GEOLOGY

(Gr. yrj, the earth; Xoyos, a discourse.) Till within the last five-and-twenty years geology consisted of a very limited collection of facts, strung upon amusing but in sufficient theories and hypotheses; but it may bow be said to have taken its place among the rigid and exact sciences It requires for its succe ful exposition not only an intimate acquaintance with the mineralogical history of the crust of the globe, but it also involves a series of extensive and dis tinct inquiries respecting the physical and chemical cause* that are and have been active in producing present and past changes; and it branches out into several distinct investiga tions connected with the discovery of organic remains, in tin succe ful pursuit of which no small share of zoological an< botanical information are requisite, and which also domain) the aid of comparative anatomy. There is this, therefore, to recommend geology, that it ex cites a distinct interest in the external characters of a conn try or district, independent of the beauties, or ruggednesa, ot sublimity of its aspect) or of its geographical peculiarities and endeavours to trace a connexion between its cxtcriei [s. 508]