EEYTEWS. 
79 
the same condition ; and when, by cooling, the outer crust had forme d 
every part of that crust must hare been (at least, as to thickness) in the 
same condition. Upon this crust the internal molten fluid exerted an ex- 
pansive force (how it acquired this force is not stated) by which ' certain 
parts of it were pushed up,' while at the same time, or afterwards, certain 
other parts ' suffered a corresponding depression.' Is this consistent, 
that the same expansive force should push up and pull down — be at once 
propelling and tractile ? And wliy, seeing the physical necessity of uni- 
formity of condition of the whole, all the crust should not fare alike, is 
hard to conceive ; and still harder is it to conceive that a piece of crust 
once up should go down again, or once down should go up again. Yet 
these alternate up-risings and down-sinkings, this game of geological see- 
saw, was not played out till twenty-eight or twenty-nine alternations had 
been gone through. Bat it must be admitted that though all parts of the 
crust had equal claim to rise or fall, 3'et the apparent want of fair play 
was, in the long run, equitably compensated ; every part liad its innings, 
and the very ground which the reader now occupies has bobbed up and 
down at least eight-and-twenty times ! Such is the doctrine in all the 
books." " Observe, too, in the foregoing detail of operations, the sort of 
co-partnery in the work between God and !Xature — the ingenious division 
of labour. The Creator supplies the raw material already in a molten 
state ; !Xature then takes it in hand, and shapes it and cools it, so as to fit 
the waters that surround it for marine tribes, which Deity forthwith sup- 
plies. Xature again steps in, and by upheavals presents to Omnipotence 
some dry land, 'compatible with the existence' of land-organisms, with 
which it is of course speedily furnished ; and so on, as narrated above." 
Now, in this comment, although there is much that is defective, some 
things not true, some apparonth^ suppressed, and others exaggerated or 
caricatured, yet it really does hit well home, and the " internal heat doc- 
trine " and " the cooling-down theory " receive ratlier severe handling. 
The upheaval of one part of the earth's crust while another is depressed, 
and all elevations and down-throws of such masses, are readily accounted 
for by the contraction of the solid earth-shell over the internal fluid mass ; 
but although one may " show cause why " such events or such phenomena 
might or could have happened, no one can handle these theories as weapons 
of defence against an acute antagonist without feeling their want of sharp- 
ness and temper. They may be correct, but it is certain they want proof 
and substantiation ; and so long as geologists are content with fanciful hy- 
potheses and illogical deductions, so long will they fail to wield those pon- 
derous and irresistible arguments which this grand science is well able to 
furnish. This quotation will suffice to show that although !Mr. Young's 
arguments may not be convincing, there is ''food for reflection" in his 
"Writings. 
His book is a small one, and cheap ; the matter, probable as well as im- 
probable, lively, interesting, dogmatic, speculative, argumentative, and 
clever ; and is well worth perusal, although we do not think Mr. Young 
brings the subject a bit nearer a settlement than his predecessors have 
done, or than his followers are likely to do in our time. The more works 
of this kind, the better for the cause of truth. Each puts forward the 
boldest and most telling points of his opponents ; and if he fail to demolish 
them, he helps his enemy's cause instead of his own, and readers get enlight- 
ened by the failure as surely as by the success. 
