PREFACE. Vil 



also justify this proceeding. Geological facts have no relation to geo- 

 graphy: the earth is ever) 7 whereof the same general structure. And 

 I need not hesitate to say, that excepting volcanoes, and little more* 

 this little island contains every fact in the world, with much that is 

 almost peculiar to itself; and that more knowledge can be acquired 

 from a careful examination of it, than from all the writings of all those 

 who have prided themselves on the extent of their travels. The study 

 of Arran alone has taught us more than Asia and America united ; but 

 there is an assumption of grandeur in quoting these. Yet there is a 

 better reason: for thus can British readers verify the asserted truths, 

 and thus also turn from the writer to his Teacher ; to that Nature where 

 he also will see and learn for himself. 



If, to controvert, be termed controversy, I am sorry for what I could 

 not avoid. I neither envy the taste nor the feelings that delight in this 

 bane of modern science and literature : under which, they who can 

 contribute nothing, seek for fame, by depretiating what they even 

 rarely understand. Never has there been a science, unless it be physic, 

 so encumbered with rubbish as geology: it was impossible to move a 

 single step without clearing it away. He who desired to built on the 

 solid rock of Nature could not but attempt to remove the ruins that 

 obscured it. And whoever seeks to " make his understanding a re- 

 pository of truth for his own sake, rather than the warehouse of other 

 mens false and inconclusive reasonings," will follow the same plan. 



Of the arrangement of this work I have little to say. I have referred 

 to my Classification of Rocks as the grammar of this science, while 

 avoiding, as much as possible, all collision between them. If the order 

 of the subjects does not prove satisfactory, I will gladly hear of a 

 better; yet it must be from one who has bestowed equal thought on an 

 unexceptionable arrangement. If there are repetitions, and if refer- 

 ences to things not yet examined, I shall be pleased to see any plan 

 that will remove this blot from one place, without leaving an equal or 

 worse one somewhere else. , 



The work is too long, because it. includes essays on several subjects. 

 I would gladly know where else the needful facts and reasonings are 

 to be found : and should be still better pleased if geological science 

 were in such a condition, that a system might consist of a series of 

 enunciations or axioms. It is not yet lime for magisterial language : and 

 the decisions of former system makers have already sufficiently obstruc- 



