4 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



with me some of the leading steps in this magnificent 

 progress. Even speculations that have been thrown aside, 

 and theories that have been long forgotten, may be found 

 to have been not without their use in promoting the general 

 advance. 



If all history is only an amplification of biography, the 

 history of science may be most instructively read in the 

 life and work of the men by whom the realms of Nature 

 have been successively won. I shall therefore dwell 

 much on the individual achievements of a few great 

 leaders in the onward march of geology, and indicate how 

 each of them has influenced the development of the 

 science. At the same time, I shall trace the rise and pro- 

 gress of some of the leading principles of modern geology, 

 which, though now familiar to us all as household words, 

 are seldom studied in regard to their historical develop- 

 ment. Thus, partly in the life-work of the men, and partly 

 in the growth of the ideas which they promulgated, we 

 shall be able to realize by what successive steps our science 

 has been elaborated. 



The subject which I have chosen, if treated as fully as 

 it might fitly be, would require a long course of lectures. 

 Within the limits permissible to me, I can only attempt 

 to present an outline of it. Instead of trying to summarize 

 the whole progress of modern geology, I think it will be 

 more interesting and profitable to dwell somewhat fully 

 on the labours of a few of the early masters, to touch 

 only lightly on those of their less illustrious contemporaries, 

 and to do little more than allude to the modern magnates 

 whose life and work are generally familiar. I have ac- 

 cordingly selected for more special treatment the period 



