WERNERIAN SYSTEM. 
147 
its literary clinracter, is probably to be regarded as the best eluci- 
dation of the subject that lias hitherto appeared. 
The object of Mr Jameson, however, has been rather to 
promulgate the doctrines of his master, ‘han to discuss their 
truth : on several questions, where the opinions of Werner are 
calculated to e.xcite considerable doubt, he has either not given 
. any statement of the diiliculties that attend tlicm, or passed 
very lightly over tlfe arguments by which they arc opposed ; 
and though his book has great substantial merit, it must be ac- 
iknowledged, that the style and arrangement of it are singularly 
ill calculated to render popular the method which he ex- 
pounds. 
It may not, then, be unuseful to state, in language divested 
of technic il peculia ity, the leading facts which constitute the 
body of Werner’s geognostic system, and to discuss briefly 
■ some of the theoretic doctrines which he has deduced from 
them, referring for authority on both divisions of the subject, 
chiefly to Mr. Jameson's publications, and, in a few places, to 
the writings of other pupils of Werner, who have distinguished 
themselves as .advocates of his opinions. 
If Geology* \<no be defined “ that science which teaches 
us the structure, relative position, and mode of formation of 
the mineral masses of which the crust of the earth is cora- 
jvi.scd,” a System of Gt ologif may be considered as compre- 
hending, 1st. a description of that structure and position, and 
an arrangement of the rocks which constitute the exterior of 
the globe j 2dly, a theory or series of deductions by which 
the appeayances so described are to be explained j and, as subor- 
dinate to the former, systematic nomenclature and descriptive 
language, in w’hich the characters and relations of rocks are to 
but is net cal- 
ri'late<l to 
render that 
inetiiu'J popu- 
lar. 
Henre it is de- 
sirable to jjive 
the leadint; 
facts in lau- 
guase less 
techuical. 
A sy.stem of 
should 
eoiitaiii, 
1. Dtsrrip- 
tioHS. 2 The- 
ory or deduc- 
tions. 
* The term invented by Werner to distiuffin.sh. a.s he Term »cog- 
iates, rational seienee fioni more speculation, upon Ibis subject, has needless. 
c« n adopted in (ierniany and Franre ; but the acccpt.ation of the 
Old already established si < ins, at least in this country, to have been 
idicienlly correct to render the introduction of a new one quAeii 
ecessai v. 
eiiu- 
M 2 
be 
