WERNEIUAN SYSTEM. 
155 
Snch, then, is a general outline of (he series of formation Commenda- 
which Werner has ascertained, and the developemcnt of which 
constitutes the basis of his geognostic fame : it is fair to hear son. 
respecting it the testimony of those who have made this system 
their peculiar study, atid a better commentary of this descrip- 
tion can scarcely be found than in the following passages of 
D'Aubuisson. “ Si ces masses et formations, dont la nombre 
est fort considerable, s’etoient trouvees ensemble et dans un 
grand elat de regularitc, peutetre les talens d’un observateur 
ordinaire auroient ils sulfi pour ces divorses determinations. 
Maii^couinie il est rare qn'il y eii a plusieurs dans le meme lieu ; 
qu’elles y sont dans un elat de de&ordre apparent, ou I'esprit 
derobservateur a toujours quelque chose a redichser ou a sup- 
pleer ; qu’il ne pent les appercevoir que sur une petite ctendue, 
et pour ainsi dire sur des points fres distanls les uns des auires ; 
il a fallu pour arriver aux consequences qui formenl la geogno- 
lie, rassembler, analyser, rapprocher, et comparer un bien 
grand nombre des faits eloignees, et sans le nmindre rapports 
apparent. Ce sont de pareils rapprochements qui constituent 
les decouvertes dins les sciences; et ce n'est gucre qu'aux 
hemmes de genie qu’il est reserve de les faire*." 
To proceed, however, with the tAeory which has resulted Thcor>. 
from the “ rapprochements” here so much extolled. 
The solid matter of the present surface of the earth is de- The solid mat- 
rived, according to Werner, from the contents of a fluid which 
^ posited tiom 
• originally surrounded the globe, and held in chemical solution a fluid, and 
the various elements of fossils ; and the diversified accumula- 
tions of rocks are ascribed to depositions from this fluid, modi- 
I fled by successive alternations of retreat and rising. 
From these fundamental positions, another necessarily re- Rocks were 
I suits, which, in the school of Werner, is considered nearly as 
. an axiom, that the order of superposition expresses that of the perposition. 
^formation of rocks. 
The reasoning by which these doctrines are supported, is not, 
I however, very decisive. Mr. Jameson considers the spheroidal 
* Anoales de Chimie, tom. 69, p. 338, &c. 
figure 
