56 LANDSCAPE AND IMAGINATION 



result of one probably sudden or violent cause. Yet 

 the simplest explanation is not always necessarily the 

 correct one. In reality, the problems presented to us 

 by the existing topography of the land, fascinating 

 though they are, become daily more complex, and 

 demand the whole resources of geological science. 

 They cannot be solved by any rough-and-ready process. 

 They involve not only an acquaintance with the recent 

 operations of Nature, but an extensive research into the 

 history of former geological periods. The surface of 

 every country is like a palimpsest which has been 

 written over again and again in different centuries. 

 How it has come to be what it is cannot be told 

 without much patient effort. But every effort that 

 brings us better acquainted with the story of the 

 ground beneath our feet, and at the same time gives 

 an added zest to our enjoyment of the scenery at the 

 surface, is surely worthy to be made. 



These remarks lead me naturally to the concluding 

 section of my subject, in which I propose to inquire 

 how far the discoveries of science have affected the 

 relation of scenery to the imagination. It has often 

 been charged against scientific men that the progress 

 of science is distinctly hostile to the cultivation alike 

 of the fancy and of the imagination, and that some of 

 the choicest domains of literature must necessarily 

 grow more and more neglected as life and progress 

 are brought more completely under the sway of con- 

 tinued discovery and invention. We hear these com- 

 plaints, now in the form of a helpless and hopeless 

 wail, now as an angry and impotent protest. That 

 they are made in good faith, and are often the 



