86 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



or by man. The high mountains, on the other hand, 

 infinitely varied in their composition as in their forms, 

 present gigantic natural sections wherein the order, the 

 position, the direction, the thickness and the nature of the 

 different formations of which they are composed, as well 

 as the fissures which traverse them, can be seen with the 

 greatest clearness and at one view. Nevertheless, to no 

 purpose are these facilities of observation offered, if those 

 who propose to study the question do not know how to con- 

 sider these grand objects as a whole and in their widest 

 relations. The sole object of most travellers who call 

 themselves naturalists is to collect curiosities ; they walk, 

 or rather they crawl, with their eyes fixed on the ground, 

 picking up little bits here and there, without aiming at 

 any general observations. They are like an antiquary 

 who at Eome, with the Pantheon and the Colosseum in 

 front of him, should scrape the ground to seek for pieces 

 of coloured glass without ever casting his eyes on the 

 architecture of these superb edifices. It is not that I 

 advise the neglect of detailed observations. On the 

 contrary, I look upon them as the only basis of solid 

 knowledge. But while we gather these details, I desire 

 that we should never lose sight of the great masses, and 

 that we should always make a knowledge of the great 

 objects and their relations, our aim in studying their small 

 parts. 



"But to observe these mighty masses we must not 

 content ourselves with following the high-roads, which 

 nearly always wind through the valleys, and which never 

 cross the mountains, save by the lowest passes. We 

 must quit the beaten tracks, and climb to the lofty 



