A Geological Eetrosjwct of the Tear 1802. 201 



Playfair's generalisation was no doubt too unqualified, seeing that 

 he failed to recognise other influences which more or less affect the 

 level of the sea, there can be no doubt that his argument, so cogently 

 and temperately urged, at once introduced simplicity into the con- 

 sideration of many geological problems which had up till then been 

 involved in much confusion, and that in this way it greatly helped 

 the onward advance of the science. 



After the publication of his geological volume Playfair made 

 many journeys in the British Isles and abroad for the purpose of 

 visiting places of geological interest and of gathering materials 

 towards the preparation of a new edition of that work. In 

 particular, after the conclusion of peace, he undertook a prolonged 

 journey on the Continent, and though then 68 years of age, 

 he travelled through France, Switzerland, and Italy, as far as the 

 volcanic region of Naples. He was absent from Scotland for 

 seventeen months, and in his journeys travelled a total distance of some 

 4,000 miles. The quotations from his notebooks given in the brief 

 biographical notice of him prefixed to the collected edition of his 

 works are so replete with original and important observations as to 

 fill us with the deepest regret that he never lived to embody them 

 in an amplified re-issue of his admirable volume. Had he been 

 able to accomplish his design, there can be little doubt that he would 

 thereby have given a further impulse to the progress of the science 

 which he loved and to which he devoted so large a part of the last 

 years of his life. 



In concluding this address I should like to point out how well the 

 lives of the two distinguished men which we have now been tracing 

 illustrate many of the distinctive aspects of scientific research. 

 They show the fascination exerted by the study of Nature, and the 

 devoted enthusiasm of those who give themselves up to this study 

 and pursue it with a self-abnegation almost heroic in its indifference 

 to everything but the establishment of the truth. Lamarck and 

 Playfair were engaged in the investigation of the same problems, 

 and had the political conditions of Europe at that time been more 

 favourable they would doubtless have made themselves conversant 

 with their mutual researches, and in all likelihood would have 

 entered into correspondence with each other, if not into the personal 

 relations which the Peace of Amiens had for a few months made 

 possible. 



Among the changes in the last century resulting from the 

 remarkable development of facilities for travel, one specially worthy 

 of remark has been the continual growth of sympathy and friendship 

 among men of science in every part of the world. By their 

 community of interest in the study of Nature these men are linked 

 in a brotherhood of peaceful and serious work. For science belongs 

 to no country, or rather she is the common heritage of every country. 

 She knows no politics, and pursues her calm career under the most 

 autocratic despotism as well as under the most democratic republic. 

 She does not employ only one language, but makes her voice heard 

 in the native tongue of every civilised land. Hence it has come 



