Centuries have passed since some of the more obvious of geo- 
logical phenomena first began to attract the attention of a few 
of the early cultivators of natural science ; but it was not till 
after the revival of literature in Europe, that some of the 
subjects contained in the wide field of theoretical geology began 
to be actively canvassed by many bold and inquiring spirits. 
For nearly three hundred years numerous authors touched 
upon the subject in their writings, or devoted elaborate treatises 
to its illustration : the works of such men as Fracastoro, 
Feonardo da Vinci, Steno, Scilla, Colonna, Moro, and Generelli, 
in Italy ; of Palissy and Marsilli, in France ; of Raspe and 
Fuchsel, in Germany ; of Woodward, Ray, Hook, Strachey, and 
Mitchel, will ever be interesting to the student who delights 
to trace the early development of the science : and though its 
progress was slow, (down almost to the time of some of the 
living fathers of a more advanced geology,) yet great was the 
benefit it derived from the interest excited by the continuance 
of speculation, whether true or false. Few believed, yet little 
by little some scattered truths were elicited, which by degrees 
prepared men to throw aside the prejudices that restrained 
them from grappling with the subject in the only manner 
that could ensure its full development. For geology was not 
so fortunate as chemistry, when princes vied with each 
other in the encouragement of alchemical discovery. There 
was no heresy in the transmutation of baser metals into gold. 
Geology, on the contrary, was for long generally esteemed a 
pestilent heresy, and though its cultivators escaped the prison, 
yet, even to our own day, a few angry men are not found want- 
ing, who, steeped in ignorance or a mistaken zeal, still re-echo 
the time-worn cry. For all purposes of the continuance of 
error, that time has however passed away, and educated people 
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