REVIEW. 



463 



EEYIE W. 



Mineral Veins: an Inquiry into their Origin, founded on a Study of the 

 Auriferous Quartz Veins of Australia. By Thomas Belt. London : John 

 Weale, High Holborn. 



In this pamphlet of five chapters, containing about fifty pages, Mr. Belt 

 seems to imagine that he has solved the most complicated question within the 

 whole range of geological science. It is difficult to know how to treat such 

 an extraordinary pretension ; for, while the writer is palpably incompetent to 

 deal with the subject, he cannot be classed among those presumptuous charlatans 

 who continually infest it, and who have succeeded, in no small degree, in ren- 

 dering any discussion on the origin of metalliferous deposits distasteful to per- 

 sons of sense or education. Mr. Belt is evidently a painstaking man ; he has 

 made himself acquainted with the best known elementary books on geology ; he 

 expresses himself in a becoming manner ; and is doubtless a most worthy and 

 highly respected person in his station in society. But these respectable qualities, 

 although pleasing in themselves, and entitling their possessor to much personal 

 consideration, do not constitute a man of science ; they do not justify a person, 

 wholly unacquainted with the great metallic mining districts in any part of the 

 world, even in his native country (which, according to his own showing, is 

 Mr. Belt's case), from dogmatizing on the entire phenomena of metalliferous 

 veins from a cursory experience in the gold diggings of Australia. The humblest 

 observer, provided he brings but one clearly-described and well-authenticated 

 fact is welcome as a true labourer in the field of science; and if even upon 

 this fact he should attempt to build an unwarrantable superstructure of 

 theory, his weaknesses may fairly be treated with gentleness in consideration 

 of the sterling coin — the fact — for which we are indebted to him. But 

 Mr. Belt can plead no such palliation. In his whole pamphlet there is 

 not a single new fact. From first to last it is a mere plaidoyer based 

 on the most hackneyed statements of other writers — generally such as are 

 so well known, and have been so often quoted, as to have become really nauseat- 

 ing, and which make Mr. Belt's pamphlet almost as disagreeable to read as the 

 last rechauffe of any notorious book-maker — except that, happily, it is much 

 shorter. The collation of observations and facts on any scientific subject, and 

 the establishment of a theory founded on them, is, of course, a labour of great 

 value ; but then it can only be usefully undertaken when the facts and obser- 

 vations are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently well authenticated to afford 

 a secure basis for generalization, which is not yet the case with our knowledge 

 of metalliferous veins. The man who would undertake it must, besides, be a 

 complete master of the topic which he attempts to handle on so large a scale. 

 It may be pardoned in the mere observer to be imperfectly acquainted with the 

 labours of others ; he stands on an independent footing, and is a useful and 

 worthy labourer as far as his own facts go, however generally ignorant he may 

 be ; but the man who, assuming a more ambitious position, and soaring from 

 the role of a mere observer narrating his own facts and fitting them into 

 others as best he can, into the character of a philosopher generalizing all 

 known knowledge on any particular branch of science into a comprehensive 

 theory, is not of the smallest value unless he is fairly competent for the wide 

 task he sets himself up to perform ; indeed, on the contrary, he generally does 

 great harm, and is deserving of scant consideration. 



If Mr. Belt had named his pamphlet after the title of a well-known popular 

 work of fiction, and called it "Nothing New," he would have given the best 



