The course of creation

by John Anderson

Nature and Qualities of the Rocks.—The granite is the most prevailing, as well as the most striking in its appearance and texture, in the whole range. Mineralogically considered, every specimen is a gem. Granite is a compound, aggregate rock, here of a lively flesh or rose color, consisting of perfectly formed crystals of quartz, feldspar, mica, and in some instances hornblende, when it merges into what is termed syenite. The sparkling film is mica. It is not metallic; but it shines with metallic luster; and in some places of the chain, as at Rothes on the Spey side, it is found in plates so large as to become a substitute for glass. The component parts of mica are silex, alumine, potash, iron, manganese, and traces of other substances. The colors of the mineral are various, according to the proportions of some of the ingredients. The laminæ are divisible into plates no thicker than 1/300,000th part of an inch. Entering into the composition of almost every rock from the oldest to the newest, it abounds chiefly in granite and schist, but also occurs in sandstones, and the slaty shales of the coal formation.

I never look at a piece of granite, fragments of which are strewed on every heath, without being reminded of Paley’s inaccurate and disparaging comparison betwixt “the stone” and “the watch,” in his celebrated argument for the existence of Deity. Take a specimen fresh and living from the rock, or from any bowlder that meets you on the way. There is not a stain in all that composite mass: how bright every ingredient! No workmanship of man can rival it in its closeness of texture, beauty of color, distinctness and delicacy of shading and outline. What chemistry elaborated these particles as they separated and united? What scales weighed their impalpable elements? What hands constructed their nicely harmonizing proportions? Whence derived their principle of cohesion as they cooled and inosculated in the burning crucible? As that fragment of rock, so is the whole interior of the mighty range—the whole basis of the continents of the world—countless myriads of sparkling gems wrought into symmetry and form; the foundations of our earthly habitation literally “garnished with all manner of precious stones.”

Paley, forgetful of every law or purpose so conspicuously developed in the whole of these beautiful arrangements, thus commences his great work on Natural Theology:—“In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that, for anything I knew to the contrary, it had lain there forever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But, suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that for anything I knew, the watch might have always been there.”

How many fallacies are there in this statement so far as mention is made of the stone? The science of geognosie, not so far advanced in Paley’s time, now clearly establishes the “absurdity” of supposing its having lain from “eternity” in the place where it is found. The relative ages of mountains, and therefore their succession in Time, are now demonstrable and well understood. Then, the component parts of the mineral are as well defined, as accurately proportioned, and arranged in manner and order as precisely, as the several parts of the watch. The mica, the quartz, the feldspar, have each their law or order of structure, as well as their principle of aggregation; and they have taken their respective forms and no other, and have assumed their compound structure and no other, in obedience to chemical affinities and an atomic adjustment, as certain and unalterable as are the conditions and requirements of dynamics.

Nay, more, the parent rock, from which that stone was taken, has its own place in the system; its position, amidst the upheaved disrupted strata around, has been assumed for a purpose; and the very size, form, and outline of the giant mass, are all shaped to an end. Rocks are as easily distinguished as trees or animals, which have not risen up by accident, but have been constructed out of certain materials, and arranged each according to its own class. Their internal characters, and even outward shape, are marked and defined. The gnarled oak in fiber and texture differs not more from the soft, pendulous, graceful willow, than are the differences of rocks and minerals in their normal arrangement of particles; in their diversity of fracture, cleavage, luster, and density. We see at once the mechanism of the watch, the growth and expansion of plants and animals. But so, upon gaining the least knowledge of its frame-work and structure, we cannot open our eyes upon any part of the external world, without being impressed with the conviction, that all which we see and admire, must be the work of a higher power. Design is stamped upon everything. Will, order, and might are everywhere visible.—Geology, discovering harmony amidst apparent confusion, renovation in decay, shows that every rock is fitted to its place; that systems and series of formations are arranged upon a principle of utility; and so thoroughly calculated to exercise their assigned functions have all the parts been formed, that the most elaborate machinery of man’s contrivance falls infinitely short of the beauty and perfection everywhere displayed in the material creation. Lain forever! No; such a scene of mountain, valley, river, plain, and ocean—all related to each other—does not exist by chance, is not conserved nor arranged by accident.

