378 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 



the arts or professions, are the .sciences which have the greatest num- 

 ber of students and are making the swiftest progress. It is the height 

 of absurdity to imagine that geology can, any more than any other 

 science, possibly restrict its activity to research alone. Rather ma}^ 

 we sa}^ that tlie corporate geological organism has three necessary 

 functions — research, practice, and education. So long as all three 

 functions are naturally and healthfully performed, so long willgeolog}^ 

 live and flourish. Whenever either function remains long unexercised, 

 or falls into disuse, there follows, of necessity, a weakness throughout 

 the entire organism, which nuist in the end becouje lethargic and crip- 

 pled, and fall behind in the race. 



When, on the other liand, all three functions ure most vigorously 

 exercised, the progress of the science nmst be at its swiftest and its 

 surest. And this fact has been well illustrated in the histor}" of our 

 science; for whenevei" these three fimctions of geology have been most 

 clearly appicciated and simultaneously energized by its leaders, geol- 

 ogy has shown forth with an (^special and peculiar lustei-, and has won 

 the attention and regai-d of the world. 



Those who came fi'oin all paits of Eui'ope to attend the lectures of 

 Werner were drawn to him by his conviction that geology was one 

 of the most useful of trainings, not only for the men of the mining and 

 metallurgical world, hut also for those who were interested in all that 

 concerns man's relation to the earth in general. They listenc^d with 

 delight and with profit to the brilliant exposition of his far-reaching- 

 ideas, not oidy l)ecause they felt the fascination of these ideas, l)ut also 

 because^ they were impressed l)y his assurance of their material and 

 intellectual utility. The geological education which they received 

 from him they conununicated in their turn to theii- own pui)ils. and 

 rapidh' spread the Ixmetits and influence of geology far and wide over 

 the economic and intellectual world of their time. 



Rut we have even a more striking instance nearer home. 1 do not 

 think that it is too nuich to assert that no single geologist whose name 

 adorns'the long roll of the past members of this societ}" secured at 

 one and the same time so far-reaching an influence upon the spi'ead of 

 geological knowledge at large, so sincere a respect for our science 

 from the governments of civilized countries, and so kindly a I'egard 

 and aflection for it from the mass of mankind, as Sir Henry De la 

 Beche. And 1 take it that all this was due to the fact that he, more 

 than any other British geologist before him or after him, had a clear 

 and well-balanced conception of the three functions of geology. He 

 was at once a scientist, a practical man, and an educationalist. 



No one familiar with his Geology of Devon and Cornwall or with 

 his Geological Observer but will grant tliat he was, both from the 

 side of research and of theory, a scientist to the backbone. But he was 

 more than a scientist. He was a man whose life work had convinced 



