78 Notices of Memoirs—Ur. Horace B. Woodward's Address. 
to have been greatly modified in feature, considering the many 
remains of Neolithic art scattered over the country; while the old 
flint workings called Grimes’ Graves, near Brandon, still remain 
to tell of the Neolithic workers, considered by Mr. Skertchly to be 
the direct ancestors of the modern flint knappers, whose labours 
he has so lately described and illustrated. Even the pit dwellings 
of the early British or Iceni, described as occurring on the heaths of 
Weybourn, Marsham, Mousehold, and other places, remain as if to 
bear witness against any great subaerial denudation. But it must 
be borne in mind that in porous districts material is often removed 
by springs at the base of hills, and the general level lowered without 
the surface features being much altered. 
Partly owing to its situation, but partly also to its agricultural 
capabilities, Norfolk was one of the earliest inclosed districts. The 
woodlands were effectually cleared, so that, not even in name, has 
any old forest been handed down to us, beyond what perhaps the 
derivation of such a word as Holt may indicate. The settlements 
became numerous—each inclosure or abode being marked by the 
names of places ending in -ham, -ton, -wick, -by, -stead, -field, 
-thorpe, -hall, -worth, etc., so that eventually a larger number of 
parishes was formed in Norfolk than in any other county. 
Hence we may trace some connexion between geology and the 
modern aspect of each country. And for my own part I do not like 
to end the geological story at what is called the Prehistoric or 
Neolithic period, as if that marked any particular or world-wide 
change. Geological history, so far as we can read it, is a “story 
without an end.” Our lives are wrapt up in it. Geology is con- 
tinually teaching us the influence of the past on the present. And, 
setting aside the practical benefits, we learn that the truer benefits it 
bestows are in the influence its teachings have or ought to have on 
the happiness of mankind. 
The account of a well-boring here, or the name of a fossil found 
there, are but the means by which we can realize geological history 
—the means by which the picture is painted. 
In a novel we judge of the sequel according to the story in pro-— 
gress, we anticipate the ultimate triumph of good over evil. And in 
the evolution of the earth, while it may be difficult enough to see 
evidence of good design in every animated object, and in the evils 
to which all are subject, yet there is so much of beauty and harmony, 
that we need not spend our lives in lamenting over the evils and 
afflictions. Surely the diversified scenery, the infinite variety of 
plants and animals, of rocks and soils, and their adaptation to the 
wants of man, though they be the results of evolution, and of 
interaction of causes one upon the other, are not merely the way- 
ward expression of natural forces, unthought of and disregarded. 
And in our attempts to anticipate the sequel of geological history 
~—Seeing so much that is good and true and beautiful—we feel that 
the story can have but one end, that the more we learn of the great 
truths of Nature, the more do they compel our reverence and 
admiration, the more do they inspire our faith. 
