IS ERRORS ARISING FROM 



apparent independence and irregularity, the phenomena really 

 and invariably oscillate, this false science delights in multi- 

 plying apparent exceptions to the dominion of fixed laws ; 

 and seeks, in organic forms and in the phsenomena of nature, 

 other marvels than those presented by internal progressive 

 development, and by regular order and succession. Ever 

 disinclined to recognise in the present the analogy of the 

 past, it is always disposed to believe the order of nature 

 suspended by perturbations, of which it places the seat, as if 

 by chance, sometimes in the interior of the earth, sometimes 

 in the remote regions of space. 



It is the special object of this work to combatHhese 

 errors, which, originating in vicious empiricism and de- 

 fective induction, have survived even amongst the higher 

 classes of society (often by the side of much literary 

 cultivation), and thus to augment and ennoble the enjoy- 

 ments which nature affords, by imparting a deeper view into 

 her inner being. Such enjoyment (as our Carl Bitter has 

 well shewn) is highest, when the whole mass of facts col- 

 lected from different regions of the earth is comprehended 

 in one glance, and placed under the dominion of intel- 

 lectual combination. Increased mental cultivation, in all 

 classes of society, has been accompanied by an increased 

 desire for the embellishment of life through the augmenta- 

 tion of the mass of ideas, and of the means of generalising 

 those already received. Nor is such a desire unworthy of 

 notice in reference to vague accusations, which represent the 

 ininds of men, in this our age, as occupied almost exclusively 

 by the material interests of life. 



I touch, almost with regret, on a fear which seems to me 

 to arise either from a too limited view, or from a certain 



