REVIEW 



The Changeful Earth. An introduction to the record of the rocks. By 

 Grenville A. J. Cole, F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the Royal College 

 of Science for Ireland. [Pp. ix + 223.] (London : Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 

 191 1.) Price is. bd. 



This is one of the series of "Readable Books in Natural Knowledge" which 

 Messrs. Macmillan are issuing. " It is hoped," the publishers say in their note 

 " that the books will provide the reading matter urgently required in connection 

 with the science work in schools and will appeal also to a wide circle of other 

 readers." That readable books on scientific subjects are urgently required is 

 beyond question ; it may be doubted, however, if it be possible to cater at once for 

 two classes so different as the young scholar and " other readers " — the standpoints 

 of the two are apt to be so different. 



As the author remarks in his opening sentence, the book deals with a great 

 subject. He then adds — " We have no right to live on the earth without trying to 

 learn something about it." There must be a fair proportion of mankind, therefore, 

 who have no right to live. The book under notice should certainly help a few more 

 to qualify for an earthly existence : being written in Prof. Cole's well-known easy 

 style, it should appeal to a wide circle of readers but perhaps more to grown-ups 

 than to boys at school. We are inclined to think that it tells too little of things 

 geological and of geological method and relatively too much of men who have 

 been pioneer workers in geology. And the geological points are not always made 

 with sufficient clearness — as on p. 186, for example, where the subject is far too 

 easily dismissed by reference to a diagram which the ordinary person would not 

 understand, knowing nothing of the order of strata. 



No doubt this subject is treated in accordance with the intention expressed in 

 the publishers' note but we are a little inclined to question the doctrine laid down 

 in the note — boys are kittle folk, they like to get at the point and hate any approach 

 to sentimentalism. Prof. Cole goes out of his way too, we think, to use inconse- 

 quent tall talk at times — for example, on pp. 5, 9, and 20. And p. 5 is full of 

 bad literary example for youth : " The more we know of this science, the more 

 grateful we are to those who laid its foundations, in times*when travel was far 

 harder than it is to-day." Such punctuation is inexcusable. Again, " he found 

 that the rain that falls and the wind that blows continually change its surface ; 

 that one part of the world is growing, while another wastes away," leaves us in doubt 

 whether it be the wind that always blows or the earth that is changed continually- 

 We cannot expect boys to write clear English when such examples are set before 

 them in the books provided specially for their use. 



When, however, such minor blemishes are removed in a new edition, the book 

 should prove to be of great value to a large class of readers. But Prof. Cole must 

 exercise a little more thought before giving reins to his fancy. For example, it is 

 very well to quote a grand old man like William Smith as saying : 



" Natural History should be the first object of every country gentleman ; and if 



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