86 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



[Ch. IV. 



inclined to scepticism even where the conclusions deducible 

 -fVmn nhsprv^d facts scarcely admitted of reasonable clonic- 



>/ 



— But although, the reluctance 



somewhat 



be more salutary at such a moment than a suspension of all 

 attempts to form what were termed ' theories of the earth./ 

 A great body of new data were required ; and the Geological 

 Society of London, founded in 1807, conduced greatly to the 



attainment of this desirable end. 



multiply and record 



observations, and patiently to await the result at some future 

 period, was the object proposed by them ; and it was their 

 favourite maxim that the time was not yet come for a general 

 system of geology, but that all must be content for many 

 years to be exclusively engaged in furnishing materials for 

 future generalisations. By acting up to these principles with 



disarmed 



mi 



or at best but a visionary pursuit. 



A distinguished modern writer has with truth remarked, 

 that the advancement of three of the main divisions of geo- 

 logical enquiry have, during the last half century, been pro- 

 moted successively by three different nations of Europe — the 

 Germans, the English, and the French.* We have seen that 

 the systematic study of what may be called mineralogical 

 geology had its origin and chief point of activity in Germany, 

 where Werner first described with precision the mineral 

 characters of rocks. The classification of the secondary 

 formations, each marked by their peculiar fossils, belongs, in 

 a great measure, to England, where the labours before alluded 

 to of Smith, and those of the most active members of the 

 Geological Society of London, were steadily directed to these 

 objects. The foundation of the third branch, that relating to 

 the tertiary formations, was laid in France by the splendid 

 work of Cuvier and Brogniart, published in 1808, ' On the 

 Mineral Geography and Organic Remains of the Neighbour- 

 hood of Paris. 5 



We may still trace, in the language of the science and our 

 present methods of arrangement, the various countries where 



* Whewell, British Critic, No. xvii. p. 187. 1831. 



i 



T 



