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2
 JavaScript for impatient programmers
(ES2021 edition)

Dr. Axel Rauschmayer

2021

“An exhaustive resource, yet cuts out the fluff that clutters many
programming books – with explanations that are understandable and to
the point, as promised by the title! The quizzes and exercises are a very
useful feature to check and lock in your knowledge. And you can
definitely tear through the book fairly quickly, to get up and running in
JavaScript.”
— Pam Selle, thewebivore.com

“The best introductory book for modern JavaScript.”

— Tejinder Singh, Senior Software Engineer, IBM

“This is JavaScript. No filler. No frameworks. No third-party libraries.

If you want to learn JavaScript, you need this book.”
— Shelley Powers, Software Engineer/Writer
Copyright © 2021 by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer
Cover by Fran Caye
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in
any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except
for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
ISBN 978-1-09-121009-7
exploringjs.com
Contents

I Background 13
1 Before you buy the book 15
1.1 About the content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.2 Previewing and buying this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3 About the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2 FAQ: book and supplementary material 19

2.1 How to read this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2 I own a digital version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 I own the print version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4 Notations and conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3 Why JavaScript? (bonus) 23

3.1 The cons of JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 The pros of JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3 Pro and con of JavaScript: innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4 The nature of JavaScript (bonus) 27

4.1 JavaScript’s influences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2 The nature of JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.3 Tips for getting started with JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5 History and evolution of JavaScript 31

5.1 How JavaScript was created . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2 Standardizing JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.3 Timeline of ECMAScript versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.4 Ecma Technical Committee 39 (TC39) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.5 The TC39 process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.6 FAQ: TC39 process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.7 Evolving JavaScript: Don’t break the web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

6 New JavaScript features 37

6.1 New in ECMAScript 2021 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.2 New in ECMAScript 2020 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.3 New in ECMAScript 2019 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.4 New in ECMAScript 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3
4 CONTENTS

6.5 New in ECMAScript 2017 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

6.6 New in ECMAScript 2016 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.7 Source of this chapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

7 FAQ: JavaScript 41
7.1 What are good references for JavaScript? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
7.2 How do I find out what JavaScript features are supported where? . . . . 41
7.3 Where can I look up what features are planned for JavaScript? . . . . . . 42
7.4 Why does JavaScript fail silently so often? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.5 Why can’t we clean up JavaScript, by removing quirks and outdated fea-
tures? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7.6 How can I quickly try out a piece of JavaScript code? . . . . . . . . . . . 42

II First steps 43

8 Using JavaScript: the big picture 45

8.1 What are you learning in this book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.2 The structure of browsers and Node.js . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.3 JavaScript references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
8.4 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

9 Syntax 47
9.1 An overview of JavaScript’s syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
9.2 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.3 Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
9.4 Statement vs. expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
9.5 Ambiguous syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
9.6 Semicolons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
9.7 Automatic semicolon insertion (ASI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
9.8 Semicolons: best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
9.9 Strict mode vs. sloppy mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

10 Consoles: interactive JavaScript command lines 65

10.1 Trying out JavaScript code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
10.2 The console.* API: printing data and more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

11 Assertion API 71
11.1 Assertions in software development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.2 How assertions are used in this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
11.3 Normal comparison vs. deep comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
11.4 Quick reference: module assert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

12 Getting started with quizzes and exercises 77

12.1 Quizzes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
12.2 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
12.3 Unit tests in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
CONTENTS 5

III Variables and values 83

13 Variables and assignment 85

13.1 let . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
13.2 const . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
13.3 Deciding between const and let . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
13.4 The scope of a variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
13.5 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
13.6 Terminology: static vs. dynamic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
13.7 Global variables and the global object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
13.8 Declarations: scope and activation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
13.9 Closures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

14 Values 99
14.1 What’s a type? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
14.2 JavaScript’s type hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
14.3 The types of the language specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
14.4 Primitive values vs. objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
14.5 The operators typeof and instanceof: what’s the type of a value? . . . . 103
14.6 Classes and constructor functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
14.7 Converting between types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

15 Operators 109
15.1 Making sense of operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
15.2 The plus operator (+) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
15.3 Assignment operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
15.4 Equality: == vs. === . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
15.5 Ordering operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
15.6 Various other operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

IV Primitive values 117

16 The non-values undefined and null 119

16.1 undefined vs. null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
16.2 Occurrences of undefined and null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
16.3 Checking for undefined or null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
16.4 The nullish coalescing operator (??) for default values [ES2020] . . . . . . 121
16.5 undefined and null don’t have properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
16.6 The history of undefined and null . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

17 Booleans 127
17.1 Converting to boolean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
17.2 Falsy and truthy values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
17.3 Truthiness-based existence checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
17.4 Conditional operator (? :) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
17.5 Binary logical operators: And (x && y), Or (x || y) . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
17.6 Logical Not (!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6 CONTENTS

18 Numbers 135
18.1 Numbers are used for both floating point numbers and integers . . . . . 136
18.2 Number literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
18.3 Arithmetic operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
18.4 Converting to number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
18.5 Error values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
18.6 The precision of numbers: careful with decimal fractions . . . . . . . . . 144
18.7 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
18.8 Background: floating point precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
18.9 Integer numbers in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
18.10Bitwise operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
18.11 Quick reference: numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

19 Math 157
19.1 Data properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
19.2 Exponents, roots, logarithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
19.3 Rounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
19.4 Trigonometric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
19.5 Various other functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
19.6 Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

20 Bigints – arbitrary-precision integers [ES2020] (advanced) 165

20.1 Why bigints? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
20.2 Bigints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
20.3 Bigint literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
20.4 Reusing number operators for bigints (overloading) . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
20.5 The wrapper constructor BigInt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
20.6 Coercing bigints to other primitive types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
20.7 TypedArrays and DataView operations for 64-bit values . . . . . . . . . . 174
20.8 Bigints and JSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
20.9 FAQ: Bigints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

21 Unicode – a brief introduction (advanced) 177

21.1 Code points vs. code units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
21.2 Encodings used in web development: UTF-16 and UTF-8 . . . . . . . . . 180
21.3 Grapheme clusters – the real characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

22 Strings 183
22.1 Plain string literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
22.2 Accessing characters and code points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
22.3 String concatenation via + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
22.4 Converting to string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
22.5 Comparing strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
22.6 Atoms of text: Unicode characters, JavaScript characters, grapheme clusters188
22.7 Quick reference: Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

23 Using template literals and tagged templates 199

23.1 Disambiguation: “template” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
23.2 Template literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
CONTENTS 7

23.3 Tagged templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

23.4 Examples of tagged templates (as provided via libraries) . . . . . . . . . 203
23.5 Raw string literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
23.6 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
23.7 Multiline template literals and indentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
23.8 Simple templating via template literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

24 Symbols 209
24.1 Symbols are primitives that are also like objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
24.2 The descriptions of symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
24.3 Use cases for symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
24.4 Publicly known symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
24.5 Converting symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

V Control flow and data flow 217

25 Control flow statements 219
25.1 Controlling loops: break and continue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
25.2 Conditions of control flow statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
25.3 if statements [ES1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
25.4 switch statements [ES3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
25.5 while loops [ES1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
25.6 do-while loops [ES3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
25.7 for loops [ES1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
25.8 for-of loops [ES6] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
25.9 for-await-of loops [ES2018] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
25.10 for-in loops (avoid) [ES1] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
25.11 Recomendations for looping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

26 Exception handling 231

26.1 Motivation: throwing and catching exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
26.2 throw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
26.3 The try statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
26.4 Error classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

27 Callable values 237

27.1 Kinds of functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
27.2 Ordinary functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
27.3 Specialized functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
27.4 Summary: kinds of callable values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
27.5 Returning values from functions and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
27.6 Parameter handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
27.7 Methods of functions: .call(), .apply(), .bind() . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

28 Evaluating code dynamically: eval(), new Function() (advanced) 255

28.1 eval() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
28.2 new Function() . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
28.3 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
8 CONTENTS

VI Modularity 259
29 Modules 261
29.1 Overview: syntax of ECMAScript modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
29.2 JavaScript source code formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
29.3 Before we had modules, we had scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
29.4 Module systems created prior to ES6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
29.5 ECMAScript modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
29.6 Named exports and imports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
29.7 Default exports and imports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
29.8 More details on exporting and importing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
29.9 npm packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
29.10Naming modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
29.11 Module specifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
29.12Loading modules dynamically via import() [ES2020] . . . . . . . . . . . 278
29.13 import.meta – metadata for the current module [ES2020] . . . . . . . . . 280
29.14Polyfills: emulating native web platform features (advanced) . . . . . . . 282

30 Single objects 283

30.1 What is an object? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
30.2 Objects as records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
30.3 Spreading into object literals (...) [ES2018] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
30.4 Methods and the special variable this . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
30.5 Optional chaining for property accesses and method calls [ES2020] (ad-
vanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
30.6 Objects as dictionaries (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
30.7 Standard methods (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
30.8 Advanced topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

