562 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY. 



science now under consideration, those intellectual 

 qualities and habits to which we ascribe their suc- 

 cess. The very recent date of the generalizations 

 of geology, which has hardly allowed us time to 

 distinguish the calm expression of the opinion of 

 the wisest judges, might, in this instance, relieve us 

 from such a duty; but since our plan appears to 

 suggest it, we will, at least, endeavour to mark the 

 characters of the founders of geology, by a few of 

 their prominent lines. 



The three persons who must be looked upon as 

 the main authors of geological classification are, 

 Werner, Smith, and Cuvier. These three men were 

 of very different mental constitution ; and it will, 

 perhaps, not be difficult to compare them, in re- 

 ference to those qualities which we have all along 

 represented as the main features of the discoverer's 

 genius, clearness of ideas, the possession of numerous 

 facts, and the power of bringing these two elements 

 into contact. 



In the German, considering him as a geologist, 

 the ideal element predominated. That Werner's 

 powers of external discrimination were extremely 

 acute, we have seen in speaking of him as a mine- 

 ralogist ; and his talent and tendency for classifying 

 were, in his mineralogical studies, fully fed by an 

 abundant store of observation ; but when he came 

 to apply this methodizing power to geology, the 

 love of system, so fostered, appears to have been 

 too strong for the collection of facts he had to deal 



