94 



PREJUDICES WHICH RETARD 



[Ch. V. 



support of antiquated dogmas, had succeeded, they would 



mummies more 



prelim 



question, 



and would no longer controvert 



that human beings had lived in ! 



century : so that when a hundred years perhaps had been 



lost, the industry and talents of the philosopher would be 



at last directed to the elucidation of points of real historical 



importance. 



But the above 



Timents are aimed 



many prejudices with which the earlier geologists had to 

 contend. Even when they conceded that the earth had been 

 peopled with animate beings at an earlier period than was 

 at first supposed, they had no conception that the quantity 

 of time bore so great a proportion to the historical era as is 

 now generally conceded. How fatal every error as to the 

 quantity of time must prove to the introduction of rational 

 views concerning the state of things in former ages, may be 

 conceived by supposing the annals of the civil and military 

 transactions of a great nation to be perused under the im- 

 pression that they occurred in a period of one hundred instead 

 of two thousand years. Such a portion of history would 

 immediately assume the air of a romance ; the events wonld 



seem 



human 



A crowd of incidents would follow 



each other in thick succession. Armies and fleets would 

 appear to be assembled only to be destroyed, and cities built 

 merely to fall in ruins. There would be the most violent 



om 



found peace, and the works effected during the years of 

 disorder or tranquillity would appear alike superhuman in 

 magnitude. 



He who should study the monuments of the natural world 

 under the influence of a similar infatuation, must draw a 

 no less exaggerated picture of the energy and violence ot 

 causes, and must experience the same insurmountable aiin- 

 culty in reconciling the former and present state of nature. 

 If we could behold in one view all the volcanic cones thrown 

 up in Iceland, Italy, Sicily, and other parts of Europe, 

 during the last five thousand years, and could see the lavas 







c* 



8' 



g" 



at 



