SEQUEL TO SYSTEMATIC GEOLOGY. 571 



Mr. Conybeare rendered it, under the guise of a 

 topographical enumeration, in reality a profound 

 and instructive scientific treatise. The vast impulse 

 which it gave to the study of sound descriptive 

 geology was felt and acknowledged in other coun- 

 tries, as well as in Britain. 



Since that period, descriptive geology in England 

 has constantly advanced. The advance has been due 

 mainly to the labours of the members of the Geo- 

 logical Society ; on whose merits as cultivators of 

 their science, none but those who are themselves 

 masters of the subject, have a right to dwell. Yet 

 some parts of the scientific character of these men 

 may be appreciated by the general speculator ; for 

 they have shown that there are no talents and no 

 endowments which may not find their fitting em- 

 ployment in this science. Besides that they have 

 united laborious research and comprehensive views, 

 acuteness and learning, zeal and knowledge; the 

 philosophical eloquence with which they have con- 

 ducted their discussions has had a most beneficial 

 influence on the tone of their speculations; and 

 their researches in the field, which have carried 

 them into every country and every class of society, 

 have given them that prompt and liberal spirit, and 

 that open and cordial bearing, which results from 

 intercourse with the world on a large and unfet- 

 tered scale. It is not too much to say, that in our 

 time, practical geology has been one of the best 

 schools of philosophical and general culture of mind. 



