The complaints of his own blindness, his reflections on the nudity of our first parents, on the Angels' eating, and some other passages, are certainly exceptions; but they are so extremely beautiful, that criticism would be captious indeed if they were rejected.

GEOLOGY OF ENGLAND.

1. A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland, exhibiting the Collieries and Mines, the Marshes and Fenlands originally overflowed by the Sea, and the varieties of Soil, according to the variations of the Substrata, illustrated by the most Descriptive Names. By W. Smith. 15 sheets, coloured. Carey, London. August, 1815.

2. Geological Section from London to Snowdon; showing the varieties of the Strata, and the correct Altitudes of the Hills, coloured to correspond with his Geological Map of England and Wales. By W. Smith. 1817. 3. A Memoir of the Map and Delineation, &c. By W. Smith, Engineer and Mineral Surveyor. 4to. pp. 51. London, 1815.

4. A Series of County Maps, on a much larger scale than that of the General "Delineation," &c. coloured to correspond with the large Map, from Documents in Mr. Smith's possession. Carey, Strand, London,

1817.

5. Strata identified by Organized Fossils, containing Prints on coloured Paper of the most characteristic Specimens in each Stratum. By W. Smith. 4to. Published in Numbers. London, 1816.

6. Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils, with reference to the Specimens of the original Geological Collection in the British Museum, &c. By W. Smith. 4to. London. E. Williams, Strand, 1817.

(From the Edinburgh Review, February, 1818.)

A MAP may not, at first sight, appear to come within the scope of our publication: but the performance now before us, with the other works connected with it, has more than ordinary claims upon the attention of the public. It contains a great deal of information, of practical importance as well as speculative interest. It is the first work of the kind that has ever appeared in England; and it is the production, after the labour of more

than twenty years, of a most ingenious man, who has been singularly deficient in the art of introducing himself to public notice.

Mr. Smith is by profession a civil engineer, and, we are informed, is particularly skilled in that department of his business which relates to draining, and the structure of canals. It appears that, in the course of the inquiries to which his occupations naturally led him, he had occasion, many years ago, to observe the regularity and steadiness of the order exhibited by the strata in the vicinity of Bath; and in the year 1790, he drew up a tabular view of the stratification there, which in fact contained the rudiments of all his subsequent discoveries, and was in itself a proof of great sagacity and application. In the course of different journeys afterwards made, he not only recognised, among the strata in the north of England, several of his old acquaintances at Bath, but was surprised to find them in the same company with which they are associated in that neighbourhood: And, after full investigation, he became at last convinced, that the series of beds was uniform throughout the whole of the south-eastern portion of the island; and that the edge of every stratum, with very few exceptions, might be traced uninterruptedly from one shore to the other, in a direction from S.W. to N.E. These curious observations, which were made, we have no doubt, without any acquaintance with any previous publication on the subject, led very naturally to the project of a map, in which they might be embodied and combined, and gave birth to the valuable works at present under our consideration.

In an early stage of his Inquiry, Mr. Smith communicated his observations to the Reverend Joseph Townsend, the author of a well known and valuable book of travels in Spain, and subsequently to Mr. Farey, who was, at that time, we believe, his pupil; two gentlemen who must, in fact, be considered as the editors of Mr. Smith's opinions; for the Memoir which he has himself connected with his map, is extremely brief and unsatisfactory. The title of the book in which Mr. Townsend has given an account of Smith's discoveries-The character of Moses established for veracity as an Historian' *—has apparently very little connexion with the Geology of England; but the ingenious author conceived the credibility of the Mosaic account of the creation, to derive important support from the existing appearances of the globe; and, for the purpose of illustrating those appearances, he has entered into a full description of the British strata; which he very candidly professes to have derived almost entirely from Mr. Smith, of whom, after stating, that, with a view to the completion of his own work, he had lost no opportunity of conversing with foreign mineralogists of eminence, he thus expresses his good opinion. The discoveries

*Two vols. 4to. 1813. 1815. Bath, Gye & Son, and Longman, London.

of this skilful engineer have been of vast importance to Geology, and will be of infinite value to this nation. To a strong understanding, a retentive memory, indefatigable ardour, and more than common sagacity, this extraordinary man unites a perfect contempt for money, when compared with science. Had he kept his discoveries to himself, he might have accumulated wealth; but, with unparalleled disinterestedness of mind, he scorned concealment, and made known his discoveries to every one who wished for information. It is now (1813) eleven years since he conducted the author in his examination of the strata which are laid bare in the immediate vicinity of Bath; and subsequent excursions in the stratified and calcareous portion of our island have confirmed the information thus obtained.' (Vol. I. p. iv. v.)

Mr. Farey, the other person whom we have mentioned as the friend of Mr. Smith, is himself a geological observer of great activity, and of unwearied perseverance; and, if zeal were the only qualification of an editor, there could not have been any person better fitted for the task. But the patronage of this gentleman is really a little too vehement,—and of such a sort, that if we wished to ensure the failure of a valuable performance, we should begin by recommending it to his protection. One great topic with him, is the absolute originality of his friend's speculations-a subject into which we do not propose directly to enter, further than just to remark that Mr. Smith, having developed the structure of the neighbourhood of Bath, made known the facts he had observed there, and the inferences, which they suggested, with the warmth and liberality-we may add, with the want of prudence—that are frequently characteristic of men of talents. Geology was, at that period, in its infancy in England; but the importance of these observations could not fail to attract attention. The enumeration of the West-of-England strata was circulated extensively in manuscript, maps also, and sections of the stratification in other parts of the island were shown by Mr. Smith himself at different agricultural and commercial meetings; and printed proposals for a book upon the subject, to be accompanied by a general map and section, were distributed in 1801. The elements of the present performance being thus in fact made public, they have had a very important, though unobserved effect, upon the labours of all succeeding inquirers, who have been, perhaps unconsciously, but not less really, indebted to the author for very essential assistance in their progress.

