ESSAY-REVIEWS 333 



is quite natural that values, particularly the highest values, should receive special 

 consideration from thought. They are, in a special sense, affairs that concern us — 

 very largely because they are man's own private concern or creation ; they also 

 derive a special gusto of reality from their effective and emotional character which 

 seems to place them outside us. They absorb naturally, almost inevitably, the 

 notion of Divinity. The general impression remaining after Prof. Pringle-Pattison's 

 discussion of modern views of the " Idea of God" is that value is generally re- 

 garded as something that is somehow Divine. It is not easy, as before remarked, 

 to gather completely his own " Idea of God." He does say definitely that " the 

 traditional idea of God must be profoundly transformed," and modern thought 

 certainly seems to be acting on this maxim. The total impression remaining from 

 the discussion is that the various thinkers who operate with the Idea of God and 

 the Idea of Value continue to apply the term " God,'' when they do not prefer the 

 term " Absolute," to very considerably transmuted versions of the usual meaning 

 of the word. One suspects that the Idea of Value is leaving an even more " vague 

 residuum of theistic belief" than the old argument from design. Modern thought 

 is unable to fit Theism satisfactorily into its conceptual scheme either by means 

 of the category of organism or through the Principle of Value. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE OLD RED SANDSTONE, by G. W. 



Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc, F.G.S. : on 



Dominantly Fluviatile Origin under Seasonal Rainfall of the Old 

 Red Sandstone, and Influence of Silurian-Devonian Climates on 

 the Rise of Air-Breathing Vertebrates, by Joseph Barrell 

 (Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 1916, 27, 345-86, 387-436). 



The Geology of Caithness, by C. B. Crampton and R. G. 



Carruthers, with contributions by J. Horne, B. N. Peach, 



J. S. Flett, and E. M. Anderson. [Pp. 194, 30 figures, 

 7 plates.] (Mem. Geol. Surv, Scotland, 1914.) 



The interpretation of the physical geography, conditions of deposition, and 

 climate of past geological periods by means of the study of the sediments that 

 build up the geological record is a fascinating branch of geology which has 

 recently been taken up with enthusiasm on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain, 

 however, dominated as we are by " our heritage the sea," and deprived by the 

 smallness of our isles of the opportunity of studying continental deposition on 

 the large scale, geologists have been inclined to exaggerate the importance of 

 marine deposition, and to minimise the extent to which deposits of continental 

 origin, in deserts, river flood-plains, and lakes, have entered into the composition 

 of the British geological column. American, Australian, Indian, and South 

 African geologists, on the other hand, with areas of continental dimensions to 

 range over, and a great variety of climates and conditions of deposition to study, 

 have generally been led to a truer view of the relative importance of continental 

 deposition as contrasted with marine. Along with this has come the recognition 

 that fluviatile sedimentation over the great flood-plains is the dominant mode of 

 continental deposition : and several formations (e.g. the Tertiary of Western 

 America), which were formerly thought to have been accumulated in great lakes, 

 are now known to have been deposited on river flood-plains. A similar movement 

 of geological thought has led to the recognition of delta deposition in many 

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