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Show 76 CAUSES OF ERROR IN whi.C h accompam·e s the growincor intelligence .o f every people, in regar d tot1 1 e econo my of nature in modern times. InI an ear1 y stage 0 f a d vancemen t , when a oo -reat number of natura fla ppde ar- ances are um·n t el lI' g· ible ' an eclipse ' an earthquake, a oo f , or the approach of a co met ' with many other occurrences a ter-war d s 1~ oun d t o b el onoo- to the regular. course o. f events, are regar d ed as pr.o di' g I'es · 'J.'he same delus.i on prevails. as to mo.r al phenomena, an d many of these are ascnb. ed to th· e mtedr ventw.n of d emons, g l1 Osts , witches ' and other 1mm•a tenal afn 1 super-1 natura1 agen t s. By degrees ' many of the emgmas o . t 1e mora and physical world are explained, and, instead of bemg due to extrinsic and irregular causes, they are found to depend on £xed and invariable laws. The philosopher at last becomes convinced of the undeviating uniformity of secondary. causes, and, guided by his faith in thi.s principl~, he determmes th.e probability of accounts transmitted to lum of former occurrences, and often rejects the fabulous tale~ of former ~ges, on the ground of their being irreconcilable w1th the expcnence of more enlightened ages. . . . As a belief in want of conformity in the physical constitu~IOn , of the earth, in ancient and modern times, was for a long time universally prevalent, and that to.o amongst .men who were convinced that the order of nature Is now umform, and has c~ntinued so for several thousand years; every circumstance ~h1eh could have influenced their minds and given an undue b1as to their opinions deserves particular attention. ~~w the reader may easily satisfy himself, that, howev~r undev1at1?g the .course of nature may have been from the earliest epochs, It was Impossible for the £rst cultivators of geology to come to such a conclusion so lonO' as they were under a delusion as to the age of the wor' ld, andb the date of the £rst creation of am• mate be.m gs. However fantastical some theories of the sixteenth century may now appear to us,-however unworthy of men of .great talent and sound judgment, we may rest assured that, If th~ same misconceptions now prevailed in regard to the mem.orials of human transactions, it would give rise to a similar tram of absurdities. Let us imagine, for example, that Champolliou, and the French and Tuscan literati now engaged in expl01·ing t?e antiquities of Egypt, had visited that country with a firm behef that the banks of the Nile were never peopled by the human GEOLOGICAL THEORIES. 77 rae~ be~ore. the .beginning of the ~ineteeenth century; and that their fa1th m tlus dogma was as difficult to shake as the opinion of.our anc7stors, that. the earth was nevet• the abode of living bemgs until the creation of the present continents, and of the species now existing,-it is easy to perceive· what extravagant systems they would frame, while under the influence of this delusion, to account for the monuments discovered in Ecrypt. '.l.'~e sight of the pyramids, obelisks, colossal statues,0 and rumed temples, would fill them with such astonishment that f?r a time they wo~ld be as men spell-bound-wholly in~apacitated to reason With sobriety. They might incline at first to refer the construction of such stupendous works to some superhuman powers of a primeval world. A system might be invented resembling that so gravely advanced by Manetho, who relates that a dynasty of gods originally ruled in Egypt, of whom Vulcan, the first monarch, reigned nine thousand years. After them came Hercules and other demi-gods, who were at last succeeded by human kings. When some fanciful speculations of this kind had amused the imagination for a time, ,some vast repository of mummies would be discovered and would immediately undeceive those antiquaries who enjoyed ~n .opportunity of personally examinii:Jg them, but the preJUdices of others at a distance, who were not eye-witnesses of the whole phenomena, would not be so easily overcome. The concurrent report of many travellers would indeed render it necessary for them to accommodate ancient theories to some of the ne~ facts, and much wit and ingenuity would be required to modify and defend their old positions. Each new invention woul<l violate a greater number of known analogies; for if a theory be required to embrace some false principle, it becomes more visionary in proportion as facts are multiplied, as would be t~e case if geometers were now required to form an astronomiCal system on the assumption of the immobility of the earth. Amongst other fanciful conjectures concerning the history of Egypt, we may suppose some of the following to be started, 'As the banks of the Nile have been so recently colonized, the 'curious snbtances called mummies could never in reality have 'belonged to men. They may have been generated by some 'plastic virtue residing in the interior of the earth, or they may |