COAL AT DOVER. 247 



coal will be quoted in the lists of the London dealers 

 in the black diamonds. This is the economic side of 

 things ; but doubtless our coal-dealing friends will 

 take good care that the price of coals is not at all 

 reduced by the fruits of geological discovery. The 

 scientific side is more to the point at present, and we 

 may learn how exactly scientific prophecies come true 

 in the case of. the Dover coal. Scientific prophecies, 

 however, have this great characteristic, that they are 

 founded on certain pieces of evidence rather than upon 

 the misty convictions and beliefs of dreamers who are 

 always prophesying about events that are never likely 

 to occur in our time, at least and among them the 

 end of the world, which I understand a hopeful and 

 sanguine professional prophet has decided will happen 

 in the year 1893. 



Science reasons, in other words, about what is still 

 in the dark, from the facts she has ascertained. In 

 this respect the geologists at Dover took the advice 

 of Hosea Biglow, who wisely advises nobody to pro- 

 phesy unless he knows. The great advantage of this 

 procedure is that one's prophecies are always certain 

 to come true. 

 17 



THE END. 



STEREOTYPED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. 

 EDINBURGH AND LONDON 



