20 TOWN GEOLOGY. 



about the facts. In one word, men who had acquired 

 just the habit of mind which the study of Natural 

 Science can give, and must give ; for without it there 

 is no use studying Natural Science ; and the man who 

 has not got that habit of mind, if he meddles with 

 science, will merely become a. quack and a charlatan, 

 only fit to get his bread as a spirit-rapper, or an 

 inventor of infallible pills. 



And when I saw that, I said to myself I will train 

 myself, by Natural Science, to the truly rational, and 

 therefore truly able and useful, habit of mind ; and 

 more, I will, for it is my duty as an Englishman, train 

 every Englishman over whom I can get influence in 

 the same scientific habit of mind, that I may, if possible, 

 make him, too, a rational and an able man. 



And, therefore, knowing that most of you, my 

 readers probably all of you, as you ought and must 

 if you are Britons, think much of social and political 

 questions therefore, I say, I entreat you to cultivate the 

 scientific spirit by which alone you can judge justly of 

 those questions. I ask you to learn how to " conquer 

 nature by obeying her," as the great Lord Bacon said 

 two hundred and fifty years ago. For so only will you 

 in your theories and your movements, draw "bills 

 which nature will honour" to use Mr. Carlyle's 

 famous parable because they are according to her 

 unchanging laws, and not have them returned on your 

 hands, as too many theorists' are, with "no effects" 

 written across their backs. 



Take my advice for yourselves, dear readers, and 

 for your children after you ; for, believe me, I am 

 showing you the way to true and useful, and, therefore, 

 to just and deserved power. I am showing you the 



