86 GRANITE. 



the dates of their production ; while, from the pecu- 

 liar circumstances under which they occur, we cannot 

 always distinguish those relative aeras. 



Such are the consequences arising from the very 

 nature of these rocks ; and one of the results must be 

 obvious. The distinction, which appeared to be na- 

 tural, proves to be artificial ; or it is conventionally 

 agreed, that all rocks of a certain character, are to be 

 granite when in one position^and trap when in another. 

 It is therefore useless to ask whether granite can be 

 found lying over the secondary strata, unless where a 

 communication with an inferior mass is discovered ; 

 since, by the very definition, it is placed in the trap 

 family, while that definition proves, in itself, to be a 

 postulate. I must here further remark, that these con- 

 clusions, into which those who define granite by its 

 mineral character^ and those who define it by its infe- 

 riority, are equally forced, are independent of an igne- 

 ous, or of any theory. They are mere deductions from 

 acknowledged facts, which ought to have been made 

 long ago, and which, if they had, would have saved 

 much obscurity and controversy. If the lowest un- 

 stratified rock in nature had always been a mixture of 

 quartz, felspar and mica, and the highest a basalt or 

 a claystone, the^ antient method of geologizing on 

 this point might have answered all purposes ; while 

 this imaginary law has led to all the past confusion, 

 since it was sufficient to find a specimen and apply 

 a name, when all the rest followed of course. 

 But it is fully time to abandon this method of philo- 

 sophizing ; and, regardless of names, to see what the 

 things themselves really are, and what are their con- 

 nexions and analogies in nature. If I have dwelt on 

 this most practical and important, not speculative mat- 

 ter, it is not merely because it has been unseen and 



