SM Prof. Necker o?i the Hktory and Prog ress of Geology, 
hand, how culpable are those who have sought, although with=^ 
out success, in the study of the revolutions of the Earth, for wea- 
pons to destroy the foundation of the hopes and consolations 
of the whole human race 
Such are the reflections which naturally arise in the mind of 
him who is obliged to dig among the philosophico-romantic rub- 
bish of speculative geology, upon reading the numerous Theo- 
ries of the Earth, those productions of an unrestrained ima- 
gination, and an utter ignorance of facts. We shall not fatigue 
you, gentlemen, with an analysis of the systems of Burnet, 
Whiston, Woodward, Lazaro-Moro, and so many other more 
modern authors, whom we see at their pleasure creating inun- 
dations and abysses, raising the seas from their beds, calling co- 
mets to their assistance, and all to form a fantastic world, utter- 
ly different from that which exists. We would more willingly 
fix our attention upon the first wakening of the spirit of obser- 
vation, upon that dawn of true science, the first glimmerings of 
which began to appear at the commencement of the 16 th cen- 
tury, when Agricola, a Saxon miner, laid the foundations of mi- 
neralogy and the art of mining ; when Bernard de Palissy, a 
mere potter, announced to the Academy of France that the fossil 
shells were really the work and the abode of animals ; when, at 
a later period, Steno in Tuscany established the distinction be- 
tween the primitive mountains and the secondary formations. 
But I hasten to arrive at the second epoch of the science, that 
in which the empty knowledge of cosmogonies was superseded 
by physical geography and mineralogical geology ; that in which 
the principles of the immortal Bacon alone directed a study 
which had so long been perverted from the true path by imagi- 
nation and speculative mania. 
It was at Geneva that this change was produced ; it was De 
Saussure who first discovered, that the method hitherto followed 
was not that which conducts to truth, and who proved, by his 
example, that the natural history of the Earth, studied according 
to the same principles as the other physical sciences, would fur- 
nish itself alone and independently of every foreign idea, results 
sufficiently numerous and important to merit the particular at- 
tention of correct and enlightened minds. 
Jt is not before you, gentlemen, several of whom have heard 
