gio 



ILLUSTRATIOKS OF THE 



and that they relate What they have adually 

 feen. 



Note xxvi. § 133 



prejudices relating to the Theory of the Earth 



445. Among the prejudices which a new the- 

 ory of the earth has to overcome, is an opinion^ 

 held, or affeded to be held, by many, that geo- 

 logical fcience is not yet ripe for fuch elevated 

 and difficult fpeculations. They would, there- 

 fore, get rid of thefe fpeculations, by moving the 

 previous 



queJlioTif and declaring 



prefen 



We 



we ought to have no theory at all. 

 yet, they allege, fufficiently acquainted with the 

 phenomena of geology j the fubjed: is fq various 

 and extenlive, that our knowledge of it muft for 



J 



L 



a long time, perhaps for ever, remain extremely 

 imperfe<a. And hence it is, that the theories 



hitherto propofed h 



d 



fucceeded 



ther 



with fo great rapidity, hardly any of them 

 having been able to laft longer than the difcoyery 

 of a new fad, or a fad unknown when it was in- 

 vented. It has proved infufficient to conned this 

 fad with the phenomena already known, and has 

 therefore been juftly abandoned. In this man- 

 gier, they fay, have paffed away the theories of 



"^Voodward, Burnet, Whiltonj and even of Buf- 



fon 



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to 



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 th( 

 fe( 

 pa 



a 1 



air 

 ch 

 thi 



ha 

 fo] 

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pr 



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