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Show 66 VOLTAIRE, 1 · as an ally in their cause *. He knew that the theo ogians d f £ 'l maJ· Or·t ty f th e who were aware of the abun ance o oss1 0 OS , d d h shells in the interior of continents, were st1ll persua e t. at t 11 ey were prO ofs of the. universal. deluge ; and as thde rea· dies1t way of shaking this article of faith, he endeavoure to mcu - cate scepticism, as to the real nature of such she~ls, and to recall from contempt the exploded dogma of the sixteenth century, that they were sports of nature. He also pretended that vegetable impressions were not those of real plants t. Yet he was perfectly convinced that the shel~s h~d really belonged to living testacea, as may be seen m h1s e~say, "On the formation of Mountains :j)' lie would sometimes, in defiance of all consistency, shift his ground when addressing the vulgar ; and admitting the true nature of the shells collected in the Alps, and other places, pretend that the! ":ere eastern species, which had fallen from the hat~ of pilgn~s coming from Syria. The numerous essays wntten by him on O'eoloO'ical sub1ccts were all calculated to strengthen pre- b b J judices, partly because he was ignorant of the real state of the science, and partly from his bad faith ~· On the other hand, they who knew that his attacks were directed by a desire to invalidate scripture, and who were unacquainted with the true merits of the question, might well deem the old diluvian hypothesis incontrovertible, if Voltaire could ·adduce no better argument against it, than to deny the true nature of organic remains. >If In allusion to the theories of Burnet, Woodward, and other physico-theolo· gical writers, he declarecl that they were as fond of changes of scene on the face of the globe, as were the populace at a play. " Every one of them destroys and renovates the earth after his own fashion, as Descartes framecl it: for philosophers put themselves without ceremony in the place of God, and think to create a uni· verse with a word."-Dissertation envoy~e a l' Academie de Bologne, sur les change. mens arrives clans notre Globe. Unfortunately this and similar ridicule directed against the cosmologists was too well deserved. t See the chapter on " Des pierres figurees." t In that essay he lays it down " that all naturalists are now agreed that de. posits of shells in the miclst of the continents, are monuments of the continued occupation of these districts by the ocean." In another place also, when speaking of the fossil shells of Touraine, he admits their true origin. . § As an instance of his desire to throw doubt indiscriminately on all geolog1cal data, we may recall the passage, where he says that " the bones of a rein-deer and hippopotamus discovered near Etampes, clid not prove, as some would have it, that Lapland and the Nile were once on a tour from Paris to Orleans, but merely that a. lover of curiosities once preserved them in, lus cabinet." INTOLERANCE 01<' TilE NEPTUNISTS, 67 . It is. o~ly by careful attention to impediments originating m extrmsic causes, that we can explain the slow and reluctant adoption of the ·simplest truths in geology. First, we find many able naturalists adducing the fossil remains of marine animals, as proofs of an event related in Scripture. r.rhe evidence is deemed conclusive by the multitude for a century or more; for it favours opinions which they entertained before, and they are gratified by supposing them confirmed by fresh and unexpected proofs. Many, who see through the fallacy, have. no w1sh to undeceive those who are influenced by it, app: ovmg the effec~ of the delusion, and conniving at it as a pious fraud; unbl finally, an opposite party, who are hostile t~ the sacred ':riti.ngs, labour to explode the erroneous opiruon, by subsbtutmg for it another dogma which they know to be equally unsound. · The h.eretical vulcanists were now openly assailed in England, by imputations of the most illiberal kind. We cannot estimate the malevolence of such a persecution, by the pain which similar insinuations might now inflict; for although charg.es. of. infi?elity and atheism must always be odious, they were InJUrious m the extreme at that moment of political excitement: and it was better perhaps for a man's good reception in society, that his moral character should have been traduced, than that he should become a mark for these poisoned weapons. We shall pass over the works of numerous divines, wh~ may be excused for sensitiveness on points which then excited so much uneasiness in the public mind; and we shall say nothing of the amiable poet Cowper*, who could hardly be expected to have inquired into the merits of doctrines in physics. But we find in the foremost ranks of the intolerant, several laymen who had high claims to scientific reputation. Amongst these, appears Williams, a mineral surveyor of Edinb~ rgh, who published a ''Natural History of the Mineral Kmg~om'' in 1789, a work of great merit for that day, and of practical utility, as containing the best account of the coal strata. In his preface he misrepresents Hutton's theory altogether, and charges him with considerinO' all rocks to be lavas of different colours and structure ; and also with " warping "' The Ta11k, book iii. " The Garden.'' F2 |