Principles of geology, Volume 1

Front Cover
John Murray, 1835
 

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Page 92 - ... in the planetary motions, where geometry has carried the eye so far both into the future and the past, we discover no mark either of the commencement or the termination of the present order.
Page 45 - And tho' it must be granted, that it is very difficult to read them, and to raise a Chronology out of them, and to state the intervalls of the times wherein such, or such catastrophies and mutations have happened ; yet 'tis not impossible...
Page 92 - ... of men, carry in themselves the elements of their own destruction. He has not permitted in His works any symptom of infancy or of old age, or any sign by which we may estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end, as he no doubt...
Page xix - GEOLOGY is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature: it inquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet.
Page 15 - These general propositions are then confirmed by a series of examples, all derived from natural appearances, except the first, which refers to the golden age giving place to the age of iron. The illustrations are thus consecutively adduced. 1. Solid land has been converted into sea. 2. Sea has been changed into land. Marine shells lie far distant from the deep, and the anchor has been found on the summit of hills. 3. Valleys have been excavated by running water, and floods have washed down hills...
Page 53 - He knew the seat of Paradise, Could tell in what degree it lies, And, as he was disposed, could prove it Below the moon, or else above it...
Page 249 - ... as well as of reproduction; but they may also be regarded as antagonist forces. For the aqueous agents are incessantly labouring to reduce the inequalities of the earth's surface to a level; while the igneous are equally active in restoring the unevenness of the external crust, partly by heaping up new matter in certain localities, and partly by depressing one portion, and forcing out another, of the earth's envelope.
Page 110 - ... is easy to perceive what extravagant systems they would frame, while under the influence of this delusion, to account for the monuments discovered in Egypt. • The sight of the pyramids, obelisks, colossal statues, and ruined temples, would fill them with such astonishment, that for a time they would be as men spell-bound — wholly incapable of reasoning with sobriety. They might incline at first to refer the construction of such stupendous works to some superhuman powers of a primeval world.
Page 385 - MARL. A mixture of clay and lime ; usually soft, but sometimes hard, in which case it is called indurated marl. MARSUPIAL ANIMALS. A tribe of quadrupeds having a sack or pouch under the belly, in which they carry their young. The kangaroo is a well-known example.
Page 66 - The first of these obnoxious passages, and the only one relating to geology, was as follows: — "The waters of the sea have produced the mountains and valleys of the land — the waters of the heavens, reducing all to a level, will at last deliver the whole land over to the sea, and the sea, successively prevailing over the land, will leave dry new continents like those which we inhabit.

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