Studies in Natural History Author:William Rhind Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECTION III. GEOLOGY FORMATION OF THE EARTH ADVANTAGES OF THE IRREGULAR SURFACE OK THE GLOBE. Geology, or an account of the formation and composition of th... more »e solid parts of our globe, is a department of natural history which has occupied much attention in modern times. In no department of science, however, has the vague speculations of theorists, both ancient and modern, excited more contention or ridicule than this. Most of these theories have been hastily formed, and without a due regard to facts and observations; or, when these have been partially made, such facts have often been perverted; hence such theorists have exposed themselves to the lash of the satirist: -" Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn That He who made it, and revealed its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age. Some more acute, and more industrious still, Contrive creation, travel Nature up To the sharp peak of her sublimes! height, And tell us whence the stars." We cannot look upon the visionary speculations of some of these philosophers without surprise, mingled also with regret at the dogmatism and self- sufficiency with which they are propounded. How different from these was the truly great and philosophic Newton, whose mind, of that gigantic capacity which could comprehend a whole, was not enchained to a particular part,—who, fully aware of the bounds and limits of man's capacity, was humble in his own eyes, and charitable with regard to the opinions of others ! A little before his death, he said, " I don't know what I may seem to the world, but as to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ord...« less