APPENDIX. 477 



vation be but Opinion, and the opinions of thousands 

 will be but the opinion of one. 



IV. On the Qualifications required by a Geologist. 



It has been the reproach of geology that it has been 

 a history of errors, corrections, and controversies, a re- 

 cord of conflicting facts, (Contradictory authorities, and 

 hypotheses. But this is the reproach of the cultivators, 

 not of the science. Amid her variety as in her con- 

 stancy, Nature is subject to laws; and they will ulti- 

 mately be established by him, who, to the faculty of 

 observing accurately, joins that of reasoning justly. 

 And when observers shall come to their tasks with the 

 previous necessary knowledge, when they shall bring 

 to these, candid as well as inquisitive minds, when they 

 shall study to distinguish analogies and differences, to 

 discriminate between the accidental and essential, and 

 learn to generalize this observation by the rules of sound 

 philosophy, the truth will not long remain concealed. 

 So mutually dependent and connected are indeed all 

 the sciences, that there is scarcely one which can be 

 effectually pursued without previous acquisitions of 

 various knowledge ; as never was there a valuable 

 treatise written on any subject, by him who did not 

 know much more than what he has seemed to profess. 

 Nor, in any one science, was ever yet any thing well 

 done by any but a rnind schooled in the habits of ge- 

 neral observation and in the logic of philosophy at 

 large. But these are well-known truths : it is here 

 my object to point out to the geological student, those 

 attainments in science and art without which he will 

 learn nothing, and be unable to teach any thing. If 

 the list shall appear formidable, there is nothing denied 

 to industry, nor any thing demanded beyond what is 

 essential to every scientific education. 



