40 INTERNAL STRUCTURE. led on each other without order or regularity: to the fuperficial obferver, Nature appears, in the apparently rude matter of the inorganic kingdom, as prefenting us only with a pidure of chaos, where, none of thofe admirable difplays of fkill and con trivance, which, in the ftrudure of animals and vegetables fo powerfully excite our attention, and claim our admiration, are to be obferved. It is not furprifing that this unfavourable opinion fhould have long continued to be prevalent, when we confider the experience, fkill, and judgment which are neceffary for enabling us to unravel all the variety of apparently unconnected relations, which are obfervable in the internal ftrudure of the earth. In ancient writers, we find nothing on this important fubjed. The ftriking phenomena of volcanoes appear frequently to have excited wonder and aftonifhment, which were always fub- ftituted for inveftigation. After the revival of letters, when fcience had afiumed a more favourable afped, and mines came to be worked by freed men, the objeds of the mi neral kingdom excited a confiderable fhare of at tention ; the numerous interefting phenomena, which daily prefented themfelves to the miner were carefully remembered, and at length record ed by the celebrated miner Agricola. From that period, until the time of Werner, mineralo- gifts brought to light many individual, and a few. general fads refpeding the ftrudure of the earth. Lehman
