292 Prof. Necker on the History and Progress of Geology . 
*> 
Ailt. XI . — Discourse on the History and Progress of Geology, 
delivered by Professor Neckeii, at the Meeting of the Magis- 
trates and Teachers which takes place annually at Geneva , on 
the occasion of distributing the Literary Prizes to the success- 
ful Candidates . (Concluded from Vol. XII. p, 328.) 
IMoRE fortunate than Saussure, in respect to the country sub- 
mitted to his examination, the illustrious Werner, placed at the 
head of the most celebrated mining-school of Saxony, in a 
country where, over an inconsiderable extent, varied with plains 
and mountains, of which none exceeds the height of 700 fathoms, 
accessible on all sides, whether at their surface or in their interi- 
or, perforated and riddled as they are in all directions by innu- 
merable subterraneous works, — Werner, rich in the possession 
of facts acquired from his predecessors and experienced miners, 
saw expanded before him, and, as it were in miniature, the al- 
most complete picture of the different formations, which, else- 
where, are ordinarily separated by immense extents of land and 
sea, disguised and irregular in their stratification and develop- 
ment. He saw in Saxony these formations present themselves 
upon a small scale, in a regular succession, arranged according 
to the order of their antiquity, from the summits of the chains 
to the bottoms of the valleys. 
No doubt, to a mind less observant than his, to a mind en- 
dowed in a less eminent degree with that sagacity which dis- 
covers and arranges facts according to their natural relations, Na- 
ture had in vain unfolded the picture of her successive operations. 
Werner possessed in the highest degree the qualities which con- 
stitute a naturalist ; in Mineralogy, he was what Linnaeus was in 
the other departments of Natural History. He invented a lan- 
guage for his favourite science ; and not only did he augment the 
catalogue, previously much restricted, of mineral substances, but 
he gave to their characters a precision hitherto unknown, — he de- 
scribed the rocks, their varieties of structure, and their position. 
He characterised, in short, the different formations, those assem- 
blages of strata connected together by a constant association, 
which, to employ for an instant the most expressive language 
of hypothesis, appear to have been formed at one and the same 
