xx. PRACTICAL GEOLOGY. 503 



of England be traversed by aqueducts grander than any which 

 span the plains of Provence or the Campagna of Rome. 



The preceding observations shew geology in such close relation- 

 ship to the economy of daily life and the exercise of professional 

 judgment, that it becomes a question whether the educational 

 course of the chemist, agriculturist, miner, metallurgist, or engineer 

 can be regarded as complete, or even sufficient, without a con- 

 siderable amount of geological teaching. A geologist, as such, 

 ought perhaps to be so much engrossed by study of the philoso- 

 phical bearings of his great subject, as to be unable to acquire 

 practical experience in any of these walks of life ; but, on the other 

 hand, he may be competent to give useful advice in each of them, 

 founded on general principles, which may prevent many mis- 

 fortunes. In this sense geology may in some degree become 

 a professional exercise, and furnish another proof of the fruitful 

 character of all the branches of natural science, none of which, 

 whether they relate to rocks or fossils, minerals, plants or animals, 

 the phenomena now passing before our eyes, or those which ceased 

 thousands of ages gone by, can be strenuously followed without 

 leading to many discoveries useful in every stage of society. 



