98 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
stage even the most competent scientific man, if he is ultimately to deal 
with all his problems himself, can be ready to begin the study of geology. 
Meantime, qualities of far higher value to a geologist, which in most 
cases can only be acquired young, are being lost, such as the habit of close 
observation, the aptitude to distinguish minute resemblances and differ- 
ences, and the faculty of judging tendencies, together with the instinct 
and patience to make collections. These propensities come very early 
and speedily become blunted if not exercised. I would advocate, with all 
the earnestness of an old teacher, that some form of earth-knowledge 
involving observation of facts and collection of specimens, and the 
drawing of inferences from them, should find a place in schools and be 
encouraged at the Universities side by side with the fundamental sciences. 
Such studies will not possess the meticulous exactitude of the others, but 
in thisrespect their tendency may be corrected bythem. Theywill, however, 
bring the student into contact with realities, things as they are, instead of 
inaccessible, abstract conceptions, things beyond experience—such as pure 
substances, or forces acting in the absence of friction. They will give him the 
thrill of discovery and explanation, teach him that the end of science is to 
extract law and principle from observation and experiment, and, instead 
of keeping him along rigid lines to an assured and pre-obtained solution, 
will give him a choice of approach and accustom him to frame and test 
hypotheses which to him at any rate will be new and his own. Further, 
they will do much to teach him his own shortcomings and give him a keen 
incentive to acquire the very sciences which in themselves may be dull or 
even repulsive until he has convinced himself of their utility and necessity 
to his own work. 
While acknowledging indebtedness to those sciences which have so 
generously contributed their results to geology, we feel that we have some 
ground for complaint that at times their votaries have not resisted the 
temptation to drop bombs which have exploded in our midst and produced 
a certain amount of trepidation and sometimes legitimate indignation. 
We consider that it is up to those who feel compelled to do this to acquire 
some knowledge of geological principles and of the lines of reasoning on 
which they are founded. They should recognise that a pyramid is diffi- 
cult to upset, because in the process of building it the materials and 
structure have been carefully selected and tested by the builders. To be 
told after a century’s search and reasoning that we must take our time 
bill and ‘ sit down quickly and write ’ off 80 or it may be 90 per cent. of 
it, ought not to have disturbed us as much as it did, not more indeed 
than now does the permission of the representatives of the same science to 
multiply our original time bill, if we like, by ten or twenty, or even more, 
so far as their present state of knowledge extends. Our answer is that 
we have not done the one and have no desire to do the other, so far as the 
sedimentary rocks at present known to us are concerned. 
The geologist, however, should be, and is, the last to deprecate the 
application of the highest and newest conclusions of physical and chemical 
science to his own problems and to the criticism of his solutions of them, 
for it is certain that this will always result in domg much to reduce many 
of the barriers which retard his advance. For this reason we must wel- 
come even so fantastic a hypothesis as that of Wegener, for the problem 
of the overthrust ‘nappes’ of mountain regions is one of our greatest 
