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Show 74 PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY. . knowled e of the distant heavens, must remain mankind, ~s .a f tg 'ty It was not till astronomy had . fi0 r the decisiOn o pos en . . d h d · 1 d by the observations of many centunes, an a been ennc 1e . · 1 t bl' h t made I. ts way agam. s t Po pular pre"l udices to t le efs a1 IS men of a soun d t h eory, that its application to the use bu arts wt as most consp1. cuou s· The cultivation. of . geologhy' h egta n a da later peri.o d ; an d I.Il every step wluch· It hash dI t er o rnt a de t rds sound theoretical principles, It has .a to con en aogwa~m st more Vl·O 1 e n t prepossessions. T. he pra. cticabll. advba ntages al rea d y d en.v e d from it have not been mconsiderafi lle : ut obu r eneralizations are yet imperfect, an~ they who o ow may e ~x ected to reap the most valuable .frmts of our labour. Meanw~ le the charm of first discovery 1s om· o.wn, and as we exRlore this magnificent field of inquiry' the sentiment of a gr.eat Justo- . f r t'Imes may continually be present to our mmds, that nan o ou · · b · · " he who calls what has vanished back agam mto emg, enJ~ys a bliss like that of creating * ·" • Niebuhr's Hist. of Rome, vol. i. P· 5. Hare and Thirlwall's translation. CHAPTER V. Review of the causes which have retarded the progress of Geology-Effects of prepossessions in regard to the duration of past time-Of prejudices arising from our peculiar position as inhabitants of the land-Of those occasioned by our not seeing subterranean changes now in progress-AU these causes com· bine to make the former course of Nah1re appear different from the presentSeveral objections to the assumption, that existing causes have produced the former changes of the earth's surface, removed by modern discoveries. 1VE have seen that, during the progress of geology, there have been great fluctuations of opinion respecting the nature of the causes to which all former changes of the earth's surface are referrible. The first observers conceived that the monuments which the geologist endeavours to decipher, relate to a period when the physical constitution of the earth differed entirely from the present, and that, even after the creation of living beings, there have been causes in action distinct in kind or degree from those now forming part of the economy of nature. These v~ews have been gradually modified, and some of them entirely abandoned in proportion as observations have been multiplied, and the signs of former mutations more skilfully interpreted. Many appearances, which for a long time were regarded as indicating mysterious and extraordinary agency, are :finally recognized as the necessary result of the laws now governing the material world; and the discovery of this unlooked for conformity has induced some geologists to infer that there has never been any interruption to the same uniform order of physical events. The same assemblage of general causes, they conceive, may have been sufficient to produce, by their various combinations, the endless diversity of effects, of which the shell of the earth has preserved the memorials, and, consistently with these principles, the recurrence of analogous changes is expected by them in time to come. Whether we coincide or not in this doctrine, we must admit that the gradual progress of opinion concerning the succession of phenomena in remote eras, resembles in a singular manner that |