122 LECTURES 



The whole future of geology was seen in the vision of that moment. 

 Filled with awe, the old man, then over 80 years of age, published 

 his discovery. In a kind of sacred phrenzy he spoke of the magnifi- 

 cence of the prospect, and prophesied of the future glories of this new 

 science, which he was, alas, too old to pursue. Thus, to the last, his 

 dying hand pointed the way, and his dying voice kindled the enthu- 

 siasm of those whom he could no longer lead. 



Picture for a moment to yourself the aged Buffon thus gazing in 

 rapture, silent and alone, upon this new world suddenly opened to his 

 intellectual vision. I cannot help comparing him to Moses of old on 

 the top of Pisgah. Like Moses, he had reached the extreme verge of 

 mortal life ; like him, he stood upon a mount, raised far above the 

 rest of the world by the eminence of his intellectual position ; like 

 him, he gazed with sacred solemn joy, mingled with sadness, upon a 

 new world, a promised land, which he was forbidden to enter ; and, 

 like him, also, he died there upon the mount, prophesying of the 

 future glories of the new land, and calling upon his followers to enter 

 in and take possession. 



One more comparison between these two noble sciences : In com- 

 paring modern with ancient or even mediasval civilization, nothing 

 is more striking or more significant than the difference in the manner 

 in which nature is viewed in relation to man. The spirit of the older 

 civilization tended to exalt man in his own estimation and to degrade 

 nature, while that of modern civilization tends to humiliate by 

 insisting upon his insignificance in comparison with the greatness 

 of nature. In art this is seen in the gradual but constant increase 

 in the contemplation of nature, both in painting and poetry. An 

 increasing love of wilderness and mountain, of rock and crag, of cloud 

 and sky. In science it is still more distinctly seen in the amazing 

 progress of the physical and natural sciences. The mind of man has 

 gradually passed from the study and contemplation of itself to the 

 study and contemplation of nature. We believe this was a necessary, 

 but cannot believe that it is a final change. When, by the study of 

 external nature, a true and solid foundation is laid for philosophy, the 

 human mind will again return to the study and contemplation of 

 itself, as the greatest of nature's works. 



Now, it has already been seen, that among the most efficient agents 

 in bringing about this great and necessary change have been the 

 sciences of astronomy and geology. Nothing has tended so much to 

 humiliate the pride of man as the recognition of the astounding fact 

 that Ids habitation, Ms luoiid, is but an atom among millions of simi- 

 lar atoms in the boundless realms of space ; and that his time, the 

 life of his race, is but a day in the immeasurable cycle of geological 

 changes. But there is this great difference between the two sciences, 

 that while astronomy leaves man thus humiliated, prostrate, and 

 hopeless, geology lifts him up and restores him to his dignity. While 

 astronomy gives no evidence of the superiority of the earth to other 

 heavenly bodies, or of man above other possible material intelli- 

 gences — gives no hint of the superior dignity of our world among 

 other space-worlds — geology most distinctly declares the superior 

 dignity of our time world, and of our race, among all other time- 



