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UNIVERSAL SCIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

GEOLOGY.

SECTION I.

INTRODUCTION.

GEOLOGY, (or Geognosy, as the Wernerian Mi-
neralogists term this science) is the doctrine of the
earth in its insentient or unorganized frame; and
consequently comprehends its subterranean, super-
ficial, and geological phenomena.

Obs. Of a portion of two of these parts we shall treat in
the subsequent chapters: what we shall now investigate is
purely geological.

Our object in this chapter, as every where else in this work,
will be to present facts, to account for phenomena where the
causes can be traced by induction, and where our want of
information leaves room to doubt, there to stop; and with
such evidence or data as we can furnish, leave the reader to
form his own judgment. This appears a more natural and
philosophical method of pursuing scientific studies, than the
invention of theories, and the crudity of speculations, the
bare announcement of facts, and the churlish pride of dis-
daining to give an opinion on those facts.

In this view, therefore, the division of our sub-
ject being made, the first chapter shall be as brief
as its nature will admit, but the second shall contain
all the information that has novelty to recommend
it to the reader; nor will any fear of prolixity bin-
der us from exhibiting the most ample display of the

phenomena of nature, which the science of Geology presents. Instruction will thus be blended with amusement, and the acquisition of scientific knowledge be rendered a pastime, not a task,

SECTION II.

ROCKS AND VEINS.

1. THE stony masses of which the earth is composed, are numerous, and are found laid one above another; so that a rock of one kind of stone is covered by another species of rock, and this by a third, and so on. In this superposition of rocks, it has been observed, that their situation is by no means arbitrary; each occupies a determinate place, so that they follow one another in regular order from the deepest part of the earth's crust which has been examined, to the very surface.

Thus there are two things respecting rocks which claim our attention; namely, their composition, and their relative situation. But besides the rocks which constitute almost the whole of the earth's crust, there are masses to be considered traversing the rocks in a different direction, and known by the name of veins, as if the rocks had split asunder in different places from top to bottom, and the chasm had been afterwards filled up with the matter which constitutes the vein.

Thus it appears, that the subject naturally divides itself into three parts; 1. The structure of rocks; 2. The situation of rocks; 3. Veins; and these shall form the subject of the three following sections.

SECTION III.

OF THE STRUCTURE OF ROCKS.

2. Rocks may be divided into two classes; viz.
I. Simple, or composed of one mineral substance.

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