31 Prototype chains and classes 311

31.1 Prototype chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
31.2 Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
31.3 Private data for classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
31.4 Subclassing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
31.5 FAQ: objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

VII Collections 333

32 Synchronous iteration 335
32.1 What is synchronous iteration about? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
32.2 Core iteration constructs: iterables and iterators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
32.3 Iterating manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
32.4 Iteration in practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
32.5 Quick reference: synchronous iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

33 Arrays (Array) 341

33.1 The two roles of Arrays in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
33.2 Basic Array operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
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33.3 for-of and Arrays [ES6] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

33.4 Array-like objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
33.5 Converting iterable and Array-like values to Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
33.6 Creating and filling Arrays with arbitrary lengths . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
33.7 Multidimensional Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
33.8 More Array features (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
33.9 Adding and removing elements (destructively and non-destructively) . . 353
33.10Methods: iteration and transformation (.find(), .map(), .filter(), etc.) 355
33.11 .sort(): sorting Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
33.12Quick reference: Array<T> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

34 Typed Arrays: handling binary data (advanced) 373

34.1 The basics of the API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
34.2 Element types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
34.3 More information on Typed Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
34.4 Quick references: indices vs. offsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
34.5 Quick reference: ArrayBuffers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
34.6 Quick reference: Typed Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
34.7 Quick reference: DataViews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

35 Maps (Map) 389

35.1 Using Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
35.2 Example: Counting characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
35.3 A few more details about the keys of Maps (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . 393
35.4 Missing Map operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
35.5 Quick reference: Map<K,V> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
35.6 FAQ: Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

36 WeakMaps (WeakMap) (advanced) 401

36.1 WeakMaps are black boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
36.2 The keys of a WeakMap are weakly held . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
36.3 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
36.4 WeakMap API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

37 Sets (Set) 405

37.1 Using Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406
37.2 Examples of using Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
37.3 What Set elements are considered equal? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
37.4 Missing Set operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
37.5 Quick reference: Set<T> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
37.6 FAQ: Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

38 WeakSets (WeakSet) (advanced) 413

38.1 Example: Marking objects as safe to use with a method . . . . . . . . . . 413
38.2 WeakSet API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

39 Destructuring 415
39.1 A first taste of destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
39.2 Constructing vs. extracting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
10 CONTENTS

39.3 Where can we destructure? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

39.4 Object-destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
39.5 Array-destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
39.6 Examples of destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
39.7 What happens if a pattern part does not match anything? . . . . . . . . . 422
39.8 What values can’t be destructured? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
39.9 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
39.10Default values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
39.11 Parameter definitions are similar to destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
39.12Nested destructuring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

40 Synchronous generators (advanced) 427

40.1 What are synchronous generators? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
40.2 Calling generators from generators (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
40.3 Background: external iteration vs. internal iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
40.4 Use case for generators: reusing traversals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
40.5 Advanced features of generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

VIII Asynchronicity 437

41 Asynchronous programming in JavaScript 439

41.1 A roadmap for asynchronous programming in JavaScript . . . . . . . . . 440
41.2 The call stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
41.3 The event loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
41.4 How to avoid blocking the JavaScript process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
41.5 Patterns for delivering asynchronous results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
41.6 Asynchronous code: the downsides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
41.7 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

42 Promises for asynchronous programming [ES6] 451

42.1 The basics of using Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
42.2 Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
42.3 Error handling: don’t mix rejections and exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
42.4 Promise-based functions start synchronously, settle asynchronously . . . 465
42.5 Promise combinator functions: working with Arrays of Promises . . . . . 466
42.6 Concurrency and Promise.all() (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
42.7 Tips for chaining Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
42.8 Quick reference: Promise combinator functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

43 Async functions 485

43.1 Async functions: the basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485
43.2 Returning from async functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
43.3 await: working with Promises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
43.4 (Advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
43.5 Immediately invoked async arrow functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491
43.6 Concurrency and await . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492
43.7 Tips for using async functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493
CONTENTS 11

44 Asynchronous iteration 495

44.1 Basic asynchronous iteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495
44.2 Asynchronous generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498
44.3 Async iteration over Node.js streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

IX More standard library 505

45 Regular expressions (RegExp) 507
45.1 Creating regular expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
45.2 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509
45.3 Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
45.4 Properties of regular expression objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
45.5 Methods for working with regular expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
45.6 The flags /g and /y, and the property .lastIndex (advanced) . . . . . . . 525
45.7 Techniques for working with regular expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

46 Dates (Date) 537

46.1 Best practice: avoid the built-in Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537
46.2 Time standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
46.3 Background: date time formats (ISO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539
46.4 Time values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
46.5 Creating Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542
46.6 Getters and setters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
46.7 Converting Dates to strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

47 Creating and parsing JSON (JSON) 545

47.1 The discovery and standardization of JSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
47.2 JSON syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546
47.3 Using the JSON API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547
47.4 Customizing stringification and parsing (advanced) . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
47.5 FAQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

X Miscellaneous topics 555

48 Next steps: overview of web development (bonus) 557
48.1 Tips against feeling overwhelmed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557
48.2 Things worth learning for web development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
48.3 Example: tool-based JavaScript workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560
48.4 An overview of JavaScript tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562
48.5 Tools not related to JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

XI Appendices 567
49 Index 569
12 CONTENTS
 Part I

Background

13
Chapter 1

Before you buy the book

Contents
1.1 About the content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.1.1 What’s in this book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.1.2 What is not covered by this book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.1.3 Isn’t this book too long for impatient people? . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2 Previewing and buying this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2.1 How can I preview the book, the exercises, and the quizzes? . 16
1.2.2 How can I buy a digital version of this book? . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.2.3 How can I buy the print version of this book? . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3 About the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.4 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

1.1 About the content

1.1.1 What’s in this book?
This book makes JavaScript less challenging to learn for newcomers by offering a modern
view that is as consistent as possible.

Highlights:

• Get started quickly by initially focusing on modern features.

• Test-driven exercises and quizzes available for most chapters.
• Covers all essential features of JavaScript, up to and including ES2021.
• Optional advanced sections let you dig deeper.

No prior knowledge of JavaScript is required, but you should know how to program.

15
16 1 Before you buy the book

1.1.2 What is not covered by this book?

• Some advanced language features are not explained, but references to appropri-
ate material are provided – for example, to my other JavaScript books at Explor-
ingJS.com, which are free to read online.
• This book deliberately focuses on the language. Browser-only features, etc. are
not described.

1.1.3 Isn’t this book too long for impatient people?

There are several ways in which you can read this book. One of them involves skipping
much of the content in order to get started quickly. For details, see §2.1.1 “In which order
should I read the content in this book?”.

1.2 Previewing and buying this book

1.2.1 How can I preview the book, the exercises, and the quizzes?
Go to the homepage of this book:

• All essential chapters of this book are free to read online.

• The first half of the test-driven exercises can be downloaded.
• The first half of the quizzes can be tried online.

1.2.2 How can I buy a digital version of this book?

There are two digital versions of JavaScript for impatient programmers:

• Ebooks: PDF, EPUB, MOBI, HTML (all without DRM)

• Ebooks plus exercises and quizzes

The home page of this book describes how you can buy them.

1.2.3 How can I buy the print version of this book?

The print version of JavaScript for impatient programmers is available on Amazon.

1.3 About the author

Dr. Axel Rauschmayer specializes in JavaScript and web development. He has been de-
veloping web applications since 1995. In 1999, he was technical manager at a German
internet startup that later expanded internationally. In 2006, he held his first talk on Ajax.
In 2010, he received a PhD in Informatics from the University of Munich.

Since 2011, he has been blogging about web development at 2ality.com and has written
several books on JavaScript. He has held trainings and talks for companies such as eBay,
Bank of America, and O’Reilly Media.

He lives in Munich, Germany.

1.4 Acknowledgements 17

1.4 Acknowledgements
• Cover by Fran Caye
• Parts of this book were edited by Adaobi Obi Tulton.
• Thanks for answering questions, discussing language topics, etc.:
– Allen Wirfs-Brock (@awbjs)
– Benedikt Meurer (@bmeurer)
– Brian Terlson (@bterlson)
– Daniel Ehrenberg (@littledan)
– Jordan Harband (@ljharb)
– Maggie Johnson-Pint (@maggiepint)
– Mathias Bynens (@mathias)
– Myles Borins (@MylesBorins)
– Rob Palmer (@robpalmer2)
– Šime Vidas (@simevidas)
– And many others
• Thanks for reviewing:
– Johannes Weber (@jowe)
[Generated: 2021-02-05 10:30]
18 1 Before you buy the book
Visit https://textbookfull.com
now to explore a rich
collection of eBooks, textbook
and enjoy exciting offers!
Chapter 2

FAQ: book and supplementary

material

Contents
2.1 How to read this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.1 In which order should I read the content in this book? . . . . . 19
2.1.2 Why are some chapters and sections marked with “(advanced)”? 20
2.1.3 Why are some chapters marked with “(bonus)”? . . . . . . . . 20
2.2 I own a digital version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.1 How do I submit feedback and corrections? . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.2.2 How do I get updates for the downloads I bought at Payhip? . 20
2.2.3 Can I upgrade from package “Ebooks” to package “Ebooks +
exercises + quizzes”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.3 I own the print version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.1 Can I get a discount for a digital version? . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.2 Can I submit an error or see submitted errors? . . . . . . . . . 21
2.3.3 Is there an online list with the URLs in this book? . . . . . . . 21
2.4 Notations and conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.1 What is a type signature? Why am I seeing static types in this
book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4.2 What do the notes with icons mean? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

This chapter answers questions you may have and gives tips for reading this book.

