1853] 



PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY. 



2-77 



on the attention of Governments, and into the ears of politicians, 

 usually dull of hearing when addressed couceiuing matters juiie- 

 ly intellectual, or calculated to advance rather than inj])ede human 

 progress. Extensive surveys are instituted for the prosecution of 

 geological research ; noble museums are erected foi' the display of 

 geological treasures ; lectureships are endowed for the inculcation 

 of geological truths. A conviction has taken i-oot among the 

 people, that the history of the formation of the earth, and the in- 

 vestigation of its structure and contents, are worthy subjects of 

 nai>nal inquiry, and — what with practical men weighs more 

 heavily — likely to prove more condiicive to the development of 

 national wealth. A few yeai-s ago, geology was perhaps more 

 fashionable and more amusing; as the work became harder, and 

 the talk less diverting, her fashionable friends fell away. But 

 better and truer allies are arising among the masses of the people. 

 Let geology put trust in them, work for them, teach what she 

 lias learnt to them, and thei-e shall be greater honors in- store for 

 her than can be conferred by the applause of magnates, and the 

 smiles of fine ladies. The hai-d and horny hand of the miner 

 and mechanic will be frankly proffered for the pledge of fraterni- 

 ty — no languid pressure thei-e, but a warm grasp and hearty 

 ehake. The farmer, e\er slow and suspicious, will hold back 

 awhile; but the good sense that lies smouldering in this dullest 

 of the aiatars of John Bull will, sooner or latei-, burn up, and, 

 like the light streaming from the eye of a dark lantern, shew science 

 at hand to help, where an enemy and plunderer was suspected. 



Ne.ther man not science can work the way to permanent posi- 

 tion without a struggle. Whatever is worth gaining must be 

 fought for. 'i'he rest of peace, which is faith either in virtue, or 

 in truth, or in order, must be won according to its kind b}' war 

 moral, or intellectual, or physical. The man whose course through 

 life provokes no enemy, and excites no opposition, must be a non- 

 entity; so, too, with doctrine, discovery, and science. A late 

 eminent and eccentric Scotch naturalist and antiquarian professed 

 to disbeheve the results of his researches, and set about seeking for 

 errore in them, wdienever they were at once accepted without 

 opposition or cavil. There was reason in this odd fancy — more 

 than critics gave him credit for. Geology would not have been 

 now what it is, had the path of its progress been less thorny, and 

 its opponents less active. The energy and enthusiasm of geolo- 

 gists has made the growth of their science seem almost magical 

 in rapidity; yet it was no unsubstantial Boletus, springing in a 

 night, or it had been trampled down by its ad\'ersai'ies as fast as 

 it grew. It had, however, its adventitious helps, that served to 

 gain for it the attention of the unscientific and of men of the 

 world. The younger of all the Minervas that have budded from 

 the brain of Jujiiter, Geology would have languished, and possi- 

 bly pined away beneath the cold glances of her stern and mature 

 sisters, and the more damaging enmity of her fiilher's priests. 



