he suggests that there might be some connection between the disappearance of certain kinds of animals and plants, and the changes produced by earthquakes in former ages. Some species, he remarks, are peculiar to certain places, and not to be found elsewhere. If, then, such a place had been swallowed up, it is not improbable but that those animate beings may have been destroyed with it; and this may be true both of aerial and aquatic animals; for those animated bodies, whether vegetables or animals, which were naturally nourished or refreshed by the air, would be destroyed by the water. Turtles, and such large animals as are found in Portland, seem to have been the productions of hotter countries; and it is necessary to suppose that England once lay under the sea, within the torrid zone. In order to account for these changes, he speculates on an alteration of the earth's axis of rotation, a shifting of the centre of gravity, &c. He accounts for the elevation of the strata of the Alps, Appenines, and Pyrenees, all containing fossil shells, to the effects of earthquakes; and enumerates a list of the most remarkable volcanic eruptions, from the remotest antiquity till his own times. He supposes that the conversion of the bed of the ocean into dry land occurred at the period of the deluge, and that the fossil remains found in these strata may have been deposited during the interval between the creation and the deluge.

Ray, who flourished in 1692, to an acute and philosophical mind, added an intimate knowledge of natural history generally, and a profound reverence and respect for revealed religion. His writings were, at the period, of an extremely popular nature, and his geological creed coincided in general with that of Dr Hooke, for whom he expresses the highest respect. He pointed out the disintegrating effects of the ocean and rivers on the earth's surface, believed implicitly in the scriptural origin of the globe, the recent date of creation, and the assurance of its final dissolution by fire.*

*The age of Newton" is distinguished for having produced several philosophers, no less remarkable for their profound acumen and learning, than for their firm belief in revelation. We may here be allowed to particularize Grew, the author of Cosmologia Sacra-a very curious work-Ray, Hooke, Derham, and "that pure intelligence" Newton himself. Mr Lyell, in noticing Ray's works, makes the following remarks: "His discourses, like those of Hooke, are highly interesting, as attesting the familiar association in the minds of philosophers in the age of Newton, of questions in physics and divinity. Ray gave an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of his mind by sacrificing his preferment in the church, rather than take an oath against the Covenanters, which he could not reconcile with his conscience. His reputation, moreover, in the scientific world, placed him high above the temptation of courting popularity by pandering to the physicotheological taste of his age. It is, therefore, curious to meet with so many citations from the Christian fathers and prophets in his essays on physical science-to find him in one page proceeding by the strict rules of induction to explain the former changes of the globe; and in the next, gravely entertaining the question whether

Dr Woodward, a physician, also flourished in this period. His practical knowledge of the British strata was considerable; and he made a large collection of fossils, which he arranged systematically, and bequeathed to the University of Cambridge. His geological theories, however, were fanciful, and not at all founded on his practical knowledge. He supposed that the whole strata of the globe were broken down, and reconstructed at the period of the deluge.

Whiston was another cosmogonist of the same school. He attributed the deluge to the contact of a comet with the earth; and was amongst the first who began to tamper with the text of Genesis, and bend its meaning, by means of verbal criticisms, to his own purposes.

Dr Burnet published his Theory of the Earth between 1680 and 1690. He seems to have altogether disregarded practical facts and inductions, and to have given a loose rein to his imagination. His style is glowing and energetic, and his book may be read as a poetic declamation, but it is in all other respects utterly unprofitable. Yet it was highly relished by his contemporaries, passed through several editions, and was a great favourite with Charles II.

the sun and stars, and the whole heavens, shall be annihilated, together with the earth, at the era of the grand conflagration.” -Elements of Geol. vol. i. pp. 57, 8.

About the beginning of the eighteenth century, geological theories and facts were still farther prosecuted by Vallisneri Lazzaro Moro, and his eloquent commentator, Generelli. The latter describes the waste of the surface of the earth continually taking place, and concludes that this loss and decay must be compensated by elevating volcanic forces.

On a review of the writings of the early geologists, then, it appears, that amid much that is fanciful, and amid many erroneous deductions, drawn from scanty or misconceived facts, still the germs, and, in some instances, the complete development of modern theories are distinctly to be traced.*

*

* For a full historical view of the early geologists, the reader is referred to Mr Conybeare's Introduction to the Geology of England and Wales, and to Mr Lyell's Elements, vol. i.

135

SECTION II.

LATER GEOLOGICAL THEORIES.

IN 1749, Buffon published his System of Natural History, the preliminary part of which is devoted to a theory of the formation of the earth. Though an eloquent and highly popular author, his cosmogony can lay no high claims to originality of conception, nor was it based on any comprehensive knowledge of the facts even of his predecessors. In general, he adopts the theory of Leibnitz. His supposition that the earth was a portion of the sun, struck off in a fused mass by the stroke of a comet, has been pronounced, by competent astronomers, as inconsistent with the known laws of projectiles; for if such a mass had been thus struck off from an attracting centre, it would again have returned into the sun, after a brief journey in space. His ideas regarding the permanent horizontality of the fossiliferous strata since the period of their formation, are inconsistent with facts; and the only valuable part of his geology, in a practical view, is his