2.1 How to read this book

2.1.1 In which order should I read the content in this book?
This book is three books in one:
• You can use it to get started with JavaScript as quickly as possible. This “mode” is
for impatient people:

19
20 2 FAQ: book and supplementary material

– Start reading with §8 “Using JavaScript: the big picture”.

– Skip all chapters and sections marked as “advanced”, and all quick refer-
ences.
• It gives you a comprehensive look at current JavaScript. In this “mode”, you read
everything and don’t skip advanced content and quick references.
• It serves as a reference. If there is a topic that you are interested in, you can find
information on it via the table of contents or via the index. Due to basic and ad-
vanced content being mixed, everything you need is usually in a single location.

The quizzes and exercises play an important part in helping you practice and retain what
you have learned.

2.1.2 Why are some chapters and sections marked with “(advanced)”?
Several chapters and sections are marked with “(advanced)”. The idea is that you can
initially skip them. That is, you can get a quick working knowledge of JavaScript by only
reading the basic (non-advanced) content.

As your knowledge evolves, you can later come back to some or all of the advanced
content.

2.1.3 Why are some chapters marked with “(bonus)”?

The bonus chapters are only available in the paid versions of this book (print and ebook).
They are listed in the full table of contents.

2.2 I own a digital version

2.2.1 How do I submit feedback and corrections?
The HTML version of this book (online, or ad-free archive in the paid version) has a link
at the end of each chapter that enables you to give feedback.

2.2.2 How do I get updates for the downloads I bought at Payhip?

• The receipt email for the purchase includes a link. You’ll always be able to down-
load the latest version of the files at that location.

• If you opted into emails while buying, you’ll get an email whenever there is new
content. To opt in later, you must contact Payhip (see bottom of payhip.com).

2.2.3 Can I upgrade from package “Ebooks” to package “Ebooks + ex-

ercises + quizzes”?
Yes. The instructions for doing so are on the homepage of this book.
2.3 I own the print version 21

2.3 I own the print version

2.3.1 Can I get a discount for a digital version?
If you bought the print version, you can get a discount for a digital version. The home-
page of the print version explains how.

Alas, the reverse is not possible: you cannot get a discount for the print version if you
bought a digital version.

2.3.2 Can I submit an error or see submitted errors?

On the homepage of the print version, you can submit errors and see submitted errors.

2.3.3 Is there an online list with the URLs in this book?

The homepage of the print version has a list with all the URLs that you see in the footnotes
of the print version.

2.4 Notations and conventions

2.4.1 What is a type signature? Why am I seeing static types in this
book?
For example, you may see:

Number.isFinite(num: number): boolean

That is called the type signature of Number.isFinite(). This notation, especially the static
types number of num and boolean of the result, are not real JavaScript. The notation
is borrowed from the compile-to-JavaScript language TypeScript (which is mostly just
JavaScript plus static typing).

Why is this notation being used? It helps give you a quick idea of how a function works.
The notation is explained in detail in “Tackling TypeScript”, but is usually relatively in-
tuitive.

2.4.2 What do the notes with icons mean?

Reading instructions
Explains how to best read the content.

External content
Points to additional, external, content.
22 2 FAQ: book and supplementary material

Tip
Gives a tip related to the current content.

Question
Asks and answers a question pertinent to the current content (think FAQ).

Warning
Warns about pitfalls, etc.

Details
Provides additional details, complementing the current content. It is similar to a
footnote.

Exercise
Mentions the path of a test-driven exercise that you can do at that point.

Quiz
Indicates that there is a quiz for the current (part of a) chapter.
Chapter 3

Why JavaScript? (bonus)

Contents
3.1 The cons of JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 The pros of JavaScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.1 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.2 Practically useful . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.2.3 Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Pro and con of JavaScript: innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

In this chapter, we examine the pros and cons of JavaScript.

“ECMAScript 6” and “ES6” refer to versions of JavaScript

ECMAScript is the name of the language standard; the number refers to the version
of that standard. For more information, consult §5.2 “Standardizing JavaScript”.

3.1 The cons of JavaScript

Among programmers, JavaScript isn’t always well liked. One reason is that it has a fair
amount of quirks. Some of them are just unusual ways of doing something. Others are
considered bugs. Either way, learning why JavaScript does something the way it does,
helps with dealing with the quirks and with accepting JavaScript (maybe even liking it).
Hopefully, this book can be of assistance here.

Additionally, many traditional quirks have been eliminated now. For example:

• Traditionally, JavaScript variables weren’t block-scoped. ES6 introduced let and

const, which let you declare block-scoped variables.
• Prior to ES6, implementing object factories and inheritance via function and .pro-
totype was clumsy. ES6 introduced classes, which provide more convenient syn-
tax for these mechanisms.

23
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immediate observation. As to the power by which this great effect
has been produced, we cannot expect to decide with equal evidence,
but must be contented to pass from what is certain to what is
probable. We may, then, remark, that of the forces in nature to
which our experience does in any degree extend, none seems so
capable of the effect we would ascribe to it, as the expansive power
of heat; a power to which no limits can be set, and one, which, on
grounds quite independent of the elevation of the strata, has been
already concluded to act with great energy in the subterraneous
regions. We have, indeed, no other alternative, but either to adopt
this explanation, or to ascribe the facts in question to some secret
and unknown cause, though we are ignorant of its nature, and have
no evidence of its existence.
We are therefore to suppose, that the power of the same
subterraneous heat, which consolidated and mineralized the strata at
the bottom of the sea, has since raised them up to the height at
which they are now placed, and has given them the various
inclinations to the horizon which they are found actually to possess.
48. The probability of this hypothesis will appear greatly increased,
when it is considered, that, besides those now enumerated, there
are other indications of movement among the bodies of the mineral
kingdom, where effects of heat more characteristic than simple
expansion are clearly to be discovered. Thus, on examining the
marks of disorder and movement which are found among the strata,
it cannot fail to be observed, that notwithstanding the fracture and
dislocation, of which they afford so many examples, there are few
empty spaces to be met with among them, as far as our observation
extends. The breaches and separations are numerous, and distinct;
but they are, for the most part, completely filled up with minerals of
a kind quite different from the rock on each side of them, and
remarkable for containing no vestiges of stratification. We are thus
led to consider the unstratified minerals, the second of the divisions
into which the whole mineral kingdom, viewed geologically, ought to
be distinguished. These minerals are immediately connected with the
disturbance of the strata, and appear, in many instances, to have
been the instruments of their elevation.
 SECTION II.
OF THE PHENOMENA PECULIAR TO UNSTRATIFIED
BODIES.

