Bagax Leuwenhoekii diligeutia, ut 

 scope indigner huiname iguaviuc, 



quae aperire oculos, et in paratain 

 scientia possessionem ingredi non 

 dignatur." A very fair account of 

 the contents of the ' Protogaea' 

 is given in W. D. Conybeare's ' Re- 

 port on the Progress ... of Geo- 

 logical Science ' in the first volume 

 of Brit. Assoc. Reports, p. 366, 

 &c. 



1 ' Protogaea,' iv. : " Donee 

 quiescentibus causis atque sequilib- 

 ratis consistentior emergeret sta- 

 tus rerum. Unde jam duplex origo 

 intelligitur firmorum corporum ; 

 una, cum ab ignis fusione refriges- 

 cerent, altera cum reconcrescerent 

 ex solutione aquarum. Neque igitur 

 putandum est lapides ex sola esse 

 fusione. Id enim potissimum de 

 prima tantum massa ac terrae basi 

 accipio." 



2 Ibid, v. : " Haec vero utcum- 

 que cum plausu forte dici possint de 

 incunabilis nostri orbis, seminaque 

 contineant scientiae novae, quam 

 Geographiam naturalem appelles. 

 . . . Et licet conspirent vestigia 

 veteris mundi in praesenti facie 

 rerum, tamen rectius omniadefinient 

 posteri, ubi curiositas mortalium eo 

 processerit, ut per regiones pro- 

 currentia soli genera et strata des- 

 cribunt." 



