6 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



half of the sixteenth century, the method of practical 

 research, as opposed to mere book-knowledge and theory, 

 had been advocated even for the investigation of the rocky 

 part of the earth. It was proclaimed, in no uncertain 

 voice, by the learned and versatile Dane, Peter Severinus, 

 who counselled his readers thus : " Go, my sons, sell your 

 lands, your houses, your garments and your jewelry ; burn 

 up your books. On the other hand, buy yourselves stout 

 shoes, get away to the mountains, search the valleys, the 

 deserts, the shores of the sea, and the deepest recesses of 

 the earth ; mark well the distinctions between animals, 

 the differences among plants, the various kinds of minerals, 

 the properties and mode of origin of everything that exists. 

 Be not ashamed to learn by heart the astronomy and 

 terrestrial philosophy of the peasantry. Lastly, purchase 

 coals, build furnaces, watch and experiment without weary- 

 ing. In this way, and no other, will you arrive at a 

 knowledge of things and of their properties." x The modern 

 spirit of investigation in natural science could not be more 

 clearly or cogently enforced than it was by this professor 

 of literature and poetry, of meteorology and of medicine, in 

 the year 1571. 



In spite of such teaching, it was long before what is 

 now regarded as the domain of geology was definitely 

 recognized as one that was not to be surrendered to mere 

 fanciful speculation, but which offered an unsurpassed 

 wealth of material for the most sedulous observation and 

 the most scrupulous induction. The chief obstructors of 

 progress in this department of human inquiry were the 



1 Petrus Severinus, Idea Medednae Philosophicae, 1571, p. 73, cap. vii. 

 De principiis corporum (cited by D'Aubuisson). 