1. Metallic Veins.

T
HE unstratified minerals exist either in veins, intersecting
49. the stratified, or in masses surrounded by them. Veins are
of various kinds, and may in general be defined, separations
in the continuity of a rock, of a determinate width, but extending
indefinitely in length and depth, and filled with mineral substances,
different from the rock itself. The mineral veins, strictly so called, are
those filled with crystallized substances, and containing the metallic
ores.
That these veins are of a formation subsequent to the hardening and
consolidation of the strata which they traverse, is too obvious to
require any proof; and it is no less clear, from the crystallized and
sparry structure of the substances contained in them, that these
substances must have concreted from a fluid state. Now, that this
fluidity was simple, like that of fusion by heat, and not compound,
like that of solution in a menstruum, is inferred from many
phenomena. It is inferred from the acknowledged insolubility of the
substances that fill the veins, in any one menstruum whatsoever;
from the total disappearance of the solvent, if there was any; from
the complete filling up of the vein by the substances which that
solvent had deposited; from the entire absence of all the
appearances of horizontal or gradual deposition; and, lastly, from the
existence of close cavities, lined with crystals, and admitting no
egress to any thing but heat.
50. To the same effect may be mentioned those groups of crystals
composed of substances the most different, that are united in the
same specimen, all intersecting and mutually impressing one
another. These admit of being explained, on the supposition that
they were originally in fusion, and became solid by the loss of heat;
a cause that acted on them all alike, and alike impelled them to
crystallize: But the appearances of simultaneous crystallization seem
incompatible with the nature of deposition from a solvent, where,
with respect 16 different substances, the effects must take place
slowly, and in succession.
51. The metals contained in the veins which we are now treating of,
appear very commonly in the form of an ore, mineralized by sulphur.
Their union with this latter substance can be produced, as we know,
by heat, but hardly by the way of solution in a menstruum, and
certainly not at all, if that menstruum is nothing else than water. The
metals, therefore, when mineralized by sulphur, give no countenance
to the hypothesis of aqueous solution; and still less do they give any
when they are found native, as it is called, that is, malleable, pure
and uncombined with any other substance. The great masses of
native iron found in Siberia and South America are well known; and
nothing certainly can less resemble the products of a chemical
precipitation. Gold, however, the most perfect of the metals, is found
native most frequently; the others more rarely, in proportion nearly
to the facility of their combination with sulphur. Of all such
specimens it may be safely affirmed, that if they have ever been
fluid, or even soft, they must have been so by the action of heat; for,
to suppose that a metal has been precipitated, pure and
uncombined from any menstruum, is to trespass against all analogy,
and to maintain a physical impossibility. But it is certain, that many
of the native metals have once been in a state of softness, because
they bear on them impressions which they could not have received
but when they were soft. Thus, gold is often impressed by quartz
and other stones, which still adhere to it, or are involved in it.
Specimens of quartz, containing gold and silver shooting through
them, with the most beautiful and varied ramifications, are every
where to be met with in the cabinets of the curious; and contain, in
their structure, the clearest proof, that the metal and the quartz
have been both soft, and have crystallized together. By the
compactness, also, of the body which they form, they show, that
when they acquired solidity, it was by the concretion of the whole
mass, and not by such partial concretion as takes place when a
solvent is separated from substances which it held in solution.
52. Native copper is very abundant; and some specimens of it have
been found crystallized. Here the crystallization of the metal is a
proof that it has passed from a fluid to a solid state; and its purity is
a proof that it did not make that transition by being precipitated
from a menstruum.
53. Again, pieces of native manganese have been found possessing
so exactly the characters peculiar to that metal when reduced in our
furnaces, that it is impossible to consider them as deriving their
figure and solidity from any cause but fusion. The ingenious author
who describes these specimens, La Peyrouse, was so forcibly struck
with this resemblance, that he immediately drew the same
conclusion from it which is drawn here, attributing the only
difference, which he remarked between the native and the artificial
regulus, to the different energy with which the same agent works
when employed by nature and by art.[17]
[17] Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 68. Journal de Phys. Janvier, 1786.
54. All these appearances conspire to prove, that the materials
which fill the mineral veins were melted by heat, and forcibly
injected, in that state, into the clefts and fissures of the strata.
These fissures we must conceive to have arisen, not merely from the
shrinking of the strata while they acquired hardness and solidity, but
from the violence done to them, when they were heaved up and
elevated in the manner which has already been explained.[18]
[18] Note xiii.

55. When these suppositions are once admitted, the other leading
facts in the history of metallic veins will be readily accounted for.
Thus, for instance, it is evident to what we must ascribe the
fragments of the surrounding rock that are often found immersed in
the veins, and encompassed on all sides by crystallized substances.
These fragments being no doubt detached by the concussion, which
at once tore asunder and elevated the strata, were sustained by the
melted matter that flowed at the same time upward through the
vein. Large masses of rock are often found in this manner
completely insulated; one of these, which M. De Luc has described
with great accuracy, is no less than a vast segment of a mountain.
[19]

[19] Lettres Physiques, &c. tom. iii. P. 361.

56. The immense violence which has accompanied the formation of

mineral veins, is particularly marked by the slips and shifts of the
strata on each side of them all tending to show what mighty
changes have taken place in those regions, which our imagination
erroneously paints as the abode of everlasting silence and rest. This
shifting of the strata is best observed, where the veins make a
transverse section of beds of rock, considerably inclined to the
horizon. There it is common to see the beds on one side of the vein
slipped along from the corresponding beds on the other side, and
removed sometimes in a horizontal, sometimes in an oblique
direction. In this way, not only the strata are shifted, but veins,
which intersect one another, are also shifted themselves. They are
heaved, as it is called in the significant language of the miners, and
forced out of their direction. It is impossible, in such a case, but to
connect in the mind the formation of the vein, and the production of
the slips which accompany it, and to regard them as parts of the
same phenomenon.
57. Where these slips are horizontal, and exhibit great bodies of
strata carried from their place, while the parts of the transferred
mass remain undisturbed relatively to one another, they furnish a
dear proof, that this change of plaice has not arisen from the falling
in of the roofs of caverns, as some geologists suppose. The
horizontal direction, and the regularity of the movement, are
incompatible with the action of such a cause as this; and indeed it is
highly interesting to remark, in the midst of the signs of disturbance
which prevail in the bowels of the earth, that there reigns a certain
symmetry and order, which indicate the action of a force of
incredible magnitude, but slow and gradual in its effects. The parts
of the mass moved are undisturbed relatively to one another; what
has been broken has been cemented; the breaches of continuity
have been filled up and healed; and every where we see the
operation of a cause that could unite as well as separate. The
twofold action of heat to expand and to melt, could scarce be
pointed out more clearly by any system of appearances.
58. As a long period was no doubt required for the elevation of the
strata, the rents made in them are not all of the same date, nor the
veins all of the same formation. This is clear in the case of one vein
producing a shift or slip in another; for the vein which forces the
other out of its place, and preserves its own direction, is evidently
the more recent of the two, and must have had its materials in a
state of activity, when those of the other were inert. Sometimes,
also, at the intersection of two veins, we may trace the current of
the materials of the one, across those of the other; and here, of
consequence, the relative antiquity is determined just as in the
former instance.
59. The want of any appearance of stratification in mineral veins has
already been taken notice of. There is, however, to be observed, in
many instances, a tendency to a regular arrangement of the
substances contained in them; those of the same kind forming coats
parallel to the sides of the vein, and nearly of an equal thickness.
This phenomenon is considered as one of the strongest arguments
in favour of the Neptunian system, but has nothing in it, in the least
incompatible with that theory which ascribes the formation of veins
to the action of subterraneous heat. When melted matter from the
mineral regions was thrown up into the veins, that which was
nearest to the sides would soonest lose its heat. The similar
substances, also, would unite while this process was going forward,
and would crystallize, as in other cases of congelation, from the
sides toward the interior. There is the more reason for supposing this
to have been the case, that the same sort of coating is often
observed on the inside of close cavities, which are, nevertheless, so
constructed, as to afford a demonstration that no chemical solvent
was ever included in them, (§ 74.) Some veins, it must also be
considered, may have been filled by successive injections of melted
matter, and this would naturally give rise to a variety of separate
incrustations.[20]
[20] See some farther remarks on this subject at Note xiii.

