GEOLOGY 



CURTIS FLETCHER MARBUT 

 Professor of Geology and Mineralogy 



Science is a tracing of pathways that come from the 

 unknown at one end and lead into the unknown at the other. 

 In no single case has man been able to trace any one of them 

 through the darkness at either end into the light of ultimate 

 truth. Through prophetic vision he may see somewhat beyond 

 the well opened path and prophesy, more or less accurately, 

 the end. 



Each science concerns two groups of ideas. (1) One 

 group consists of such of the great fundamental concepts 

 of human thought as are particularly applicable to its phe- 

 nomena, or the order of thought that is followed in its pur- 

 suit. They are not necessarily the result of investigation in 

 the particular science with which they are concerned, but 

 are more or less universal in their applicability. These I shall 

 call fundamental concepts. Those with which geology is con- 

 cerned are Time, Process, Life. We cannot think of geology 

 as a science except through the medium of these fundamental 

 concepts. (2) The other group of ideas with which geology 

 is concerned has been derived from the study of the earth. 

 They are not simple concepts, but are what I shall call 

 fundamental principles, or fundamental doctrines. They are 

 thought-structures that have been built on geological facts 

 and apply to geological science alone. They will be taken up 

 more in detail further on. 



Sciences are variously grouped. There is no single abso- 

 lute and true relation that they maintain to each other. The 



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