351 
these had been mooted only, as Steno says, “ overly and by 
the by.” They had not taken the form of conclusions of 
science to which the cultivated intellect was expected to bow. 
Geology, though “ descriptive,” and so far philosophical, had 
not become sufficiently systematic ” to give even apparent 
solidity to speculations in reference to the time required for 
the world's upbuilding, or in reference to the manner of that 
great work, A most spirited controvery had arisen as to “ pre- 
Adamite” men, but the discussion was not geological in any 
degree. It was founded on an exposition of the fifth chapter 
to the Romans, and not on deposits in the earth.* The foun- 
dation, however, was broadly laid, on which in later days a 
geological argument was to be raised in favour of these “ pre- 
Adamites,” and also in favour of vast ages through which 
such beings had lived on the earth. 
It was about 1759 that the element of time fairly took its 
place in geological science. Whewell says that at that date 
Arduino deduced from original observations, the distinction of 
rocks into primary, secondary , and tertiary, and that the re- 
lations of positions and fossils were from this period inseparably 
associated with opinions concerning succession in time.f 
It is at this point, therefore, in the history of geology, that 
we meet with these formidable elements of which so much 
advantage has been taken, against the more ordinary views of 
Sacred Scripture. It was now that geological science in almost 
every one of its branches began to give system and great 
additional force to the reasonings of those who studied the 
structure of the earth. In giving a brief sketch of what may be 
regarded as a grand advance in geological inquiry about this 
time, we shall follow other and more competent judges in giving 
the names of Werner, Smith, and Cuvier, as the representative 
men. 
Werner's great distinction lay in his mineralogy. The 
ordinary inquirer, who thinks with any degree of care, will 
see the importance of this in all that concerns the true 
knowledge of the earth's structure. If any one takes his stand 
opposite a cutting which has been made — say for railway pur- 
poses — through a large and varied mass of rock, he sees layer 
above layer of the stony substance, each layer, perhaps, dif- 
fering in its composition from every other. Ho inference is 
more certainly true than that all these layers have not been 
* The chief promoter of the Pre-Adamite idea at this time was Peyrere, in 
whose Latin work on the subject the curious may see the best that could be 
said in its favour. 
t Whewell’s History of the Inductive Sciences, edition 1857, vol. iii, 
p. 413. 