60. In the view now given of metallic veins, they have been
considered as traversing only the stratified parts of the globe. They
do, however, occasionally intersect the unstratified parts, particularly
the granite, the same vein often continuing its course across rocks of
both kinds, without suffering any material change; and, if we have
hitherto paid no attention to this circumstance, it is because the
order pursued in this essay required, that the relation of the veins to
stratified bodies should be first treated of. Besides, the facts in the
natural history of veins, whether contained in stratified or
unstratified rocks, are so nearly alike, that in a general view of
geology, they do not require to be distinguished. It is material to
remark, that, though metallic veins are found indiscriminately in all
the different kinds of rock, whether stratified or otherwise, they are
most abundant in the class of primary schisti. All the countries most
remarkable for their mines, and the mountains distinguished by the
name of metalliferous, are primary, and the instance of Derbyshire is
perhaps the most considerable exception to this rule that is known.
This preference, which the metals appear to give to the primary
strata, is very consistent with Dr Hutton's theory, which represents
the rocks of that order as being most changed from their original
position, and those on which the disturbing forces of the
subterraneous regions have acted most frequently, and with greatest
energy. The primary strata are the lowest, also, and have the most
direct communication with those regions from which the mineral
veins derive all their riches.
 2. Of Whinstone.
61. Beside the veins filled with spar, and containing the metallic ores,
the strata are intersected by veins of whinstone, porphyry, and
granite, the characters of which are next to be examined.
The term whin, or whinstone, with Dr. Hutton, like the word trap,
with the German mineralogists, denotes a class of stones,
comprehending several distinct species, or at least varieties. The
common basalt, the wacken, mullen, and crag of Kirwan, the
grûnstein of Werner, and the amygdaloid, are comprehended under
the name of whin. All these stones have a tendency to a spathose
structure, and discover at least the rudiments of crystallization. They
are, at the same time, without any mark of stratification in their
internal texture, as they are also, for the most part, in their outward
configuration; and, as the different species here enumerated
compose, not unfrequently, parts of the same continuous rock, the
change from one to another being made through a series of
insensible gradations, they may safely be regarded by the geologist
as belonging to the same genus.
62. Whin, though not stratified, exists in two different ways, that is,
either in veins, (called in Scotland dykes,) traversing the strata like
the veins already described, or in irregular masses, incumbent on
the strata, and sometimes interposed between them. In both these
forms, whinstone has nearly the same characters, and bears, in all
its varieties, a most striking resemblance to the lavas which have
actually flowed from volcanoes on the surface of the earth. This
resemblance is so great, that the two substances have been often
mistaken for one another; and many rocks, which have been
pronounced to be the remains of extinguished volcanoes, by
mineralogists of no inconsiderable name, have been found, on closer
examination, to be nothing else than masses or veins of whinstone.
This latter stone is indeed only to be distinguished from the former,
by a careful examination of the internal characters of both; and
chiefly from this circumstance, that whinstone often contains
calcareous spar and zeolite, whereas neither of these substances is
found in such lavas, as are certainly known to have been thrown out
by volcanic explosions.
Now, from these circumstances of affinity between lava and
whinstone, on the one hand, and of diversity on the other, as the
formation of the one is known, it should seem that some probable
conclusion may be drawn concerning the formation of the other. The
affinity in question is constant and essential; the difference variable
and accidental; and this naturally leads to suspect, that the two
stones have the same origin; and that, as lava is certainly a
production of fire, so probably is whinstone.
63. But, in order to see whether this hypothesis will explain the
diversity of the two substances, without which it will not be entitled
to much attention, we must remark, that the presence of carbonate
of lime in a body that has been fused, argues, agreeably to the
principles formerly explained, that the fusion was brought about
under a great compressing force, that is to say, deep in the bowels
of the earth, or in the great laboratory of the mineral regions. We
are, therefore, to suppose that the fusion of the whin was performed
in those regions, where the compression was sufficient to preserve
the carbonic gas in union with the calcareous earth, so that these
two substances melted together, and, on cooling, crystallized into
spar. In the lavas, again, thrown out by volcanic eruption, the fusion,
as we know, wherever it may begin, continues in the open air, where
the pressure is only that of the atmosphere: the calcareous earth,
which, therefore, may have been, in the form of a carbonate, among
the materials of this lava, must be converted into quicklime, and
become infusible; hence the want of calcareous spar in lavas that
have flowed at the surface.
Thus, whinstone is to be accounted a subterraneous, or unerupted
lava; and our theory has the advantage of explaining both the
affinity and the difference between these stony bodies, without the
introduction of any new hypothesis. In the Neptunian system, the
affinity of whinstone and lava is a paradox which admits of no
solution.
64. The columnar structure sometimes found in that species of
whinstone called basaltes, is a fact which has given rise to much
discussion; and it must be confessed, that though one of the most
striking and peculiar characters of this fossil, it is not that which
gives the clearest and most direct information concerning its origin.
One circumstance, however, very much in favour of the opinion that
basaltic rocks owe their formation to fire, is, that the columnar form
is sometimes assumed by the lava actually erupted from volcanoes.
Now, it is certainly of no small importance, to have the synthetic
argument on our side, and to know, that basaltic columns can be
produced by fire; though, no doubt, to give absolute certainty to our
conclusion, it would be necessary to show, that there are in nature
no other means but this by which these columns can be formed.
This sort of evidence is hardly to be looked for; but since the power
of fusion, to produce the phenomena in question, is perfectly
established, and since the production of the same phenomena in the
humid way is a mere hypothesis, if there be the least reason to
suspect the action of subterraneous heat as one of the causes of
mineralization, every maxim of sound philosophy requires that the
basaltic structure, in all cases, should be ascribed to it.
65. The Neptunists will no doubt allege, with Bergman, that, in the
drying of starch, clay, and a few other substances, something
analogous to basaltic columns is produced. Here, however, a most
important difference is to be remarked, corresponding very exactly
to one of the characters which we have all along observed to
distinguish the products of aqueous, from those of igneous
consolidation. The columns formed by the substances just
mentioned, are distant from one another: they are separated by
fissures which widen from the bottom to the top, and which arise
from the shrinking and drying of the mass. In the basaltic columns,
no such openings, nor vacuity of any kind is found; the pillars are in
contact, and, though perfectly distinct, are so close, that the sharp
edge of a wedge can hardly be introduced between them. This is a
great peculiarity in the basaltic structure, and is strongly expressive
of this fact, that the mass was all fluid together, and that its parts
took their new arrangement, not in consequence of the separation of
a fluid from a solid part, by which great shrinking and much empty
space might be produced; but in consequence of a cause which, like
refrigeration, acted equally on all the parts of the mass, and
preserved their absolute contact after their fluidity had ceased.
66. A mark of fusion, or at least of the operation of heat, which
whinstone possesses in common with many other minerals, is its
being penetrated by pyrites, a substance, as has been already
remarked, that is of all others most exclusively the production of fire.
Another mark of fusion, more distinctive of whin, is, that both in
veins and in masses it sometimes includes pieces of sandstone, or of
the other contiguous strata, completely insulated, and having the
appearance of fragments of rock, floating in a fluid sufficiently dense
and ponderous to sustain their weight. Though these fragments
have been too refractory to be reduced into fusion themselves, they
have not remained entirely unchanged, but are, in general,
extremely indurated, in comparison of the rock from which they
appear to have been detached.
67. Similar instances of extraordinary induration are observed in the
parts of the strata in contact with whinstone, whether they form the
sides of the veins, or the floors, and roofs of the masses into which
the whinstone is distributed. The strata whether sandy or
argillaceous, in such situations, are usually extremely hard and
consolidated; the former in particular lose their granulated texture,
and are sometimes converted into perfect jasper. This interesting
remark was first made by Dr Hutton, and the truth of it has been
verified by a great number of subsequent observations.
68. To the same excellent geologist we are indebted for the
knowledge of an analogous fact, attendant on the passage of
whinstone veins through coal strata. As the beds of stone where
they are in contact with veins of whin, seem to acquire additional
induration, so those of coal, in like circumstances, are frequently
found to have lost their fusibility, and to be reduced nearly to the
condition of coke, or of charcoal. The existence of coal of this kind
has been already mentioned, and considered as a proof of the
operation of subterraneous heat. In the instances here referred to,
that is, where the charring of the coal is limited to those parts of the
strata which are in contact with the whin, or in its immediate vicinity,
the heat is pointed out as residing in the vein; and this is to be
accounted for only on the supposition of the melted whin, at a
period subsequent to the consolidation of the coal, having flowed
through the openings of the strata. The heat has been powerful
enough, in many cases, to drive off the bituminous matter of the
coal, and to force it into colder and more distant parts. Few facts, in
the history of fossils, are more remarkable than this, and none more
directly assimilates the operations of the mineral regions, with those
that take place at the surface of the earth.
69. Again, the disturbance of the strata, wherever veins of
whinstone abound, if not a direct proof of the original fluidity of the
whinstone, is a clear indication of the violence with which it was
introduced into its place. This disturbance of the position of the
strata, by shifting, unusual elevation, and other irregularities, where
they are intersected by whinstone veins, is a fact so well known to
miners, that when they meet with any sudden change in the lying of
the metals, they are wont to foretell their approach to masses, or
veins of unstratified matter; and, in their figurative language, point
them out as the causes of the confusion with which they are so
generally accompanied.[21] The mineral veins likewise, as well as the
strata, are often heaved and shifted by the veins of whinstone.
[21] A Trouble is the name which the colliers in this country give to a vein of
whinstone.
70. Whinstone of every species is found frequently interposed in
tabular masses, between beds of stratified rocks; and it then adds to
the indications of its igneous origin, already enumerated, some
others that are peculiar to it when in this situation. In such
instances, it is not uncommon to find the strata in some places,
contiguous to the whin, elevated, and bent with their concavity
upward, so that they appear clearly to have been acted on by a
force that proceeded from below, at the same time that they were
softened, and rendered in some degree flexible: it is needless to
remark, that these effects can be explained by nothing but the
fusion of the whin; and that the great force with which it was
impelled against the strata, could be produced by no cause but heat,
acting in the manner that is here supposed.
71. Again, if it be true that the masses of whin, thus interposed
among the strata, were introduced there, after the formation of the
latter, we might expect to find, at least in many instances, that the
beds on which the whinstone rests, and those by which it is covered,
are exactly alike. If these beds were once contiguous, and have
been only heaved up and separated by the irruption of a fluid mass
of subterraneous lava, their identity should still be recognised. Now,
this is precisely what is observed; it is known to hold in a vast
number of instances, and is strikingly exemplified in the rock of
Salisbury Crag, near Edinburgh.
This similarity of the strata that cover the masses of whinstone, to
those that serve as the base on which they rest, and again the
dissimilitude of both to the interposed mass, are facts which I think
can hardly receive any explanation, on the principles of the
Neptunian theory. If these rocks, both stratified and unstratified, are
to be regarded as productions of the sea, the circumstances would
require to be pointed out, which have determined the whinstone,
and the beds that are all round it, to be so extremely unlike in their
structure, though formed at the same time, and in the immediate
vicinity of one another; as also those circumstances, on the other
hand, which determined the stratified deposits above and below the
whinstone, to be precisely the same, though the times of their
formation must have been very different. The homogeneous
substances, thus, placed at a distance, and the heterogeneous
brought so closely together, are phenomena equally unaccountable,
in a theory that ascribes their origin to the operation of the same
element, and that necessarily dates their formation according to the
order in which they lie, one above another.
72. If, indeed, in these instances, the gradation were insensible, as
some have asserted it to be, between the strata and the interposed
mass, so that it was impossible to point out the line where the one
ended and the other began, whatever difficulties we might perceive
in the Neptunian theory, we should find it hard to substitute a better
in its room. But the truth seems to be, that, in the cases we are now
treating of, no such gradation exists; and that, though where the
two kinds of rock come into contact a change is often observed, by
the strata having acquired an additional degree of induration, yet the
line of separation is well defined, and can be precisely ascertained.
This at least is certain, that innumerable specimens, exhibiting such
lines of separation, are to be met with; and wherever care has been
taken to obtain a fresh fracture of the stone, and to remove the
effects of accidental causes, even where the two rocks are most
firmly united, and most closely assimilated, I am persuaded that no
uncertainty has ever remained as to the line of their separation. For
these reasons, it seems probable that the gradual transition of
basaltes into the adjoining strata, is in all cases imaginary, and is, in
truth, a mere illusion, proceeding from hasty and inaccurate
observation.
73. Another remarkable fact in the natural history of the whinstone
rocks, remains yet to be mentioned, and with it I shall conclude the
argument, as far as these rocks are concerned.
Some of the species of whinstone are the common matrices of
agates and chalcedonies, which lie inclosed in them in the form of
round nodules. The original fluidity of these nodules is evinced by
their figured, and sometimes crystallized structure, and indeed is so
generally admitted, that the only question concerning them is,
whether this fluidity was the effect of heat or of solution. To answer
this question, Dr Hutton observes, that the formation of the
concentric coats, of which the agate is usually composed, has
evidently proceeded from the circumference toward the centre, the
exterior coats always impressing the interior, but never the reverse.
The same thing also follows from this other fact, that when there is
any vacuity within the agate, it is usually at the centre, and there too
are found the regular crystals, when any such have been formed. It
therefore appears certain, that the progress of consolidation has
been from the circumference inwards, and that the outward coats of
the agate were the first to acquire solidity and hardness.
74. Now, it must be considered that these coats are highly
consolidated; that they are of very pure siliceous matter, and are
utterly impervious to every substance which we know of, except light
and heat. It is plain, therefore, that whatever at any time, during the
progress of consolidation, was contained within the coats already
formed, must have remained there as long as the agate was entire,
without the least possibility of escape. But nothing is found within
the coats of the agate save its own substance; therefore, no
extraneous substance, that is to say no solvent, was ever included
within them. The fluidity of the agate was therefore simple, and
unassisted by any menstruum.
In this argument, nothing appears to me wanting, that is necessary
to the perfection of a physical, I had almost said of a mathematical,
demonstration. It seems, indeed, to be impossible that the igneous
origin of fossils could be recorded in plainer language, than by the
phenomenon which has just been described.
75. The examination of particular specimens of agates and
chalcedonies, affords many more arguments of the same kind, which
Dr Hutton used to deduce with an acuteness and vivacity, which his
friends have often listened to with great admiration and delight.[22]
These, however, must be passed over at present; and I have only
further to remark, that a series of the most interesting experiments,
instituted by Sir James Hall, and published in the Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh,[23] has removed the only remaining
objection that could be urged against the igneous origin of
whinstone. This objection is founded on the common observation,
that when a piece of whinstone or basaltes is actually melted in a
crucible, on cooling, it becomes glass, and loses its original character
entirely; and from thence it was concluded, that this character had
not been originally produced by fusion. The experiments above
mentioned, however, have shown, in the most satisfactory manner,
that melted whin, by regulated or by slow cooling, is prevented from
assuming the appearance of glass, and becomes a stony substance,
hardly to be distinguished from whinstone or lava.
[22] Note xvi.

