









f 



•••■ 





;:. 



•x 



s 





i 



^ 



1 



^ 





i 

 • 1 





wlhi 





il 



urn-:- 



i • 













■ j 



■H 



.• 



rv 



k 



I 



la 



a 



. 



• 



' 









■-■' 



A 



Ch. V.] 



THE PROGKESS OF GEOLOGY. 



99 



deemed 



the science, but others are common to the first cultivators of 

 geology and to ourselves, and are all singularly calculated to 



same 



the coarse of nature in the earlier ages differed widely from 



that now established. 



circumstances 



some 



demon 



The first and greatest difficulty, then, consists in an ha- 

 bitual unconsciousness that our position as observers is essen- 

 tially unfavourable, when we endeavour to estimate the 

 nature and magnitude of the changes now in progress In 

 consequence of our inattention to this subject, we are liable 



mistake 



states of the globe. As dwellers on the land, we inhabit 

 about a fourth part of the surface ; and that portion is almost 

 exclusively a theatre of decay, and not of reproduction. We 

 know, indeed, that new deposits are annually formed in seas 



some 



produced m the bowels of the earth, but we cannot watch the 



formation 



our minds by the aid of reflection, it requires an effort both 



importance. 



imagination 



estimate 



very imperfectly the result of operations thus invisible to us ; 



former 



sentea to our inspection, we cannot immediately recognise 



the axmlncrir TTo «t1^ i^~ .i -. ., . & 



the analogy. He 



from a rock and has seen it shipped for some distant port, 

 and then endeavours to conceive what kind of edifice will be 



predicament 



decom 



matter 



.-n ±ho ™ j xi x luawuu u± nicttter uy rivers 



ll 6 1 iri^ !" ~ to J**" to hi.aelf L new 



■Nor 



Nature 



arising ft 



* Elements of Geology, 6th edit. 1865. 



g a 



H2 



