2 ORIGIN OF GEOLOGY. 



in former times, the most able men erred in their attempts to elucidate 

 the history of our globe ; for, while physical geography was imperfectly 

 known, before commerce and the knowledge of languages had made 

 us acquainted with the productions and traditions of every nation and 

 clime, before the birth of most branches of physical science, it was 

 impossible to accumulate the numerous and exact observations from 

 which alone geology takes its origin. And since the general truths of 

 geology are made apparent only by the application of the known laws 

 of modern nature, it is evident that, before the discovery and establish- 

 ment of those laws, the wisest of the old philosophers had nothing to 

 substitute for enlightened theory but arbitrary hypothesis and fanciful 

 conjecture. These are the reasons why the ancient doctrines concern- 

 ing the world are almost without exception bewildered with the 

 impossible problem of the creation of matter, and buried in a chaos of 

 subtle inventions. 



The early writers of Babylon, Phoenicia, Chaldsea, Egypt, and China, 

 were occupied, almost absolutely, with the cosmogony or origin of the 

 world, and neglected its physical history. 



What Herodotus says regarding the sediments deposited by the 

 Kile in the valley of Egypt, and carried out to sea; of the time 

 (10,000 or 20,000 years) which he estimates as sufficient for the Kile, 

 if diverted into the Erythraean Sea, to fill up that long gulf ; x and of 

 the shells found on the hilly borders of Egypt which testify to its 

 former submersion beneath the sea, may, however, be quoted with 

 approbation as a fair specimen of ancient observation and inference. 2 



Origin of Inductive Geology. Four different classes of pheno- 

 mena conducted men of observation to a partial acquaintance with the 

 stratification of the crust of the earth. 



1. The effects of disturbance in countries shaken by earthquakes 

 and marked by periodical volcanic excitement as Asia Minor, Italy, 

 &c. 



2. The arrangement of the various strata in England and elsewhere. 



3. The appearances of regular structure in the mines of England, 

 Germany, Sweden, &c. 



4. The remains of plants and animals which are found entombed 

 almost everywhere, where the water-formed or stratified rocks are 

 examined. 



i. Of the first class of observers, the most distinguished in early 

 times is Strabo, who gives an interesting account of the Katakekau- 

 mene (burnt district), in the valley of the Hermus, in Asia Minor a 

 district which remained almost unvisited till Mr. Hamilton renewed 

 our acquaintance with its remarkable features, so similar to those of 

 Auvergne. Etna has engaged the attention of observers from the 

 time of the Greek poets and philosophers down to the period of Dau- 

 beny, Scrope, and Lyell, all of whom have endeavoured to trace the 



1 Her. ii. II: eycb /m.V ^ATTO/ACU ye ical /mvpiuv evrbs x&crdTJva.i S.v - 



2 Her. ii. 12 : I8wv re TTJV Kiyvirrov TrpoK.eiiJ.6vr}v rrjs ^xo/u.eVr;s 7775, 

 <fia.iv6[jLeva. tirl roi<n o&petrt. The shells were, perhaps, truly "fossil," and belonged 

 to the rocks in the hilly ground. 



