1832.] Progress of Geological Science. 519 



solid materials of our globe, but in part, and I believe also in a considerable part, 

 by one of the great conservative operations by which the elements are made to 

 return into themselves. 



" According to the principles of Mr. Lyell, the physical operations now going on 

 are not only the type, but the measure of intensity of the physical powers acting on 

 the earth at all anterior periods: and all we now see around us is only the last 

 link in the great chain of phsenomenn, arising out of a uniform causation, of which 

 we can trace no beginning, and of which we see no prospect of the end. And in 

 all this, there is much that is beautiful and true. For we all allow, that the primary 

 laws of nature are immutable — that all we now see is subordinate to those immuta- 

 ble laws — and that we can only judge of effects which are past, by the effects we 

 behold in progress. Whether there be, or be not, any physical traces of a state 

 of things anterior to the commencement of our geological series of deposits, is a 

 question of no real importance. But to assume, that the secondary combinations, 

 arising out of the primary laws of matter, have been the same in all periods of the 

 earth, is, I repeat, an anwarrantable hypothesis with no a priori probability, and 

 only to be maintained by an appeal to geological phaenomena. 



" Each formation of geology may have required a very long period for its com- 

 plete development ; and of such an element as past time, we grudge no man the 

 appropriation. But after all, the successive formations, about which we specu- 

 late, however complex in their subdivisions, are small in number : and after decy- 

 phering a series of monuments, we reach the dark ages of our history, when, hav- 

 ing no longer any characters to guide us, we may indulge at will in the creations 

 of our fancy. We may imagine indefinite cycles, and an indefinite succession 

 of phaenomena ; and in the physical world, as well as in the moral, we may have 

 our long periods of fabulous history. But these things belong not to inductive 

 geology ; and all I now contend for, is — that in the well established facts brought to 

 light by our investigations, there is no such thing as an indefinite succession of 

 phaenomena. 



" If the principles vindicated in Mr. Lyell's work be true, then there can be no 

 great violations of continuity, either in the structure or position of our successive 

 formations. But we know, that there are enormous violations of geological con- 

 tinuity ; and though, relatively speaking, many of them may be local, of this at 

 least we are certain, that they have been produced by forces adequate to the effects, 

 and co-extensive with the phaenomena. 



" The very first step we take, we see a violation of continuity. Between the 

 alluvial silt, deposited by the waters now flowing off from the inequalities of the 

 earth, and the masses of diluvial gravel scattered over so many parts of its sur- 

 face, we can seldom establish any appearance of continuity, or give any intelligi- 

 ble proof of their common origin, I am not going now to plunge into this long de- 

 bated question ; but I may remind you of the enormous waterworn blocks (derived 

 from the primary chains to the north of the Baltic Sea), which lie scattered over 

 the great European plain, extending from the eastern states of Holland to the 

 Steppes of central Russia. Where are the inclined planes down which these 

 boulders could have descended ? Where are the grooves and channels cut out by 

 the rivers which once propelled them ? Where is the alluvial silt accumulated by 

 the erosion of these ideal waters ? No answer can be given to these questions ; and 

 to talk of river action, aided as it may have been by every ordinary power of na- 

 ture, appears to me, in a case like this, little better than a mockery of iny senses." 



2 u 



