82 



KIRWAN.— DE LUC. 



[Ch. IV. 



sceptical notions, as leading to downright infidelity and 



to depose the 



atheism, 



and as 



bein g 



nothing less than 



A lmiffhtv Creator of the universe from 



K 



De Luc. — Kir 



of Dublin, a chemist 



mineralo 



of some merit, but 



much greater authority in the scientific world 



than he was entitled by his talents to enjoy, said, in the 

 introduction to his 'Geological Essays, 1799,' 'that sound 



- 



geology graduated into religion, and was required to dispel 



m 



had recent experience/ f He was an uncompromising de- 

 fender of the aqueous theory of all rocks, and was scarcely 



Whiston 



e Mosaic writin 

 De Luc. in the 



minar 



to his Treatise on 



Geology X says, ' the weapons have been changed by which 

 revealed religion is attacked ; it is now assailed by geology, 

 and the knowledge of this science has become essential to 



theologians/ 



He im 



their having been 



the failure of former geological 

 anti-Mosaical, and directed 



systems to 



against a ' sublime tradition.' These and similar impnta- 



seem 



taken for granted by some modern writers : it is therefore 

 necessary to state, in justice to 



numerous 



of different nations, whose works have been considered, that 

 none of them were guilty of endeavouring, by arguments 



spvi-irhirfll tenets. On the 



om 



contrary, the majority of those who were fortunate enough 

 'to discover the true causes of things,' rarely deserved 



another part of the 



yric, ' Atque metus omnes 



subjeeit pedibus.' The caution, and even timid reserve, of 

 many eminent Italian authors of the earlier period is very 

 apparent ; and there can hardly be a doubt, that they sub- 

 scribed to certain dogmas, and particularly to the ins 

 diluvian theory, out of deference to popular prejudices, rather 

 than from conviction. If they were guilty of dissimulation, 

 we may feel regret, but must not blame their want of mora 

 courage, reserving rather our coi 



demnation 



* P. 59. 



f Introd. p. 2. 



J London, 1809. 



ft 



tr 



a 



