44 



to cripple advance by rules of nomenclature. At the International 

 Geological Congress of 1888* he warned the members that no rules 

 must be drawn up or systems imposed, which would hamper 

 investigation or impede advance. On another occasion he penned 

 the following incisive words : f" The subject [geology] is perfectly 

 free and open to all. Every investigator has a right to address 

 himself to any part of the work he pleases, and the right, if he deems 

 it fitting to exercise it, to demand a full recognition of the import- 

 ance of his own contribution to the common stock of discovery. 

 No investigator, or body of investigators, has any claim, beyond 

 that conceded by courtesy, to a monopoly in any special department 

 of geology, local or theoretical. The only available geological 

 possessions of the investigator are his abilities, his opportunities, 

 and the fruit of the good work he has done in the past. The only 

 authority he dare recognise with safety is Nature herself. The 

 extremest penalty for the slightest departure from the course she 

 has marked out, whether committed wilfully or in ignorance, will 

 be mercilessly exacted by her tardy but sure-footed avenger Time." 



In the search for truth he realised that the truest things we 

 have are the principles of science. To these he pinned his faith 

 as soon as he had satisfied himself that they were well proved, 

 and he was always willing to devote time and energy to the testing 

 of the basis of every fact or inference which seemed to him to run 

 counter to well-established principles. At the same time he was 

 more than willing to submit his own hypotheses, as well as those 

 of others, to the crucial test of observation and experiment, and if 

 necessary to modify them or to suspend judgment until proof was 

 forthcoming. 



His hope and aim were always the establishment of new and 

 true principles. He held that every effort should be made to 

 group facts together, provided that the resulting hypothesis were 

 regarded as one J" not of causes but of the most natural grouping 

 of effects." One theory after another would be tested and re- 

 tested against the facts, only to be rejected and replaced if necessary 

 by one in better accord. 



It was here that his wonderful imagination, vivid but 

 disciplined, came into play. His interest in the structure of the 

 earth crust was not in the anatomy of a structure, beautiful and 

 complex but dead. It was that of a biologist in a living 

 organism, changing and growing, resting or moving, with a long 

 history, of which he could vividly visualise each stage. Like a 

 physiologist, he constantly strove to understand the source of 

 the life energy of the globe and the exact mechanism which has 

 guided the formation and distribution of its features, and the 

 changing life of and on its surface. 



* 43. P- 223. f 33, p. 102. } 5 o, p. 617. 



