566 



CHAPTER III. 



SEQUEL TO THE FORMATION OF SYSTEMATIC 

 DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 



Sect. 1. Reception and Diffusion of Systematic 

 Geology. 



IF our nearness to the time of the discoveries to 

 which we have just referred, embarrasses us 

 in speaking of their authors, it makes it still more 

 difficult to narrate the reception with which these 

 discoveries met. Yet here we may notice a few 

 facts which may not be without their interest. 



The impression which Werner made upon his 

 hearers was very strong ; and, as we have already 

 said, disciples were gathered to his school from 

 every country, and then went forth into all parts 

 of the world, animated by the views which they 

 had caught from him. We may say of him, as has 

 been so wisely said of a philosopher of a very dif- 

 ferent kind 1 , "'He owed his influence to various 

 causes ; at the head of w T hich may be placed that 

 genius for system, which, though it cramps the 

 growth of knowledge, perhaps finally atones for that 

 mischief by the zeal and activity which it rouses 

 among followers and opponents, who discover truth 



1 Mackintosh on Hobbes, Dissert, p. 177- 





