220 WERNERIAN SYSTP:M. 
ment of tlie fluitl, which constituted that formation, have been 
inferred from its exhibiting a succession, from coarse fragments 
through sand-clay and vvacke, to basalt. But this succession is 
sometimes frequently repeated — the hill of Weissenstein in Hes- 
sia, forexample*,exhibitsat least three such repetitions. Thecon- 
clusions deducible from these appearances in one instance, must 
equally result from them in all ; and however small the change of 
level ateach alternation, we shall have to account, in every case, 
for a corresponding change throughout the globe ; unless we most 
gratuitously suppose all this to have been efi'ected by internal 
- commotion of the fluid, w'hile its surface remained unmoved. 
Censure oii Surely the remark of D’Aubuisson upon one of the volcanic 
spectilatiu".*^* hypotheses of Dolomieu, falls with more than equal weight 
upon this part of Werner’s speculations, “ Je crois que le 
terns est vemi, an il faut retirer au geologues le droit qu’ils se 
sont arroge de commander a la nature, de lui imprimer a leur 
gre, les mouvernents les plus extraordinaires ; de faire sortir 
selon qu’il lesjugent apropos, lies mers de leurs limites, de les 
faire aller, venir, de les transporter la ou bon leur semble j et 
le tout pour expllquer de pures hypothesesf." 
Werner’s as- The assumption however, of the immobility of the land, 
thTumnob"^^^ whence these difficulties arise, is by no means necessary 
of the land ap- for the remaining purposes of Werner ; for it is plain, that the 
hahlc tInu/tW effects w'ould have resulted from the protrusion of the 
contrary post- matter, as from the subsidence of the surrounding fluid. 
Tile evidence, too, in favour of the aqueous deposition of rocks, 
and against their consolidation by heat, rests on appearances 
not connected with this part of the subject j and though it 
be allowed, that the surface has been moved upwards from its 
original position, it by no means follows of necessity, that heat 
has been the source of the moving power. On the other hand, 
the elevation of the land is rendered probable, in a propor- 
tionate degree, by the difficulties that would attend its having 
been unmoved : while the existence of some mighty subtsr- 
* Jiimcsnii, III, p. 201. 
I DMubiiissen sur les basaltes, &c. p. 93-4. 
raucous 
