276 HUGH MILLER 



off splinters of the rocks, and left raw scars as marks of 

 his progress. 1 



But a champion had now arisen who, as far as might 

 be, discarding technicalities, made even the dullest 

 reader feel that the geologist is the historian of the 

 earth, that he deals with a series of chronicles as real 

 and as decipherable as those that record human events, 

 and that they can be made not only intelligible but 

 attractive, as the subjects of simple and eloquent 

 prose. 



The absence of technical detail, which makes one of 

 the charms of Hugh Miller's books to the non- 

 scientific reader, may be regarded as a defect by the 

 strict and formal geologist. Like every other branch 

 of natural science, geology rests on a basis of observa- 

 tion, which frequently depends for its value upon the 

 minuteness and accuracy of its details. To collect 

 these details is often a laborious task, which is seldom 

 undertaken save by those to whose department of the 

 science they specially belong. A palaeontologist cannot 

 be expected to devote his time to the study of the 

 microscopic characters of minerals and rocks. He 

 leaves that research to the petrographer, who, on the 

 other hand, will not readily embark on an investiga- 

 tion of the minute anatomy of fossil plants or animals. 

 This specialisation, which has always to some extent 

 existed, necessarily becomes more pronounced as science 

 advances. The days are far past for Admirable 

 Crichtons, and it is no longer possible for any one 

 man to be equally versed in every branch of even a 

 single department of natural knowledge. 



1 The passage has been cited on p. 128. 