Taking leave, however, of all controversy, and regarding the publications before us as an acquisition of great value, we shall premise to our account of them, a sketch of some points in the history of preceding discoveries, that our readers may be enabled to distinguish the portion of Mr. Smith's communication that is truly original, from the mere filling up

of outlines which others had previously traced:—a field of inquiry, that, with regard to our present subject, may be confined, in a great measure, to the newer and more regularly stratified portions of the globe.

The French Encyclopedie Methodique contains, under the article Physical Geography, published in 1796 by the late M. Desmarest, a full account of some of the principal publications upon that subject, to the middle of the last century; from whence may be obtained some valuable facts, diluted very plentifully with speculation about the primeval state of the globe. But, on the whole, these volumes have not much increased our respect for the Geologists of the last two centuries,-the perusal of them having irresistibly brought to our minds the speech of the knavish old gentleman, in the Vicar of Wakefield, whose opinion, after all, comes very near the truth. You talk, sir, of the world! the world is in its dotage: and yet the cosmogony, or creation of the world, has puzzled the philosophers of every age.-What a medley of opinions have they not broached upon the subject! Sanconiathon, Manetho, Berosus, and Ocellus Lucanus, have all attempted it in vain.' We shall attempt, however, to select from this chaos of philosophers, the names of a few only, who have given something real to the science of geology, with the addition of some others not mentioned by Desmarest: But it is only fair to add, that we are far from supposing Mr. Smith to have been acquainted with these writings.

In the "medley of opinions" so learnedly alluded to by Mr. Jenkinson, there is none more extraordinary than that maintained about the close of the seventeenth century, by Ray, Lister, and other eminent naturalists, respecting the substances now universally considered as the remains of organized beings. It will seem almost incredible to those who are acquainted with the works of Cuvier, and other inquirers of our days, that such a notion could at any time have found supporters. "The great question, now so much controverted in the world," Dr. Plot tells us, in 1677, was, "Whether the stones we find in the form of shell fish, (and in his plates, they are, with the caution usual at that period upon this subject, denominated formed stones,') be lapides sui generis, naturally produced by some extraordinary plastic virtue, latent in the earth, in quarries where they are found; or whether they rather owe their form and figure to the shells of the fishes they represent," &c.*-And this learned writer gives seven weighty reasons for adhering to the former of these opinions, in op ́position to the sentiments of Hook, and other persons, who entertained more rational views. This curious absurdity affords a good illustration of the danger of hypothesis in natural history; having originated entirely

*Natural History of Oxfordshire, p. 111,

from the assumption, that the general deluge was the only cause that could have occasioned the deposition of the bodies in question: and as that great event was evidently too transitory, for the production of appearances observable at great depths from the surface, the shortest road of explanation was chosen; and it was boldly denied, that the fossils of the solid strata had ever been endowed with life. Palisey, indeed, is praised by Fontenelle, for having refuted this opinion long before;-yet afterwards, in 1708, a book was published by Scheuchzer, under the title of " Piscium Querela et Vindicia,' where the unhappy fishes, entombed in stony substances, are represented as deploring, in very pathetic language, the indignity under which they suffer, in being degraded from the animal kingdom, to the rank of mere brute matter.* This remonstrance, however, does not seem to have been effectual; for Woodward, in 1723, still thought it necessary to reason against the doctrine we have mentioned: And afterwards, and so late as 1752, M. Bertrand, a Swiss clergyman, made a last effort in its favour, contending that fossil-shells, &c. are nothing more than links in the progressive series by which unorganized matter is connected with the animated world; or perhaps the unfinished materials, (" in fieri,” as Dr. Plot had long before expressed it), out of which the Creator might have formed, and in part did form, the existing races of similar beings.

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1684, there is published, "An ingenious proposal for a new sort of maps of countries, together with tables of sands and clays, such chiefly as are found in the north parts of England, by the learned Martin Lister, M.D.;" and the paper is there stated to have been drawn up about ten years before." We shall then," the author begins, "be the better able to judge of the make of the earth, and of many phenomena belonging thereto, when we shall have well and duly examined it, as far as human art can possibly reach, beginning from the outside downwards. As for the inward and central parts thereof, I think we shall never be able to refute Gilbert's opinion thereof, who will not, without rea. son, have it altogether iron.”- "And for this purpose, it were advisable that a soil or mineral map, as I may call it, were devised."-Under the term "soiles," however, he enumerates chalk, flint, sandstone, coal, ironstone, lead ore, &c. intending evidently to signify the solid strata,' as well as the looser materials of the surface; and he adds-" Now, if it were

*The fanciful tendency of this last writer's understanding might weaken his authority upon this point, if it stood alone; for, in his "Herbarium Diluvianum," a catalogue of the plants submerged by the waters of the deluge, he has undertaken to determine the period of the year at which that event occurred, which he asserts must positively have been about the latter end of May, from the appearance of a certain fossil that he calls a spike of barley; but which, it is quite evident from his engraving, was a body of a very different description.