The word "_science_," in its most comprehensive sense, means
"knowledge." In its general acceptation, it is "knowledge reduced to a
system;" that is to say, arranged in regular order, so that it can be
conveniently taught, easily remembered, and readily applied to useful
purposes. An _art_ is the application of knowledge to some practicable
end,--to answer some useful or ornamental purpose. The sciences, are
sometimes divided into the _abstract_ and the _natural_; by the former
we are taught the knowledge of reasons and their conclusions; by the
latter we are enabled to find out causes and effects, and to study the
laws by which the material world is governed. To the abstract sciences
belong, first, language, whether oral or written, including grammar,
logic, &c.; secondly, notation, including arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, &c. Philosophy inquires into the laws that regulate the
phenomena of nature, whether in the material or immaterial world; it is
generally divided into three classes, two of which are material and one
immaterial. The material are, first, those which relate to number and
quantity; secondly, those which relate to matter. The immaterial are
those which relate to mind. The second class of the material is called
"natural philosophy" or "physics," and sometimes the "physical
sciences." Natural philosophy, in its most comprehensive sense, has for
its province the laws of matter, whether organic or inorganic. These
laws may regard either the motions or properties of matter, and hence
arises their division into two branches--first, those which regard the
_motions_ of matter, which are called _mechanics_; and secondly, those
which regard the _properties_ of matter, which are subdivided, and have
various names, according to the different objects of investigation.
When the inquiry is confined to organized bodies and life, it is called
physiology; which is again subdivided into zoology and botany. When it
treats of inorganic matter, it is subdivided into chemistry, anatomy,
medicine, mineralogy and geology. The principles of natural philosophy
rest upon _observation_ and _experiment_. Observation is the noticing
of natural phenomena at they occur, without any attempt to influence
the frequency of their occurrence. Experiment consists in putting in
action causes and agents, over which we have control, for the purpose
of noticing their effects. From a comparison of a number of facts,
obtained from either observation or experiment, the existence of
general laws are proved. The laws of man are complicated; to understand
their objects, we are often obliged to take the most circuitous routes;
but the laws by which nature governs all her works are beautifully
simple, and they are found to lead directly to the end she has in view.
To study them, therefore, according to the rules that have been laid
down, viz: from observation and experiment, is pleasant and easy. The
principal difficulties that have arisen, are owing to the improper
manner in which the subjects connected with natural history have often
been treated. Natural philosophy regards what was the condition of
natural bodies: but many persons exert the whole force of their genius
to discover what they _might have been_. And as there is no department
of natural philosophy into which this erroneous method of procedure has
made greater inroads than geology, nor any science that has suffered so
severely in such conflicts, it may not be amiss to appropriate half an
hour to the inquiry whence this error has arisen; and, if possible,
point out the best method of avoiding its dangerous tendency. The word
geology is derived from two Greek words, signifying "the earth" and
"reason;" and it is that science which teaches the structure of the
crust of the earth, and ascertains its mineralogical materials, and the
order in which they are disposed, and their relations to each other.
Geognosy is used by the French as synonymous to geology, but in English
is generally understood to be synonymous to cosmogony; which is an
inquiry, or rather a speculation, as to the original formation or
creation of the world; hence geognosy has sometimes been called
"speculative geology." In pursuing the examinations to which geology
leads, we reason from facts, as is done in other branches of natural
science. The strata of the crust of the earth, owing to the disturbed
manner in which we now find them, are in a great measure open to our
examination; their composition, formation, deposition, eruption,
depression, succession, and mineralogical contents, are all objects of
sensation. The objects of geognosy (in the English sense of the word)
are, on the other hand, for the most part, ideal, visionary and
delusive. We are sensible that this earth exists and that it is
material, and therefore we know that it must have been created. We know
that it was not created by man, who hath not the power to add to it one
single atom, nor diminish it by a single grain--so that it is manifest
that it was created by a superior and omnipotent power; but by what
process it was done is a mystery, and the more we seek to discover it
the more we expose our ignorance. The geologist, like the
mathematician, deals with the understanding; his advance is wary,
admitting no conclusion until his premises are fully established. The
professor of geognosy, on the contrary, addresses himself entirely to
the imagination, and he delights in hypothesis and suppositions. The
progress of the geologist is necessarily slow; he is like the patient
miner, making his laborious but determined way into the solid rock: but
the professor of geognosy will make a world or even a universe in an
hour, for he deals in fancy and works in visionary speculations. The
geologist delves into the bowels of the earth in search of useful
metals, earths and combustible matters, which nature has kindly placed
within his reach, and he strives to turn them to the best advantage in
administering to the wants and increasing the comforts and convenience
of his fellow creatures; but all the labors of the professor of
geognosy are directed to discover a secret which appears to be hidden
from human ken; a secret, the discovery of which would not, as far as
we can judge, add any thing to the sum of human happiness. It excites
our astonishment therefore, that so many persons of fine genius and
brilliant talents should have wasted so much time in forming what are
called theories of the earth, who might have been so much better
employed in investigating the secondary causes by which the materials
composing the crust of this earth obtained their present forms, and in
examining the changes which those materials are daily undergoing. But
so it is; the curiosity so natural to our species opens the way--the
vanity of being supposed to have penetrated deeper than others into the
abstruse mysteries of nature urges them forward--the silly pride of
having in their own estimations discovered the hidden ways of
Providence quickens their zeal; and, such is the love of the
marvellous, that if they exhibit only a tolerable degree of ingenuity,
and embellish their performances with a few flowers of rhetoric, they
are sure to command more attention and praise from the general mass of
readers, than can be extorted by the most laborious examination of
nature's works. While Martin Lister was ridiculed by Doctor King for
the laudable minuteness with which he described the different natural
objects he met with in his journey through France, Mr. Thomas Burnet,
for a fanciful theory of the earth, was extravagantly lauded by a
writer in the Spectator. Saussure crossed the Alps in fourteen places;
Humboldt traversed nearly one half of the habitable globe; Cuvier spent
seven years in the study of comparative anatomy, as subservient to the
study of fossil remains; and Hauy studied geometry for the sole purpose
of obtaining a knowledge of crystalography; but neither of these
distinguished philosophers have been able to win the laurels that have
been heaped upon the brow of Count Buffon for a visionary hypothesis
which he calls a theory of the earth.
The substitution of these hypotheses for knowledge, unfortunately, has
not been confined to the early and dark ages of geology. One entirely
new theory of the earth was published as lately as the year
1825--another in 1827--and a third in 1829. It is proper therefore that
the student should be warned against their fascinating and baneful
influence.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.