264 KEY TO TERRESTRIAL HISTORY 



pearance of some marvellous complex, wonderful beyond 

 finding out. 



Thus incidentally did the great pioneer open to us new 

 visions, while his own mind was concentrated on another 

 aim. It was the application of his discovery to the 

 identification of strata, and the unravelling of the com- 

 plicated structure of the earth's crust thereby rendered 

 possible, that dominated his soul as by an intellectual 

 possession. 



He had found the key to terrestrial history, and he 

 knew that he had found it ; a reluctant writer, untrained 

 to express his thoughts, chiefly occupying himself in 

 trying his key on the various wards, determined to see 

 how far it would master them all, yet every now and again 

 giving utterance to some remark, that shows how fully 

 he recognised the nature of his task, and how great he 

 expected to be the results which would follow from its 

 accomplishment. Here are a few instances: "Fossils 

 have long been studied as great curiosities, collected with 

 great pains, treasured with great care, and shown to be 

 admired . . . (without) the least regard to that wonder- 

 ful order and regularity with which Nature has disposed 

 of these singular productions and assigned to each class its 

 peculiar stratum " (January 5, 1796). Again, " I wished 

 to travel, for I foresaw that the truth and possibility of 

 my system must be tested far and wide before it could be 

 generally known and appreciated " (1794). Or, once more, 

 " As the result of my observations on this tour ... it 

 plainly appeared that [my method] was to become a 

 system of experimental philosophy, which would embrace 

 the whole surface of the globe." 



The way in which William Smith set about the vindi- 

 cation of his principle was characteristic of the man, not 

 by any means to write treatises upon it, but to show 

 what it could do ; arid his construction by its aid of 



