No amount of description, arrangement, and classification, however perfect or accurate, of the facts which come under the eye of the geologist can ever constitute a science of geology any more than a description and classification of the effects of heat could constitute a science of heat. This will, no doubt, be admitted by every one who reflects upon the subject, and it will be maintained that geology, like every other science, must possess principles applicable to the facts. But here confusion and misconception will arise unless there be distinct and definite ideas as to what ought to constitute a geological principle. It is not every statement or rule that may apply to a great many facts, which will constitute a geological principle. A geological principle must bear the same characteristics as the principles of those sciences to which we have referred. What, then, is the nature of the principles of light, heat, electricity, &c.? The principles of heat are the laws of heat. The principles of electricity are the laws of electricity. And these laws are nothing more nor less than the ways according to which these agents produce their effects. The principles of geology are therefore the laws of geology. But the laws of geology must be simply the laws of the geological agents, or, in other words, the methods by which they produce their effects. Any other so-called principle can be nothing more than an empirical rule, adopted for convenience. Possessing no rationality in itself, it cannot be justly regarded as a principle. In order to rationality the principle must be either resolvable into, or logically deducible from, the laws of the agents. Unless it possess this quality we cannot give the explanation _à priori_.
The reason of all this is perfectly obvious. The things to be explained are effects; and the relationship between cause and effect affords the subjective connection between the principle and the explanation. The explanation follows from the principle simply as the effect results from the laws of the agent or cause.
_Theories of Geological Climate._—We have already seen that the geological agents are chiefly the ordinary climatic agents. Consequently, the main principles of geology must be the laws of the climatic agents, or some logical deductions from them. It therefore follows that, in order to a purely scientific geology, the grand problem must be one of geological climate. It is through geological climate that we can hope to arrive ultimately at principles which will afford a rational explanation of the multifarious facts which have been accumulating during the past century. The facts of geology are as essential to the establishment of the principles, as the facts of heat, light, and electricity are essential to the establishment of the principles of these sciences. A theory of geological climate devised without reference to the facts would be about as worthless as a theory of heat or of electricity devised without reference to the facts of these sciences.