108 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



and the authority of Linngeus in the science of botany was 

 never higher than was that of Werner in the science of geo- 

 logy. Under his banner the upholders of the aqueous theory 

 had gained a decisive victory over those contending for volcanic 

 agency in the incessant strife concerning the history of the forma- 

 tion of the earth's crust. The weight of his authority, supported 

 by personal examination of the Erzgebirge, completely set aside 

 the theory of the upheaval of mountains, although the strongest 

 evidence of its truth could be adduced in other districts. The 

 strength of his influence may be inferred from the theories he 

 introduced into the science Geology was at this time passing 

 through a phase by no means unusual in a new science, a phase 

 in which it seems necessary to follow to their ultimate conse- 

 quences the principles of a theory before its weakness is revealed 

 and truth discovered. Thus the native genius of his gifted 

 pupil was insufficient to break the ban under which the teach- 

 ings of the master liad laid him, till through his extensive 

 travels he had contemplated Nature in her widest aspects. 



6 Werner,' writes Alexander von Humboldt, 1 thirty years 

 later, 'the father of the science of geology, recognised with 

 surprising acuteness the salient points to which attention must 

 be directed in observing the separate formations occurring in the 

 several classes of primitive, transition, and secondary rocks. He 

 pointed out not only what was to be observed, but also what 

 was essential to know ; in regions he had never himself examined 

 he anticipated some of the later discoveries it might almost be 

 said that in some instances he had a presage of the facts which 

 geology was hereafter to reveal. As geological formations are 

 independent of latitude and the vicissitudes of climate, a com- 

 paratively small extent of the earth's crust in any quarter of 

 the globe, a region even of a few square miles in which several 

 distinct formations are exhibited, may suffice, like the true 

 microcosm of the ancient philosophers, to awaken in the mind 

 of an experienced observer many just conceptions concerning 

 the fundamental truths of geology. Thus most of the early 

 conclusions of Werner, even those to which he had arrived 



1 'Essai geognostique sur le gisement des roches dans les deux hemi- 

 spheres,' translated into German by Leonhard : ' Geognostischer Versueh 

 iiber die Lagerung der Gebirgsarten in beiden Erdhalften ' (1823). p. 67. 



