EDITOR'S TABLE. 



2 43 



words and manner before them, and I would 

 fearlessly trust to the manhood of any 

 Young Men's Christian Association in the 

 Union for a verdict in this matter. The 

 writer in the Intelligencer, moreover, fails to 

 see one conclusion to which his assertions 

 inevitably lead; for, were they true, the 

 perfectly unmistakable manner in which 

 the ' attack ' was received by the audience 

 would prove the state of ' religious faith' in 

 New York to be the reverse of creditable 

 to hiin and others who have the care of it. 



" The head and front of my offending 

 hath this extent : At the conclusion of one 

 of my lectures, I referred, for two minutes, 

 in mild language, to the reported words 

 reported, I would add, by a Presbyterian 

 of the intemperate occupant of a single 

 Presbyterian pulpit, and this is wilfully 

 twisted by that occupant into an attack 

 upon the Presbyterian body. The charge, 

 as originally made, and as now echoed by 



the Intelligencer, is so silly that I did not 

 think it worth public refutation. Why 

 should I care about refuting it, when the 

 sympathetic kindness of the very men I was 

 reported to have assailed assured me that 

 they did not believe a word of the indict- 

 ment ? I carried no more pleasant memory 

 with me from the United States than that 

 of my reception at the Presbyterian College 

 of Yale. The high-minded youths and cult- 

 ured gentlemen whom I met there, as in- 

 deed the Presbyterian body generally, a 

 few hot-headed fanatics excepted, knew how 

 to rate at its proper worth the statement of 

 Dr. Hall, and they will, I am persuaded, 

 assign to its echo in the Intelligencer the 

 self-same arithmetical value. 



" Should you deem this letter, or any part 

 of it, necessary to public enlightenment, you 

 are at liberty to make public use of it. 

 " Ever yours faithfully, 



"John Tyndaix." 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS IN TIIEIIi EDU- 

 CATIONAL BEARINGS. 



THE proposition of Prof. Leeds, in 

 his article on " State Geological 

 Surveys," to link these undertakings to 

 the collegiate institutions of the country 

 is a novel and very important one, and 

 deserves the serious attention of all the 

 friends of scientific education. After 

 stating the aims and necessities of these 

 surveys, the writer shows how college 

 talent might be pressed into their ser- 

 vice, and points out the advantages 

 that would arise both in giving thor- 

 oughness to the work, and in dimin- 

 ishing its expense to the State. Prof. 

 Leeds confines himself mainly to the 

 consideration of economy, thoroughness 

 in the performance of the work, and 

 the interests of the survey itself. But 

 such a measure could not fail to yield 

 double advantages : it would be as good 

 for the colleges as for the exploration. 

 On educational grounds alone, nothing 

 could be more desirable than to effect 



this arrangement, and give the colleges 

 business of the kind contemplated. 



A geological survey is but a sys- 

 tematic scientific inquiry into the struct- 

 ure and resources of a given region of 

 country. It investigates the strata of 

 the earth and their mineral and or- 

 ganic contents, both to find out how 

 they are constituted, and to contribute 

 useful productions to the arts and wants 

 of society. In its full scope it inquires 

 into the physical features of the region, 

 its agricultural adaptations, its vegeta- 

 ble productions, its forms of animal 

 life in earth, water, and air, its atmos- 

 pheric conditions, salubrity, and gen- 

 eral climatology. In short, it embraces 

 a very full research into those facts of 

 Nature which it is important for the 

 community to know, and the business 

 of science to determine. But the col- 

 leges have, for one great object, the 

 teaching of those very things. A por- 

 tion of their professors are devoted 

 to it, of course under the assumption 



