Reports and Proceedings. 423 
are all pre-human? whether some are not merely pre-historic ? others 
so recent even as the occupation of our country by the Romans? 
and, indeed, whether the uprise is not still going on? I mention 
these things out of hundreds that might be indicated, to show how 
many problems Geology has yet to solve, and how much of the solu- 
tion lies within our own immediate reach, if we would only not 
underrate the local because it is near and familiar. But while we 
duly appreciate the local, let us take care that we aim at something 
higher than the mere pleasure of a holiday-excursion and the col- 
lection of specimens. Collections and cabinets are no doubt indis- 
pensable. They are the data upon which we have to found our 
conclusions, and the facts from which we have to elicit our World- 
history ; but the foolish Greek, who carried about with him a brick 
as a sample of the building he was anxious to sell, did a wise thing 
in comparison with the man who fancies that Geology consists in 
the collecting and labelling of specimens, Without the bricks we 
cannot have the building, but the bricks have no meaning or sym- 
metry of themselves until arranged according to the design of the 
architect; neither can specimens of minerals and fossils have signi- 
ficance, save when treated in connection with the general structure 
of the globe and the phases of its history. Let us strive, then, to~ 
combine our labours, whether in the field or in the museum, with the 
general principles of the science ; contented to wait, where we cannot 
discover the bearings of our isolated facts, but, at the same time, 
ever endeavouring to arrive at the higher conceptions of a consecu- 
tive and intelligible world-plan. It is this that confers. on Geology 
its principal attraction; it is this ultimate attainment of theoretical 
truth that gives to all the natural sciences their chief importance— 
leading the Finite and Created to more exalted conceptions of the 
Infinite and Creative. At present there is no great and all- 
absorbing topic in Geology; and cultivators are free to follow the 
bent of their own inclinations, or work -out the details of their 
respective localities. If there is any observable concentration of 
interest, it is perhaps to the very latest and to the very earliest 
periods in geological history—to the period when the geological 
verges into the historical, on the one hand, and to the earliest of all 
life-periods, on the other,—I mean to deposits containing the earliest 
indications of our own race, and to metamorphic beds, like the Lau- 
rentian—which hold the earliest of yet discovered organisms. To 
both, the members of our Society may make important additions 
during their summer-rambles. We. have our submarine forests, our 
raised beaches, our lake-silts, and peat-mosses—all likely to throw 
light on the early history of our species; and in the metamorphic 
schists of the Highlands—the serpentines and limestones of Portsoy, 
Glenesk, Glen Prosen, Glen Tilt, and other localities—additional 
evidence may be discovered of the existence of lowly life, like that 
which has recently thrown so much interest around the crystalline 
strata of the St. Lawrence. And whether successful or not in our 
researches, the effort will afford most excellent training—training to 
the eye and reason, and healthful recreation to the lungs and limbs. 
