148 
WERXERIAK SYSTEM. 
ContraU of 
talents to de- 
scribe, andta 
lents to the- 
orize. 
Werner ex- 
cels in col- 
lecting Uie 
facts. 
Highly prais* 
cd by Janu- 
SUD. 
be conveyed. It is evident, that an author extensively ac- 
quainted with the facts presented by the structure of the earth, 
and skilled in the art of communicating them, may yet fail 
eminently in theorizing ; a task for which fardiflerent powers 
are required. The very habit of attention to minuse circum- 
stances, which the practice of describing natural bodies must 
induce, has a tendency to disqualify for the freer movements of 
« 
speculation; and the concurrence of precision in detail, with 
soundness of general views, is but seldom to be expected in the 
history of the human mind. For Werner, however his ad- 
mirers claim the praise of excellence in both departments of 
his subject, and the correctness of his geological theory, is said 
to be not less remarkable than his acknowledged practical skill 
in the distinction of minerals, and the developement of th© 
relative positions of rocks. 
It is to his geognosy, indeed, that Werner is indebted for the 
least disputable part of his reputation ; in “ oryctognosy" Haiiy 
is a formidable antagonist, but in geology, regarded as a body 
of fact as well as .speculation, there is no rival system to that of 
the Freyberg school, and the method of investigation which it 
proposes, has been the subject of the highest praise to several 
observers well qualified to estimate its value. Humboldt was 
guided by it in South America ; D’Aubuisson, a native of the 
country which has produced the system of Haiiy, has ably 
supported the Wernerian doctrines ; and in some recent official 
publications by the National Institute of France, geology is 
said to be at present elevated to the rank of a real science, and 
that elevation is distinctly ascribed to Werner*. 
To no person, however, has this geognostic system been the 
theme of such unqualified applause as to Mr. Jameson, of 
Edinburgh, who has, throughout his various publications, ap- 
peared to consider its decisions as without appeal, and by whom 
it liad been announced in the first volume of his work on mine- 
* Discours sur lesprogres des scieiices, &c. depuis J789--1809 * 
and “ Rapports, &c. sur Ics ouvrages adniis au concours pour les prix 
decenaairc, &c.” 
ralogy. 
