4 ON A PIECE OF CHALK i 



to no result, save that of entangling the inquirer 

 in vague speculations, incapable of refutation and 

 of verification. If such were really the case, I 

 should have selected some other subject than a 

 " piece of chalk " for my discourse. But, in truth, 

 after much deliberation, I have been unable to 

 think of any topic which would so well enable me 

 to lead you to see how solid is the foundation 

 upon which some of the most startling conclusions 

 of physical science rest. 



A great chapter of the history of the world is 

 written in the chalk. Few passages in the history 

 of man can be supported by such an overwhelm- 

 ing mass of direct and indirect evidence as that 

 which testifies to the truth of the fragment of the 

 history of the globe, which I hope to enable you 

 to read, with your own eyes, to-night. Let me 

 add, that few chapters of human history have a 

 more profound significance for ourselves. I weigh 

 my words well when I assert, that the man who 

 should know the true history of the bit of chalk 

 which every carpenter carries about in his 

 breeches-pocket, though ignorant of all other 

 history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge 

 out to its ultimate results, to have a truer, and 

 therefore a better, conception of this wonderful 

 universe, and of man's relation to it, than the 

 most learned student who is deep-read in the 

 records of humanity and ignorant of those of 

 Nature. 



