point in its greater axis, coinciding with the centre of Saturn, it may be so constituted, that the attraction of Saturn, combined with the centrifugal force, may produce a force perpendicular to its surface, and may enable detached parts to remain at rest, animals, for instance, to walk on its surface, and fluids to be _in equilibrio_. The system of Saturn is thus fortified against the lapse of time, as effectually as that of the earth itself; and the means by which this is accomplished, seem to prove, that the weapons which time employs, are in both cases the same, viz. the slow wearing and decomposition of the solid parts. This slow wearing may have produced the figure by which its action is most effectually resisted. [Footnote 234: La Place, _ubi supra_, p. 242.] 445. Thus Dr Hutton's theory of the earth comes at last to connect itself with the researches of physical astronomy. The conclusion to be drawn from this coincidence is to the credit of both sciences. When two travellers, who set out from points so distant as the mineralogist and the astronomer, and who follow routes so different, meet at the end of their journey, and agree in their report of the countries through which they have passed, it affords no slight presumption, that they have kept the right way, and that they relate what they have actually seen. NOTE XXVI. § 133. _Prejudices relating to the Theory of the Earth._ 446. Among the prejudices which a new theory of the earth has to overcome, is an opinion, held, or affected to be held, by many, that geological science is not yet ripe for such elevated and difficult speculations. They would, therefore, get rid of these speculations, _by moving the previous question_, and declaring that at present we ought to have no theory at all. We are not yet, they allege, sufficiently acquainted with the phenomena of geology; the subject is so various and extensive that our knowledge of it must for a long time, perhaps for ever, remain extremely imperfect. And hence it is, that the theories hitherto proposed have succeeded one another with so great rapidity, hardly any of them having been able to last longer than the discovery of a new fact, or a fact unknown when it was invented. It has proved insufficient to connect this fact with the phenomena already known, and has therefore been justly abandoned. In this manner, they say, have passed away the theories of Woodward, Burnet, Whiston, and even of Buffon; and so will pass, in their turn, those of Hutton and Werner. 447. This unfavourable view of geology, ought not, however, to be received without examination; in science, presumption is less hurtful than despair, and inactivity is more dangerous than error.