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Show 60 NEPTUNISTS AND VULCANISTS, had observed the alternations of submarine and calcareous strata in the Val di Notoin Sicily*· In 1790, he also described similar phenomena in the Vicentin and in th~ ~'yrol t. Montlosier also published, in 1788, a~ elegant and spmted essay ~n the ;olcanos of Auvergne, combinmg accurate local observatiOns w1th comprehensive views. In opposition to this mass of evidence, the scholars of Werner were prepared to support his opinions to their utmost extent, maintaining in the fulness of their faith that even obsidian was an aqueous precipitate. As they were blinded by their veneration for the great teacher, they were impatient of opposition, and soon imbibed the spirit of a faction; and their opponents, the V ulcanists, were not long in becoming contaminated with the same intemperate zeal. Ridicule and irony were weapons more frequently employed than argument- by the rival sects, till at last the controversy was carried on with a degree of bitterness, almost unprecedented in questions of physical science. Desmarest alone, who had long before provided ample materials for refuting such a theory, kept aloof from the strife, and whenever a zealous Neptunist wished to draw the old man into an argument, he was satisfied with replying, '' Go and see. t" It would be contrary to all analogy, in matters of graver import, that n wat· should -rage with such fury on the continent, and that the inhabitants of our island shou]d not mingle in the affray. Although in England the personal influence of Werner was wanting to stimulate men to the defence of the weaker side of the question, they contrived to find good reason for espousing the W ernerian errors with great enthusiasm. In order to explain the peculiar motives which led many to enter, even with party feeling, into this contest, we must present the reader wjth a sketch of the views unfolded by Hutton, a contemporary of the Saxon geologist. '!'hat naturalist had been educated as a physician, but, declining the practice of medicine, he resolved, when young, to remain content with the small independence inherited from his father, and thenceforth to give his undivided attention to scientific pursuits. He resided at Edinburgh, where he enjoyed the society of many • Journ, de Phys., tom. xxv. p. 19h t lb. tom. xxxvii. part ii. p. 200. t Cuvier, Bloge de Desmarest. IIUTTONIAN THEORY. 61 men of high attainments, who loved him for the simplicity of l1is manners and the sincerity of his character. His application was unwearied, and he made frequent tours through different parts of England and Scotland, acquiring considerable skill as a mineralogist, and constantly arriving at grand and comprehensive views in geology. He communicated the results of his observations unreservedly, and with the fearless spirit of one who was conscious that love of truth was the sole stimulus · of all his exertions. When at length he had matured his views, he published, in 1788, his "Theory of the Earth*," nnd the same, afterwards more fully developed in a separate work, in 1795. This treatise was the first in which geology was declared to be in no way concerned about " questions as to the origin of things;" the first in which an attempt was mnde to dispense entirely with all hypothetical causes, and to explain the former changes of the earth ,s crust, by reference exclusively to natural agents. Hutton laboured to give fixed principles to geology, as Newton had succeeded in doing to astronomy ; but in the former science too little progress had been made towards furnishing the necessary data to enable any philosopher, however great his genius, to realize so noble a project. " The ruins of an older world," said Hutton, ''are visible in the present structure of our planet, and the strata which now compose our continents have been once beneath the sea, and were formed out of the waste of pre-existing continents. The same forces ~re still destroying, by chemical decomposition or mechanical violence, even the hardest rocks, and transporting the materials to the sea, where they are spread out, and form strata analogous to those of more ancient date. Although loosely, deposited along the bottom of the ocean, they become afterwards altered and consolidated by volcanic heat, and then heaved up, fractured and contorted:' Although Hutton had never explored any region of active volcanos, he had convinced himself that basalt and many other trap-rocks were of igneous origin, and that many of them had been injected in a melted state through fissures in the older strata, The compactness of these rocks, and their different • Ed. Phil. Trans., 1788, |