Theory of Formation.—When we examine a piece of granite, nothing appears less likely, to a common observer, than that it was once in a molten state through the action of fire, and that its crystalline structure was assumed in process of cooling. Now, the fact of its crystallization, the beautiful and perfect arrangement of its parts, the impress of the one crystal upon the other reciprocally communicating their respective shapes to each other, and the compact, agglutinated state of the whole, is regarded as the strongest proof of the igneous origin of this remarkable rock. Granite is not a mere congeries of parts, which, after being separately formed, was somehow brought together and united; but it is certain that the quartz, at least, was fluid when it was molded on the feldspar. In some granites, the impressions of the substances on one another are observed in a different order, and the quartz gives its form to the feldspar. The ingredients of granite were therefore fluid when mixed; and this fluidity was not the effect of solution in a menstruum, as in that case one kind of crystal does not impress another, but each retains its own peculiar shape; and the conclusion is, that they crystallized from a state of simple fluidity, such as, of all known causes, heat alone is able to produce.

This is the account given in the Huttonian theory, as expressed nearly in the words of Playfair, which, along with the position of veins, the disruption of superincumbent strata, and other phenomena, has resulted in the universally received admission of the Plutonic character of this class of rocks. Dr. Macculloch has extended the principle, and has satisfactorily proved, that granite is but one term in the series of igneous products, the passages from which are distinctly traceable into granitoid syenite, and syenitic greenstone, and thence into greenstone, basalt, and lava. Professor Forchhammer considers granite, when melted, as one simple compound, and which only on cooling becomes separated into the different minerals that compose it.

Granite, wherever it is found, is inferior to every other rock; and as it composes many of the greatest mountain chains, it has the pre-eminence of being elevated the highest into the atmosphere and sunk the deepest under the surface, of all the mineral constituents of the globe to which our researches extend. The associated primary rocks in this upland region overlie the granite, and possess a distinctly stratified structure. They are not now in their original position. They have been tilted up, traversed, and interlaced by the granite while in fusion, and have been altered greatly in their texture and qualities by their contact with the heated mass. Hence they are called Metamorphic Rocks, because of the change to which they have been subjected.

The rocks that immediately overlie the granite are gneiss, mica-slate, quartz-rock, and limestone. They all partake of the crystalline structure, and all, except the last, possess the same ingredients, and assume interchangeably the same aspect. Of gneiss there are three varieties, each composed of feldspar, quartz, and mica, and distinguished by the size and form of the crystals that constitute the mass. This rock, consisting in all cases of thin lenticular plates, has a ribbon-like appearance, and, according to the predominance of one of the parts, becomes glandular, slaty, or aggregate. Mica-slate consists of quartz and mica—the latter predominating—and feldspar frequently entering as an adjunct. Quartz-rock, as the term implies, is formed of the pure siliceous matter, nearly homogeneous in many instances—but scales of mica are often present—and feldspar not always absent. The limestone, again, differs from all the above in the excess of the calcareous element, while, along with talc, steatite, actynolite, asbestus, and other simple minerals, mica, quartz, and feldspar are likewise to be numbered among the imbedded crystals. These rocks, over the entire surface of the globe, are of one family, and generally associated. They are always the lowest of the stratified series, and follow in the order now described. They are essentially one and the same in their constituent mineral qualities—different in the form and proportions in which they are aggregated—and geographically connected with the granite in their distribution. Thus these crystalline rocks not only constitute the floor of our earth, but have in all probability supplied the materials under whose plutonic agency, when fused and molten, the massive pavement was raised above the waters and tempered into its present consistency.

Granite, the derivative rock, is found, accordingly, in every region of the globe—the lowest as well as the most universally distributed—the basis as well as the apex of every great mountain chain. No true Highland scenery is anywhere to be found that does not embrace granite as the most prominent feature in the picture. Not a hill in Scotland, two thousand feet high, but incloses a portion of this rock. The beauties of the English lake country are all derived from this source. The lofty serrated peaks of Wales have been raised upon its crystal foundations. The north-west and central portions of France, the Swiss and Tyrolese Alps, the vast expanse betwixt Dresden and Vienna, the Caucasus, great part of the Himalayan, Uralian, and Altai mountains, and large elevated districts in China, are all less or more of granite formation. Through Northern Russia and Scandinavia the granite may be regarded as merely a continuation of our Scottish range—one great stony girdle, which forms the primary mineral boundary of Northern Europe. America, Africa, Australia, possess not a single ridge of celebrity through which the same fundamental rock is not traceable in every district. How simple, uniform, universal the component elements of the globe! One and the same atmosphere surrounds it, one ocean washes it, one system of massive pillars supports it, one sun enlightens it. How direct and irresistible the inference, that one intelligent, all-powerful Being fashioned and framed it!