612 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. in. No. 69. 



geology. All of lis who have taught in col- 

 leges know the youth who has had some- 

 body's ' six weeks of geology ' rubbed in by 

 a drudge who, if required to do so, would in a 

 like way have applied Sanscrit. We know 

 that the youth who has been so misused 

 is in most cases, provided he is not blessed 

 with a good capacity for escaping the in- 

 fluences of education, utterly unfit for our 

 uses. The most economical thing to do, in 

 the large sense of the word, is to give him 

 the advice which the elder Agassiz was 

 wont to give to those of his students who 

 proved impregnable to his methods of in- 

 struction : " Sir, you better go into busi- 

 ness." 



VALUE OF GEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND 



METHODS OF TRANSMISSION. 



Comprehensive Character of Geology. 



Assuming, as we needs must, that as 

 geologists it is our duty not only to extend 

 the learning of the science, but also to take 

 charge of its diffusion among the people, let 

 us consider in general the value of good 

 which we have to deliver and the manner 

 in which the transmission may best be ef- 

 fected. 'So far, doubtless for the reason that 

 geologists are uncommonly busy people, 

 there has been little note taken of the im- 

 portance of the store of the science to so- 

 ciety or the way in which the knowledge 

 should be handed down. We have been 

 content to harvest and have hardly con- 

 sidered the work of cultivation ; therefore 

 the assessment which I am about to give 

 will doubtless need much revision. 



In the first place, we should note well the 

 fact that geology differs from all other divi- 

 sions of natural learning in that it is not 

 limited to a particular group of facts or 

 modes of energy ; but is in a way concerned 

 with nearly all the work which is done in 

 and on this sphere. We should, perhaps, 

 except human affairs ; but if he is so minded 

 the geologist maj' make good his claim to a 



large share in interpreting that group of 

 phenomena also. In fact, the earth lore is 

 not a discrete science at all, but is that way 

 of looking at the operations of energy in the 

 physical, chemical and organic series which 

 introduces the elements of space and time 

 into the considerations and which further- 

 more endeavors to trace the combination of 

 the various trends of action in the stages of 

 development of the earth. It is in these 

 peculiarities of geology that we find the 

 basis of its value in education and in the 

 general culture of society, which it is the 

 aim of education to create. It should be in 

 its province, as it is clearly in its power, to 

 give to mankind perspectives which will 

 serve vastly to enlarge the evident field of 

 human action . 



All observant teachers know that no true 

 success in education is possible until we 

 contrive an awakening of the youth from 

 the sleepj' acceptance of the world about 

 him. To rid the student of this benumbing 

 relic of the bone-cave, the spirit of the com- 

 monplace, there is no treatment so effective 

 as that which is in the power of the master 

 in geology to give. The story of the ages 

 clearly told, with a constant reference of 

 the bearing of the matter on the appearance 

 and the fate of man, will quicken any mind 

 that is at all fitted to profit by the higher 

 education. Although geology can hardly 

 be said as yet to have made any such gen- 

 eral impression on laymen as is justified by 

 the body of truth which it has to deliver, 

 the close observer may notice certain im- 

 portant changes in the state of the public 

 mind which seem clearly to have been due 

 to the teachings of the science. While 

 many things go into the making of the 

 world's judgments, there can be no question 

 that the plain truths concerning the anti- 

 quity of the earth and the series of events 

 which have led to the coming of mankind 

 have in this generation been most effective 

 in overturning sectarian bigotry and in 