[23] vol. v. p. 43.

The experiments of another ingenious chemist, Dr Kennedy, have
shown, that whinstone contains mineral alkali, by which, of course,
its fusion must have been assisted.[24] Dr Hutton used to ascribe its
fusibility, in a great measure at least, to the quantity of iron
contained in it: both these causes have no doubt united to render it
more easily melted than the ordinary materials of the strata.
[24] Trans. R. S. Edin. vol. v. p. 85.
76. In a word, therefore, to conceive aright the origin of that class of
unstratified rocks, distinguished by the name of whinstone, we must
suppose, that long after the consolidation of the strata, and during
the time of their elevation, the materials of the former were melted
by the force of subterraneous heat, and injected among the rents
and fissures of the rocks already formed. In this manner were
produced the veins or dikes of whinstone; and, where circumstances
allowed the stream of melted matter to diffuse itself more widely,
tabular masses were formed, which were afterwards raised up,
together with the surrounding strata, above the level of the sea, and
have been since laid open by the operation of those causes that
continually change and waste the surface of the land.
These unstratified rocks are not, however, all the work of the same
period; they differ evidently in the date of their formation, and it is
not unusual, to find tabular masses of one species of whin,
intersected by veins of another species. Indeed, of all the fossil
bodies which compose the present land, the veins of whin appear to
be the most recently consolidated.[25]
[25] Note xiv.
Porphyry may so properly be regarded as a variety of whin,
distinguished only by involving crystallized feldspar, that, in a
geological sketch like the present, it is hardly entitled to a separate
article. Like the other kinds of whin, it exists both in veins and in
tabular masses, having, no doubt, an origin similar to that which has
just been described. Porphyry, however, has the peculiarity of being
rarely found in any but the primary strata; it seems to be the
whinstone of the old world, or at least that which is of the highest
antiquity in the present. It no where, I believe, assumes a columnar,
or basaltic appearance, of any regularity; but this is also true of
many other varieties of whin, of all, indeed, except the most
compact and homogeneous. These differences are not so
considerable as to require our entering into any particular detail
concerning the natural history of this fossil.

3. Granite.
77. The term Granite is used by Dr Hutton to signify an aggregate
stone, in which quartz, feldspar, and mica are found distinct from
one another, and not disposed in layers. The addition of hornblende,
schorl, or garnet, to the three ingredients just mentioned, is not
understood to alter the genus of the stone, but only to constitute a
specific difference, which it is the business of lithology to mark by
some appropriate character, annexed to the generic name of granite.
The fossil now defined exists, like whinstone and porphyry, both in
masses and in veins, though most frequently in the former. It is like
them unstratified in its texture, and is regarded here, as being also
unstratified in its outward structure.[26] One ingredient which is
essential to granite, namely, quartz, is not contained in whinstone;
and this circumstance serves to distinguish these genera from one
another, though, in other respects, they seem to be united by a
chain of insensible gradations, from the most homogeneous
basaltes, to granite the most highly crystallized.
[26] Those rocks that consist of the ingredients here enumerated, if they have at
the same time a schistose texture, or a disposition into layers, are properly
distinguished from granite, and called Gneiss, or Granitic Schistus. But it has been
questioned whether a stone does not exist composed of these ingredients, and
destitute of a schistose texture, but yet divided into large beds, visible in its
external form. Dr Hutton supposes such a stone not to exist, or at least not to
constitute any such proportion of the mineral kingdom, as to entitle it to particular
consideration, in the general speculations of geology.
Whether this supposition is perfectly correct, may require to be farther considered:
this, however, is certain, that a rock, in all respects conformable to it, composes a
great proportion of what are usually called the granite mountains. See Note xv.

