Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2.djvu/436

426 of assuming a good polish, and form ornamental stones of equal novelty and beauty. We have long been indebted to foreign countries for substances which our own island produces in abundance, and in no instance have the powers of established habits and prejudices been carried further than in the preference given to many of their insignificant marbles and porphyries, while our own, either similar or superior, have been neglected. To encourage commerce and the arts is not unworthy of a Society, which, like ours, has in view among other objects, the investigation of an important branch of the natural history of our own country. Let us not suffer ourselves to be misled by the imposing aspect of independence and disinterestedness which philosophy assumes when employed in investigating general principles, and, contented with the splendour by which science is surrounded, refer to others the humble task of converting it to useful purposes. It is the chief boast of science, that while it occupies the mind in pursuits by which it is exalted and interested, it tends at the same time to better the condition of life, by adding to its enjoyments, or taking from its inconveniences.

The general disposition, as well as the particular details of the geology of Arran being universally known, I need not enter into any description of them. I may merely remark, that the group of mountains which constitutes the most elevated part of this island, consists of a mass of granite, of which Goatfield is the highest point. Various ridges, separating deep vallies of sudden declivity, branch from the higher parts of the group in different directions.