C.— GEOLOGY. 73 
beyond my depth in an attempt to pursue this subject. I beg, however, 
to quote a few verses to show that the principles of geology may be gilded 
by the touch of poetic inspiration. 
_ Tennyson : 
‘ Astronomy and Geology—terrible muses.’ (Parnassus.) 
* All things are taken from us and become 
Portions and parcels of the dreadful past.’ (Zhe Lotus Eater.) 
‘The solid earth whereon we tread 
In tracts of fluent heat began, 
And grew to seeming-random forms 
The seeming prey of cyclic storms, 
Till at the last arose the man.’ 
Sir Samuel Garth : 
* And floods of chyle in silver currents run ; 
How the dim speck of entity began 
To extend its recent form, and stretch to man.’ (Dispensary.) 
Pope: 
‘Who sees with equal eye, as God of all, 
A hero perish or a sparrow fall ; 
Atoms or systems into ruin hurled, 
And now a bubble burst and‘now a world.’ 
Of the minor poets, the Reverend Mr. Wilks has been called England’s 
geological poet: that title in America would undoubtedly go to Bret 
Harte. His ‘Geological Madrigal’, a parody of Shenstone’s ‘ Pastoral 
Ballad ’, is well known, and the ‘ Society upon the Stanislaus’ is a biting 
tire on pseudo-scientific discovery. 
The doctrine of evolution, strange to say, has inspired more doggerel 
verse than true poetry, and the same is strikingly true of the great Mesozoic 
eptiles. Other aspects of geology have received like treatment, not always 
without point, as the following lines indicate : 
TsosTasy.* 
What is it rules the upper crust ? 
Tsostasy, Isostasy. 
What actuates the overthrust ? 
Isostasy, Isostasy. 
What gives the shore lines wanderlust ? 
What humbles highlands to the dust ? 
What makes the strongest stratum bust ? 
Isostasy, Isostasy. 
Conservatives in vain have cussed 
Isostasy, Isostasy ; 
The strongest power on earth is just 
Isostasy, Isostasy. 
So let us down our deep disgust, 
If we'd seem up to date we must 
Roll up our eyes and take on trust 
Isostasy, Isostasy. 
%: Sung at the annual dinner of the Geological Society of America, Washington, 1923. 