78. Granite, it has been just said, exists most commonly in masses;
and these masses are rarely, if ever, incumbent on any other rock:
they are the basis on which others rest, and seem, for the most part,
to rise up from under the ancient, or primary strata. The granite,
therefore, wherever it is found, is inferior to every other rock; and as
it also composes many of the greatest mountains, it has the
peculiarity of being elevated the highest into the atmosphere, and
sunk the deepest under the surface, of all the mineral substances
with which we are acquainted.
Notwithstanding the circumstance of not being alternated with
stratified bodies, which constitutes a remarkable difference between
granite and whinstone, the affinity of these fossils is such as to make
the similarity of their origin by no means improbable. Accordingly, in
Dr Hutton's theory, granite is regarded as a stone of more recent
formation than the strata incumbent on it; as a substance which has
been melted by heat, and which, when forced up from the mineral
regions, has elevated the strata at the same time.
79. That granite has undergone a change from a fluid to a solid
state, is evinced from the crystallized structure in which some of its
component parts are usually found. This crystallization is particularly
to be remarked of the feldspar, and also of the schorl, where there is
any admixture of that substance, whether in slender spiculæ, or in
larger masses. The quartz itself is in some cases crystallized, and is
so, perhaps, more frequently than is generally supposed. The fluidity
of granite, in some former period of its existence, is so evident from
this, as to make it appear singular that it should ever have been
considered as a fossil that had remained always the same, and one,
into the origin of which it was needless to inquire. If the regular
forms of crystallization are not to be received as proofs of the
substance to which they belong having passed from a fluid to a solid
state, neither are the figures of shells and of other supposed
petrifactions, to be taken as indications of a passage from the animal
to the mineral kingdom; so that there is an end of all geological
theories, and of all reasonings concerning the ancient condition of
the globe. To an argument which strikes equally at the root of all
theories, it belongs not to this, in particular, to make any reply.
80. We shall, therefore, consider it as admitted, that the materials of
the granite were originally fluid; and, in addition to this, we think it
can easily be proved, that this fluidity was not that of the elements
taken separately, but of the entire mass. This last conclusion follows,
from the structure of those specimens, where one of the substances
is impressed by the forms which are peculiar to another. Thus, in the
Portsoy granite,[27] which Dr Hutton has so minutely described, the
quartz is impressed by the rhomboidal crystals of the feldspar, and
the stone thus formed is compact and highly consolidated. Hence,
this granite is not a congeries of parts, which, after being separately
formed, were somehow brought together and agglutinated; but it is
certain that the quartz, at least, was fluid when it was moulded on
the feldspar. In other granites, the impressions of the substances on
one another are observed in a different order, and the quartz gives
its form to the feldspar. This, however, is more unusual; the quartz is
commonly the substance which has received the impressions of all
the rest; and the spiculæ of schorl often shoot both across it and the
feldspar.
[27] Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 104.
The ingredients of granite were therefore fluid when mixed, or at
least when in contact with one another. Now, this fluidity was not
the effect of solution in a menstruum; for, in that case, one kind of
crystal ought not to impress another, but each of them should have
its own peculiar shape.
81. The perfect consolidation of many granites, furnishes an
argument to the same effect. For, agreeably to what was already
observed, in treating of the strata, a substance, when crystallizing,
or passing from a fluid to a solid state, cannot be free from porosity,
much less fill up completely a space of a given form, if, at the same
time, any solvent is separated from it; because the solvent so
separated would still occupy a certain space, and, when removed by
evaporation or otherwise, would leave that space empty. The perfect
adjustment, therefore, of the shape of one set of crystallizing bodies,
to the shape of another set, as in the Portsoy granite, and their
consolidation into one mass, is as strong a proof as could be desired,
that they crystallized from a state of simple fluidity, such as, of all
known causes, heat alone is able to produce.
82. This conclusion, however, does not rest on a single class of facts.
It has been observed in many instances, that where granite and
stratified rocks, such as primary schistus, are in contact, the latter
are penetrated by veins of the former, which traverse them in
various directions. These veins are of different dimensions, some
being of the breadth of several yards, others of a few inches, or
even tenths of an inch; they diminish as they recede from the main
body of the granite, to which they are always firmly united,
constituting, indeed, a part of the same continued rock.
These phenomena, which were first distinctly observed by Dr
Hutton, are of great importance in geology, and afford a clear
solution of the two chief questions concerning the relation between
granite and schistus. As every vein must be of a date posterior to
the body in which it is contained, it follows, that the schistus was not
super-imposed on the granite, after the formation of this last. If it be
argued, that these veins, though posterior to the schisti, are also
posterior to the granite, and were formed by the infiltration of water
in which the granite was dissolved or suspended; it may be replied,
1mo, That the power of water to dissolve granite, is a postulatum of
the same kind that we have so often, and for such good reason,
refused to concede; and, 2do, That in many instances the veins
proceed from the main body of the granite upwards into the
schistus; so that they are in planes much elevated in respect of the
horizon, and have a direction quite opposite to that which the
hypothesis of infiltration requires. It remains certain, therefore, that
the whole mass of granite, and the veins proceeding from it, are
coeval, and both of later formation than the strata.
Now, this being established, and the fluidity of the veins, when they
penetrated into the schistus, being obvious, it necessarily follows,
that the whole granite mass was also fluid at the same time. But this
can have been brought about only by subterraneous heat, which
also impelled the melted matter against the superincumbent strata,
with such force as to raise them from their place, and to give them
that highly inclined position in which they are still supported by the
granite, after its fluidity has ceased. Thus a conclusion, rendered
probable by the crystallization of granite, is established beyond all
contradiction by the phenomena of granitic veins.[28]
[28] Note xv.

83. With the granite, we shall consider the proof of the igneous
origin of all mineral substances as completed. These substances,
therefore, whether stratified or unstratified, owe their consolidation
to the same cause, though acting with different degrees of energy.
The stratified have been in general only softened or penetrated by
melted matter, whereas the unstratified have been reduced into
perfect fusion.
84. In this general conclusion we may distinguish two parts, which,
in their degree of certainty, differ perhaps somewhat from one
another. The first of these, and that which stands highest in point of
evidence, consists of two propositions; namely, that the fluidity
which preceded the consolidation of mineral substances was simple,
that is, it did not arise from the combination of these substances
with any solvent; and, next, that after consolidation, these bodies
have been raised up by an expansive force acting from below, and
have by that means been brought into their present situation. These
two propositions seem to me to be supported by all the evidence
that is necessary to constitute the most perfect demonstration.
85. The other part of the general conclusion, that fire, or more
properly heat, was the cause of the fluidity of these mineral bodies,
and also of their subsequent elevation, is not perhaps to be
considered as a truth so fully demonstrated as the two preceding
propositions; it is, no doubt, a matter of theory; or a portion of one
of those invisible chains by which men seek to connect in the mind
the state of nature that is present, with the states of it that are past;
and participates of that uncertainty from which our reasonings
concerning such causes as are not direct objects of perception, are
hardly ever exempted. That it participates of this uncertainty in a
very slight degree, will, however, be admitted, when it is considered
that the cause assigned has been proved sufficient for the effect;
that the same is not true of any other known cause; and that this
theory accounts, with singular simplicity and precision, for a system
of facts so various and complex, as that which is presented by the
natural history of the globe.
86. Neither can it be said that the existence of subterraneous heat is
a principle assumed without any evidence, but that of the geological
facts which it is intended to explain: on the contrary, it is proved by
phenomena within the circle of ordinary experience, namely, those of
hot springs, volcanoes, and earthquakes. These leave no doubt of
the existence of heat, and of a moving and expansive power, in the
bowels of the earth; so that the only questions are, at what depth is
this power lodged? to what extent, and with what intensity, does it
act? That it is lodged at a very considerable depth, is rendered
probable by the permanency of some of the preceding phenomena:
from the earliest times many fountains have retained their heat to
the present day; and volcanoes, though they become extinguished
at length, have a very long period allotted for their duration. The
cause of earthquakes is certainly a force that resides very deep
under the surface, otherwise the extent of the concussion could not
be such as has been observed in many instances.
87. The intensity of volcanic fire, is another circumstance that
favours the opinion of its being seated deep under the surface. That
this intensity is considerable, is certain from the experiments made
by Sir James Hall on the fusibility of whinstone and lava; from which
it appears, that the lowest temperature in which either of these
stones melt, is about 80° of Wedgewood's pyrometer. Some
mineralogists have indeed affirmed, that lava is melted, not by the
intensity of the heat applied to it, but in consequence of a certain
combination formed between it and bituminous substances, in a
manner which they do not attempt to explain, and which has indeed
no analogy to any thing that is known. That a hypothesis, formed in
such direct opposition to the most obvious principles of inductive
reasoning, should have been imagined by a philosopher who had
examined the phenomena of Etna and Vesuvius with much attention,
and described them with great accuracy and truth, is more
wonderful than that it should have been adopted by mineralogists,
whose views of nature may have been confined within a cabinet or a
laboratory. It is, however, a hypothesis, which, having never had any
support but from other hypotheses, hardly merited the direct
refutation that it has received from the experiments just mentioned.
88. But, if the intensity of volcanic heat be such as is here stated, it
will be found very difficult to account for a fire of such activity, and
of such long continuance in the same spot, by any decomposition of
mineral substances near the surface. In the place where this
combustion is supposed to exist, it must be remembered, that there
is no fresh supply of materials to replace those that have been
consumed, and that, therefore, the original accumulation of these
materials in one spot, must have been very unlike any thing that has
ever been observed concerning the disposition of minerals in the
bowels of the earth.
89. If, on the other hand, we ascribe the phenomena of volcanoes to
the central heat, the account that may be given of them is simple,
and consistent with itself. According to all the appearances from
which the existence of such heat has been inferred above, it is of a
nature so far different from ordinary fire, that it may require no
circulation of air, and no supply of combustible materials to support
it. It is not accompanied with inflammation or combustion, the great
pressure preventing any separation of parts in the substances on
which it acts, and the absence of that elastic fluid without which
heat seems to have no power to decompose bodies, even the most
combustible, contributing to the unalterable nature of all the
substances in the mineral regions. There, of consequence, the only
effects of heat are fusion and expansion; and that which forms the
nucleus of the globe may therefore be a fluid mass, melted, but
unchanged by the action of heat.
90. If, from the confines of this nucleus, we conceive certain fissures
and openings to traverse the solid crust, and to issue at the surface
of the earth, the vapours ascending through these may in time heat
the sides of the tubes through which they pass to a vast distance
from the lower extremities. It is, indeed, difficult to fix the limit to
which this distance may extend, on account of the great difference
between the rate at which heat moves when it has a fluid for its
vehicle, and when it is left to make its way alone through a solid
body. In the present case, the supply of heat is rapid, as being made
by a vapour ascending through a tube of solid rock; and the
dissipation of it slow, as arising from its transmission through the
rock. The waste of heat is therefore small, compared with the
supply, and grows smaller at every given point, the longer the
stream of heated vapour has continued to flow. Such a stream,
therefore, though it may at first be condensed within a small
distance of its source, will in time reach higher and higher, and may
at last be able to carry its heat to an immense distance from the
place of its original derivation. Thus, it is easy to conceive, that
vapours from the mineral regions may convey their heat to
reservoirs of water near the surface of the earth, and may in that
manner produce hot springs, and even boiling fountains, like those
of Rycum and Geyser.
91. When, instead of a heated vapour, melted matter is thrown up
through the shafts or tubes, which thus communicate with the
mineral regions, veins of whinstone and basaltes are formed in the
interior of the earth. When the melted matter reaches to the surface,
it is thrown out in the form of lava, and all the other phenomena of
volcanoes are produced.
Lastly, where melted matter of this kind, or vapours without being
condensed, have their progress obstructed, those dreadful
concussions are produced, which seem to threaten the existence
even of the earth itself. Though terrible, therefore, to the present
inhabitants of the globe, the earthquake has its place in the great
system of geological operations, and is part of a series of events,
essential, as will more clearly appear hereafter, to the general order,
and to the preservation of the whole.
Such, according to this theory, are the changes which have befallen
mineral substances in the bowels of the earth; and though different
for the stratified and unstratified parts of those substances, they are
connected together by the same principle, or explained by the same
cause. It remains to consider that part of the history of both which
describes their changes after their elevation to the surface; and here
we shall find new causes introduced, which are more directly the
subjects of observation, than those hitherto treated of; causes, also,
which act on all fossils alike, and alike prepare them for their
ultimate destination.
 SECTION III.
OF THE PHENOMENA COMMON TO
STRATIFIED AND UNSTRATIFIED BODIES.

