CH. xxvi. GEOLOGY. 213 



CHAPTER XXVL 



SCIENCE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY (CONTINUED). 



Prejudices concerning the Creation of the World Attempts to Account 

 for Buried Fossils Palissy Scilla Woodward Vallisneri 

 Lazzaro Moro Werner Disputes between the Neptunists and 

 Vulcanists Hutton William Smith; His Geological Map of 

 England. 



Early Prejudices concerning the Formation of the 

 Rocks. You will no doubt remember that when we were 

 speaking of the science of the Greeks, we learnt (p. 1 1) that 

 Pythagoras made many interesting observations about the 

 crust of the earth, which led him to say that the sea and 

 land must have changed places more than once since the 

 creation of the world. Especially he pointed out that sea- 

 shells are found inland, deeply buried in the hills ; and that 

 the sea eats away land on the coast in some places, while in 

 others earth is washed down by the rivers and laid at the 

 bottom of the ocean. 



We have now passed over more than 2000 years since 

 the time of Pythagoras, and you will notice that we have 

 heard nothing more about observations of this kind. The 

 fict is, that during the Dark Ages the study of the eartli had 

 been almost entirely neglected, and people had taken up 

 the mistaken notion that they ought to believe, as a matter 

 of faith, that the world was created in the beginning just as 

 we now see it. But knowledge and inquiry were advancing 



