894 
MISCELLANY. 
divine was succeeded by Mr. Woodward’s Essay towards the Natural History 
of the Earth , published in 1695, a more matter-of-fact work than that of Dr. 
Burnet, and consequently—though of less interest to the general reader—more 
valuable as a scientific treatise. This gentleman considered the Geology of Moses 
strictly correct. In 1696 the learned Mr. Wm. Whiston produced his New 
Theory of the Earth. Early in the 18th century John Hutchinson published his 
celebrated theory, confessedly derived exclusively from Scripture. The Italian 
AbbeMoRo’s opinions (1740) were mainly derived from the works of his Predecessor, 
Ray. Four years afterwards appeared M. Le Cat, the French philosopher; and 
in 1750 M. Maillet published his Tellianned. This writer was followed by Buf- 
fon, whose theory was warmly opposed by Raspe, a German geologist. In 1773 
Dr. Wm. Worthington promulgated a doctrine 44 in which great learning and 
piety and a considerable share of ingenuity are combined.” Then followed, in 
1778 Whitehurst’s Enquiry into the Original State and Formation of the 
Earth . Mr. W. was a native of Congleton, in Cheshire, and passed much of his 
time in Derbyshire. His writings are still considered valuable. A few years 
afterwards, M. De Luc, of Geneva, dissatisfied with the then existing theories, 
added another, which gained a large share of attention at that time. Mr. Milne, 
an ingenious theorist, who succeeded De Luc, was but little noticed. But the 
two geological philosophers whose writings have acquired more celebrity than any 
of the authors above named, are Prof. Werner, of Freiburg, and Dr. Hutton, of 
Edinburgh, whose theories are well known as the Wernerian and the Huttonian . 
The works of Conybeake, Lyell, Sedgwick, Phillips, Mantell, Bakewell, 
Ure, Buckland, Cuvier, Boue, &c. &c., in recent times, are well known, and 
contain all that has at present been discovered respecting the history of the earth. 
The Encyclopaedia Briiannica , Transactions of the Geological Society , Par¬ 
tington’s Cyclopaedia of Natural History , and various other periodical works— 
containing contributions from the above and other eminent geologists—may like¬ 
wise be consulted with advantage. 
Geology has always been one of the most popular branches of Natural History; 
and the difficulty of the study demands, truly, that it should receive an ample 
share of the attention of philosophers.— Ed. 
