10 EEPOET 1892. 



within that crust lie the chronicles of a long history of plant and animal 

 life upon this planet, it supplied the means of arranging the materials for 

 this history in true chronological sequence, and it thus opened out a mag- 

 nificent vista through a vast series of ages, each marked by its own dis- 

 tinctive types of organic life, which, in proportion to their antiquity, 

 departed more and more from the aspect of the living world. 



Thus a hundred years ago, by the brilliant theory of Hutton and the 

 fruitful generalisation of Smith, the study of the earth received in our 

 country the impetus which has given birth to the modern science of 

 geology. 



To review the marvellous progress which this science has made during 

 the first century of its existence would require not one but many hours 

 for adequate treatment. The march of discovery has advanced along a 

 multitude of different paths, and the domains of Nature which have been 

 included within the growing territories of human knowledge have been 

 many and ample. Nevertheless, there are certain departments of investi- 

 gation to which we may profitably restrict our attention on the present 

 occasion, and wherein we may see how the leading principles that were 

 proclaimed in this city a hundred years ago have germinated and borne 

 fruit all over the world. 



From the earliest times the natural features of the eai'th's surface 

 have arrested the attention of mankind. The rugged mountain, the cleft 

 ravine, the scarped cliff, the solitary boulder, have stimulated curiosity 

 and prompted many a speculation as to their origin. The shells embedded 

 by millions in the solid rocks of hills far removed from the sea have still 

 further pressed home these ' obstinate questionings.' But for many long 

 centuries the advance of inquiry into such matters was arrested by the 

 paramount influence of orthodox theology. It was not merely that the 

 Church opposed itself to the simple and obvious interpretation of these 

 natural phenomena. So implicit had faith become in the accepted views 

 of the earth's age and of the history of creation, that even laymen of in- 

 telligence and learning set themselves unbidden and in perfect good faith 

 to explain away the difficulties which Nature so persistently raised up, 

 and to reconcile her teachings with those of the theologians. In the 

 various theories thus originating, the amount of knowledge of natural 

 law usually stood in inverse ratio to the share played in them by an 

 uncontrolled imagination. The speculations, for example, of Burnet, 

 Whiston, Whitehurst, and others in this country, cannot be read now 

 without a smile. In no sense were they scientific researches ; they can 

 only be looked upon as exercitations of learned ignorance. Springing 