T
HE series of changes which fossil bodies are destined to
92. undergo, does not cease with their elevation above the level
of the sea; it assumes, however, a new direction, and from
the moment that they are raised up to the surface, is constantly
exerted in reducing them again under the dominion of the ocean.
The solidity is now destroyed which was acquired in the bowels of
the earth; and as the bottom of the sea is the great laboratory,
where loose materials are mineralized and formed into stone, the
atmosphere is the region where stones are decomposed, and again
resolved into earth.
This decomposition of all mineral substances, exposed to the air, is
continual, and is brought about by a multitude of agents, both
chemical and mechanical, of which some are known to us, and
many, no doubt, remain to be discovered. Among the various
aëriform fluids which compose our atmosphere, one is already
distinguished as the grand principle of mineral decomposition; the
others are not inactive, and to them we must add moisture, heat,
and perhaps light; substances which, from their affinities to the
elements of mineral bodies, have a power of entering into
combination with them, and of thus diminishing the forces by which
they are united to one another. By the action of air and moisture,
the metallic particles, particularly the iron, which enters in great
abundance into the composition of almost all fossils, becomes
oxydated in such a degree as to lose its tenacity; so that the texture
of the surface is destroyed, and a part of the body resolved into
earth.
93. Some earths, again, such as the calcareous, are immediately
dissolved by water; and though the quantity so dissolved be
extremely small, the operation, by being continually renewed,
produces a slow but perpetual corrosion, by which the greatest rocks
must in time be subdued. The action of water in destroying hard
bodies into which it has obtained entrance, is much assisted by the
vicissitudes of heat and cold, especially when the latter extends as
far as the point of congelation; for the water, when frozen, occupies
a greater space than before, and if the body is compact enough to
refuse room for this expansion, its parts are torn asunder by a
repulsive force acting in every direction.
94. Besides these causes of mineral decomposition, the action of
which we can in some measure trace, there are others known to us
only by their effects.
We see, for instance, the purest rock crystal affected by exposure to
the weather, its lustre tarnished, and the polish of its surface
impaired, but we know nothing of the power by which these
operations are performed. Thus also, in the precautions which the
mineralogist takes to preserve the fresh fracture of his specimens,
we have a proof how indiscriminately all the productions of the fossil
kingdom are exposed to the attacks of their unknown enemies, and
we perceive how difficult it is to delay the beginnings of a process
which no power whatever can finally counteract.
95. The mechanical forces employed in the disintegration of mineral
substances, are more easily marked than the chemical. Here again
water appears as the most active enemy of hard and solid bodies;
and, in every state, from transparent vapour to solid ice, from the
smallest rill to the greatest river, it attacks whatever has emerged
above the level of the sea, and labours incessantly to restore it to
the deep. The parts loosened and disengaged by the chemical
agents, are carried down by the rains, and, in their descent, rub and
grind the superficies of other bodies. Thus water, though incapable
of acting on hard substances by direct attrition, is the cause of their
being so acted on; and, when it descends in torrents, carrying with it
sand, gravel, and fragments of rock, it may be truly said to turn the
forces of the mineral kingdom against itself. Every separation which
it makes is necessarily permanent, and the parts once detached can
never be united, save at the bottom of the ocean.
96. But it would far exceed the limits of this sketch, to pursue the
causes of mineral decomposition through all their forms. It is
sufficient to remark, that the consequence of so many minute, but
indefatigable agents, all working together, and having gravity in their
favour, is a system of universal decay and degradation, which may
be traced over the whole surface of the land, from the mountain top
to the sea shore. That we may perceive the full evidence of this
truth, one of the most important in the natural history of the globe,
we will begin our survey from the latter of these stations, and retire
gradually toward the former.
97. If the coast is bold and rocky, it speaks a language easy to be
interpreted. Its broken and abrupt contour, the deep gulfs and
salient promontories by which it is indented, and the proportion
which these irregularities bear to the force of the waves, combined
with the inequality of hardness in the rocks, prove, that the present
line of the shore has been determined by the action of the sea. The
naked and precipitous cliffs which overhang the deep, the rocks
hollowed, perforated, as they are farther advanced in the sea, and at
last insulated, lead to the same conclusion, and mark very clearly so
many different stages of decay. It is true, we do not see the
successive steps of this progress exemplified in the states of the
same individual rock, but we see them clearly in different individuals;
and the conviction thus produced, when the phenomena are
sufficiently multiplied and varied, is as irresistible, as if we saw the
changes actually effected in the moment of observation.
On such shores, the fragments of rock once detached, become
instruments of further destruction, and make a part of the powerful
artillery with which the ocean assails the bulwarks of the land: they
are impelled against the rocks, from which they break off other
fragments, and the whole are thus ground against one another;
whatever be their hardness, they are reduced to gravel, the smooth
surface and round figure of which, are the most certain proofs of a
detritus which nothing can resist.
98. Again, where the sea coast is flat, we have abundant evidence of
the degradation of the land in the beaches of sand and small gravel;
the sand banks and shoals that are continually changing; the alluvial
land at the mouths of the rivers; the bars that seem to oppose their
discharge into the sea, and the shallowness of the sea itself. On such
coasts, the land usually seems to gain upon the sea, whereas, on
shores of a bolder aspect, it is the sea that generally appears to gain
upon the land. What the land acquires in extent, however, it loses in
elevation; and, whether its surface increase or diminish, the
depredations made on it are in both cases evinced with equal
certainty.
99. If we proceed in our survey from the shores, inland, we meet at
every step with the fullest evidence of the same truths, and
particularly in the nature and economy of rivers. Every river appears
to consist of a main trunk, fed from a variety of branches, each
running in a valley proportioned to its size, and all of them together
forming a system of vallies, communicating with one another, and
having such a nice adjustment of their declivities, that none of them
join the principal valley, either on too high or too low a level; a
circumstance which would be infinitely improbable, if each of these
vallies were not the work of the stream that flows in it.
If indeed a river consisted of a single stream, without branches,
running in a straight valley, it might be supposed that some great
concussion, or some powerful torrent, had opened at once the
channel by which its waters are conducted to the ocean; but, when
the usual form of a river is considered, the trunk divided into many
branches, which rise at a great distance from one another, and these
again subdivided into an infinity of smaller ramifications, it becomes
strongly impressed upon the mind, that all these channels have been
cut by the waters themselves; that they have been slowly dug out by
the washing and erosion of the land; and that it is by the repeated