DISCOURS PRELIMINAIRE, ETC. 293 



ascertain if there are any general conclusions which may be put forward 

 by one who has passed his life in visiting the Alps and in studying 

 the character and structure of the ranges which compose them. 



The following note, or postscript, occupies a page at the end 

 of the Agenda, and conveys de Saussure's last message to his 

 successors : 



The particulars here given may serve to show that Geology is 

 not a study for the idle or the self-indulgent, since a geologist's days 

 are divided between fatiguing and perilous journeys, in which he is 

 cut off from most of the conveniences of life, and complicated and 

 deep studies in his cabinet. But what is rarer and perhaps even 

 more essential than the zeal required to surmount these obstacles is 

 a spirit free from preconceived ideas and intent on truth alone rather 

 than on any desire to create or demolish systems, and capable both of 

 plunging into the details indispensable in exact and reliable observa- 

 tions and of the power to rise to broad views and general conceptions. 

 I would not, however, urge these difficulties as a discouragement. 

 Every traveller can make some useful observations, and bring at least 

 a stone worthy to serve in the construction of the great edifice. Im- 

 perfect work may still be of use, for I do not doubt that were one to 

 compare with these Agenda the results of the journeys of mineralogists l 

 even those of the highest reputation (and a fortiori, those of the 

 author of the Agenda !) one would find many gaps, many observations 

 either imperfect or wanting. The reason for this I have given in my 

 Preface. Moreover, many of these ideas have only occurred to me 

 since my travels. This is the reason why I have worked with interest 

 on the Agenda, in the hope of placing young students at the com- 

 mencement of their career, at the point I have reached after thirty- 

 six years of study and travel. 



1 Mineralogy is up to the end of the eighteenth century found in the Index of the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society, where Geology would now be the term used. 

 D. W. F. 