he lives, and the constitution of the universe, of which tliat world 

 forms a part — it is remai-kable that the second, and aj)p;aentiv 

 easiest, should have been neglected for ages after earnest study ol 

 the other two had connnencc-d and ad»aiice(.l, or was so tiealcd 

 as to be jirolific only in vague tancies, and genei'ale no ti-ue sci- 

 ence. Geology, as conti-auistinguished from cosn.ogon , teems 

 to have lain dormant during the br.ghtest epnchs ot jintiquiiy, 

 and to have e.xcitcd scaicely a sjiaik of thought, even in ti.e com- 

 bustable b ain of Aristotle himself. A sliiewd uid arcuialc ob- 

 server, old Strabo, it is tiue, had notions about vul^■all(H■^ and the 

 isolation of morsels of land, that made a fair apji. oai li lo g. o^i i>-i- 

 cal theorizing; but with this almost solitary exception, it was re- 

 served for modern — in reality, for very modem — iiliilo^o] bus to 

 inaugurate a science which, during its brief mt; nr}' :n:d ^Loiter 

 youth, attained the dimensions of a giant, and c ain.ed and won 

 an equal seat with its )>roudest compeeis. JSulitaiy j rophets 

 arose from time to time, and seemed in imperfeclly umlersttod 

 predictions to foretel the advent of a new philosophy. Gieat 

 men were among them; men who, in the midst of sterner and 

 fairer pursuits, saw dim indications of mysterious and wondeiful 

 workings of the soil beneath their feet, and the mounta ns that 

 cast long shadows. They asked of themselves, why should theie 

 be hills to cast these long shadows; and how grew up the moun- 

 tain tops ? Tiiey demanded whether there was not an anatomy 

 to be dissected out of the corpse of mother earth, as iu the bodies 

 of her living and moving children ? They ^•entured to think 

 that rugosities of the world's surface were the wi inkles of age, the 

 stamps of ancient cares,, the ravages of umecorded convulsions. 

 They gathered petrifactions out of the rocks, and, comparing theni 

 with ejectamenta of tlie ocean, saw, and what is more, admitted 

 to themselves that they saw, the unquestionable proofs of a similar 

 organization and an identical origin. In Italy especially was a 

 light seen dimly heralding the dawn ; and foremost among those 

 who marked the glimmer was that astonishing old painter, Leon- 

 ardo da Vinci, on whose active mind all the sciences of his time 

 and scraps of sciences then unboi-n, seem to have been spread in 

 dabs, like the colors on his professional palette. It is a great 

 glory to Italy to have placed the part she did in the nursing and 

 nourishing of infant geology. Alas ! how many of the children 

 reared by that most beautiful of mothers have been abandoned by 

 her in their childhood, or disowned after attaining their youth or 

 manhood. Not so with this sturdy science; Italy has still her 

 geologists, and good ones too ; yet even these might have been 

 denied to her had the training of the infant rested in her care. 

 Under the colder and cloudier skies, amid the rougher and sterner 

 minds of Bi itain, did geology attain that vigor which has resulted 

 in the strength of an immortal. 



Astronomy was the black sheep among the sciences durino- 

 the middle ages ; geology has played that unpleasant ]iart in later 



had not paternal love endowed her with an JSo-is in the shape ^"^ ^°^'^ enlightened times; nay, is even shunned as disreputable 



of a winning presence, and the gift of the gab? Her mission- 7 "umbere ot generally well-informed and well intentioned peo- 



aries during "the time— scarcely yet gone by— when she won her P'® ^' *® present da}'. Although to the honor of the priesthood, 



way most rapidly into public favour, were orators and men of ??°' ^ ^^"' °^ ''^ ^^^^^^ advocates, and some of its earliest and 



mark. There was no mock modestv about her; perhaps not coldest supporters have come from their ranks, parsons as a body 



overmuch of the realitv of that virtue^ Like a woman of genius ^*'" ^S^^ ^^Y '^^ geology and geologist^, and were martyrdom by 



— and a handsome one, too — she was opinionative and dogmati- 

 cal ; bold in assertions, and apt to let imagination get the masteiy 

 over judgement. But these were the failings of healthy youth — 

 the consequences of fullness and richness of blood, and much 

 more likely to end — as they have done — in a sound condition of 

 ripened hmb and body, than, if they had been substituted by ex- 

 cess of caution, fear of giving offence, shrinking timidity, and 

 dread of authority. 



Of the three subjects which seem to suggest themselves most 

 naturally to the inquisitive faculty of the human mind — the con- 

 stitution of man himself, the constitution of the world upon which 



roasting in fashion, we might see Greenoiigh, Lyell, Murchison, 

 De la Beche, Filton, and Mantell all protesting against plutonic 

 agencies at Smithfield, whilst Conybeare, Sedgwick, Henslow, 

 and possibly even the Bishop of Oxford (who knows more of 

 geology than common people give him credit for,) would be do- 

 ing penance for their unsanctified acquirements in chilly dungeons 

 on a neptunian diet of cold water. The two cardinal sins of 

 geologists in the eyes of good people, are their belief in the world's 

 preadamitic antiquity, and their disbelief in the univer- 

 sality of the deluge. The vague general distnist of them that 

 pervades respectable country society, and concentrates into posi- 

 tive abhorrence in the congregations of Exeter Hall will, when 



