I.] THE SOIL OF THE FIELD. 33 



theories were no more rational, because no more 

 founded on known facts, than that of the New Zealand 

 Maories, who hold that some god, when fishing, fished 

 up their islands out of the bottom of the ocean. But 

 a sounder and wiser school of geologists now reigns ; 

 the father of whom, in England at least, is the 

 venerable Sir Charles Lyell. He was almost the first 

 of Englishmen who taught us to see what common 

 sense tells us that the laws which we see at work 

 around us now have been most probably at work since 

 the creation of the world ; and that whatever changes 

 may seem to have taken place in past ages, and in 

 ancient rocks, should be explained, if possible, by the 

 changes which are taking place now in the most recent 

 deposits in the soil of the field. 



And in the last forty years since that great and 

 sound idea has become rooted in the minds of students, 

 and especially of English students, geology has thriven 

 and developed, perhaps more than any other science ; 

 and has led men on to discoveries far more really 

 astonishing and awful than all fancied convulsions 

 and cataclysms. 



I have planned this series of papers, therefore, on 

 Sir Charles Ly ell's method. I have begun by trying 

 to teach a little about the part of the earth's crust 

 which lies nearest us, which we see most often; 

 namely, the soil ; intending, if my readers do me the 

 honour to read the papers which follow, to lead them 

 downward, as it were, into the earth; deeper and 

 deeper in each paper, to rocks and minerals which are 

 probably less known to them than the soil in the 

 fields. Thus you will find I shall lead you, or try 

 to lead you on, throughout the series, from the 

 so. D 



