THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT IN ENGLAND. 



291 



the author from whom I quote, Dr Whewell, in the third 

 edition of his ' History of the Inductive Sciences/ could 

 still say that " their task was not yet finished, their mis- 

 sion not yet accomplished that they had still much to 

 do in the way of collecting facts ; and in entering upon 

 the exact estimation of causes, they have only just thrown 

 open the door of a vast labyrinth which it may employ 

 many generations to traverse, but which they must needs 

 explore before they can penetrate to the Oracular Chamber 

 of Truth." J One of the many individuals in this country 

 who " had long pursued his own thoughts without aid and smith. 

 without sympathy " 2 was William Smith. " No literary 



51. 



William 



lation within these walls has been 

 of doubtful beneficence " (Huxley 

 on "Geological Reform," Address 

 to the Geological Society, 1869 ; 

 reprinted in 'Lay Sermons,' &c., 

 1891, p. 207). 



1 See Whewell, ' History of the 

 Inductive Sciences,' 3rd ed., vol. iii. 

 pp. 428, 518. Lyell, ' Principles of 

 Geology,' 3rd ed., vol. i. p. 102, &c. 



2 Whewell, loc. cit. t vol. iii. p. 

 427. William Smith (1769-1839), 

 a native of Oxfordshire, has been 

 called the Father of English Geo- 

 logy. He was like so many other 

 naturalists of this country an 

 amateur in his scientific studies, 

 which were conducted on the occa- 

 sions of his elaborate surveys of 

 Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and 

 Somersetshire in connection with 

 the engineering of several canals. 

 He initiated in England the science 

 called on the Continent "Strati- 

 graphy," observed the successive 

 layers in the geological structure 

 of the country, and in 1799 pre- 

 pared a tabular view of the order 

 of the strata and their organic 

 remains in the neighbourhood of 

 Bath. For many years after this 



he was occupied in preparing his 

 Geological Map of England and 

 Wales, which appeared on the five 

 miles to the inch scale in 1815 in 

 fifteen sheets. He was popularly 

 known as " Stratum Smith," but 

 remained almost unknown abroad, 

 as he himself also seems to have 

 taken little notice of Continental 

 geology or prevailing theories. 

 Though he began earlier than Cu- 

 vier and Brongniart, they antici- 

 pated him by publishing in 1811 

 their mineralogical description of 

 the Paris Basin, thus becoming the 

 founders of the science of palaeon- 

 tology (see Peschel, 'Geschichte 

 der Erdkunde,' Miinchen, 1877, p. 

 714, &c.) Of the Geological Map 

 Lyell says ( ' Principles of Geology, ' 

 vol. i. p. 101) that it "remains a 

 lasting monument of original talent 

 and extraordinary perseverance ; for 

 he had explored the whole country 

 on foot without the guidance of 

 previous observers or the aid of 

 fellow-labourers, and had succeeded 

 in throwing into natural divisions 

 the whole complicated series of 

 British rocks." 



