It is therefore, not so much what these forms of the earth actually are, as what they are continually becoming, that we have to observe; nor is it possible thus to observe them without an instinctive reference to the first state out of which they have been brought.... Yet to such questions continually suggesting themselves, it is never possible to give a complete answer. For a certain distance, the past work of existing forces can be traced; but then gradually the mist gathers, and the footsteps of more gigantic agencies are traceable in the darkness; and still as we endeavour to penetrate further and further into departed time, the thunder of the Almighty power sounds louder and louder, and the clouds gather broader and more fearfully, until at last the Sinai of the world is seen altogether upon a smoke, and the fence of its foot is reached, where none can break through.
Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol. iv. p. 143.
BOOK X.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PALÆTIOLOGY.
CHAPTER I.
Of Palætiological Sciences in General.
1. I HAVE already stated in the History of the Sciences[1], that the class of Sciences which I designate as Palætiological are those in which the object is to ascend from the present state of things to a more ancient condition, from which the present is derived by intelligible causes. As conspicuous examples of this class we may take Geology, Glossology or Comparative Philology, and Comparative Archæology. These provinces of knowledge might perhaps be intelligibly described as Histories; the History of the Earth,—the History of Languages,—the History of Arts. But these phrases would not fully describe the sciences we have in view; for the object to which we now suppose their investigations to be directed is, not merely to ascertain what the series of events has been, as in the common forms of History, but also how it has been brought about. These sciences are to treat of causes as well as of effects. Such researches might be termed Philosophical History; or, in order to mark more distinctly that the causes of events are the leading object of attention, Ætiological History. But since [258] it will be more convenient to describe this class of sciences by a single appellation, I have taken the liberty of proposing to call them[2] the Palætiological Sciences.