200 Professor Haughton 3 's Geology. 



must be abandoned to-morrow by the sincere searclier after 

 truth. Such a condition of science is, no doubt, awkward 

 for a professor, because, if he is competent to his task, and 

 performs it conscientiously, he must, at almost every step, 

 warn his pupils against putting implicit faith in the opinions 

 he may express. A good set of lectures on geology, or a good 

 book on the subject, should not only explain the latest impor- 

 tant facts and modifications of theory, but prepare the student 

 for the reception of fresh facts that may militate against 

 opinions that appear fairly established upon satisfactory 

 grounds. The history of science is that of a series of sur- 

 prises. A few great men may usually have had glimpses, or 

 intimations, of forthcoming truth ; but the general tendency of 

 discovery is to startle the mind with unexpected verities, 

 that wage vigorous warfare against existing ideas. 



A good manual of geology would have been a real boon to 

 the student public, because, notwithstanding the great merit 

 of existing works, and especially those of Sir C. Lyell, it 

 would be impossible to name a single volume in which the 

 present aspects of the science are compendiously displayed. 

 That the Rev. Samuel Haughton* has not succeeded in supply- 

 ing this want, partly arises from some personal peculiarities, 

 and partly from the obvious fact that in the work before us he 

 has not done justice to his own powers. The course of lec- 

 tures out of which his Manual of Geology has been com- 

 piled could scarcely have been prepared with express view of 

 the use now made of it, and thus there is much to object to in 

 the plan of the work. Its chief fault, however, is its remarkable 

 omission of important facts, of recent date in the order of 

 their discovery, and an equally remarkable omission of 

 philosophical doubt and prudent caution in dealing with the 

 theoretical parts of the subject. 



Like Diedrick Knickerbocker, in his never to be forgotten 

 History of New York from the beginning of the World to the 

 end of the Dutch Dynasty, Mr. Haughton commences with 

 a cosmogony. He accepts as probable, and in accordance with 

 the views of most scientific men, the ' ' nebular hypothesis," 

 and he conceives our globe to have slowly cooled down, from 

 the condition of a widely-diffused gaseous body to that of a 

 compact little world. To this we have nothing to object ; but he 

 treats certain theories of M. Durocher, to which grave objec- 

 tions might be made, as if the suppositions of that ingenious 

 gentleman were to be accepted as verified facts. M. Durocher, 

 with that desire to present a neat round mode of accounting 



* Manual of Geology. By the Rev. Samuel Haughton, M.D., F.E.S., Fellow 

 of Trinity College, and Professor of Geology in the University of Dublin. 

 Longmans. 



