XXX PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



proposed to refute many of the popular theories of the day, and 

 appears to have directed the great weight of his logical argument 

 against the followers of the Plutonian theory. 



At the same time it must be admitted that, notwithstanding the 

 shrewdness and success with which many of the crude notions of 

 former days are disproved in these essays, Mr. Greenough has not 

 unfrequently brought forward statements - and advanced arguments 

 which could hardly have been expected from one who had studied 

 his " collegium logicum " at the University of Gottingen. Take 

 for instance that passage in allusion to the great extent of time re- 

 quired by the Plutonists for the performance of many operations, 

 and which to modern geologists does not appear to be an unreason- 

 able request : — 



" Ye gods, perpetuate Time ! says the Plutonist, and thinks his 

 reasoning will be incontrovertible. But suppose the prayer granted ; 

 suppose the Plutonist to have at command whatever time he desires ; 

 Time graduating into Eternity ; nay Eternity itself; what use could 

 he make of it ? What profit can a man expect from putting zeros 

 out to interest ? What increase of weight from a Fast sufficiently 

 prolonged ? If seas and rivers do not tend to produce within the 

 period of human experience any such effect as that which we are 

 endeavouring to account for, they will evidently produce no such 

 effect in a million of centuries. Time may complete that which is 

 in progress, it will never complete that which can never be begun.'* 

 As a general remark too, it may be stated that this work of Mr. 

 Greenough' s was intended to refute what he considered objectionable 

 theories, rather than to lay down what ought to be the principles of 

 geological investigations. 



An excellent review of this work will be found in the pages of the 

 Edinburgh Review (vol. xxxiii. p. 90), where it is stated, " The work 

 before us contains an admirable digest and collation of the most 

 authoritative statements and opinions on a great variety of important 

 questions, but is eminently calculated by the contradictions which it 

 everywhere exhibits to abate the confidence of narrow observers and 

 rash theorists, and to inculcate the necessity of that patient industry 

 and modest scepticism by which alone the pursuits of geology can 

 ever obtain the dignity of a science." 



Excursions at home and on the Continent continued to occupy his 

 active mind in the relaxation from those periods of hard labour 

 which are demanded at the hands of a man of science. Mr. Green- 

 ough for some time occupied a house in Parliament Street, but in 

 the year 1822 or 1823 the expiration of his lease compelled him to 

 seek another residence, and he took from Government a lease of 

 ground in the Regent's Park, and commenced building that house 

 which he knew so well how to fill and to adorn, and where we all 

 enjoyed his hospitality and kindness. In this employment he had 

 an opportunity of indulging his taste for architecture, to which he 

 had paid great attention for many years. In 1826 he took a great 

 interest in, and was one of the most active agents in obtaining for the 

 Geological Society, that Charter of which he was one of the first 



