330 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 400. 



tion that a man could not be a good citi- 

 zen or liberally educated if a knowledge of 

 his special subject were neglected. And at 

 the present time some universities still hold 

 similar views in reference to certain sub- 

 jects. The claim that this or that subject 

 is essential to a liberal education shows a 

 lack of breadth and lack of capacity to see 

 things in their proper relations. No one 

 language or science is essential to a liberal 

 education. But while this is true, it does 

 not follow that this or that subject may not 

 be essential for a particular career ; and in 

 geology capacity to use language for the 

 expression of ideas is absolutely essential. 

 Far be it from my purpose to speak in a 

 derogatory way or to underestimate the 

 value of any line of knowledge. At the 

 present day a man who is trained only in 

 science or only in the humanities has but 

 one hand ; that hand may be strong, but the 

 man can never control the affair before him 

 with the power, with the nicety, with which 

 does the man with two hands, one of which 

 is the rich treasures of science, and the 

 other the no less rich and important treas- 

 ures of the humanities, each doing its part 

 in harmony with the corresponding full- 

 ness of results. With a fundamental 

 knowledge of both, the scholar of the 

 future may choose as his chief occupa- 

 tion the clear, cold work of science or that 

 of the humanities, which will always have 

 more numerous followers, because of their 

 direct personal interest. 



As I have already intimated, I hold that 

 for the best liberal education one must pur- 

 sue broadening studies from the first to the 

 last, and also that one must early begin to 

 specialize. If this be true, geology m'ay be 

 said to be a very desirable part of a liberal 

 education ; for it is built upon the whole 

 realm of pure science ; i. e., the knowledge, 

 which applies not only to the earth and all 

 it holds, including man, but to the universe 

 as well. Because of the breadth of train- 



ing combined with specialization required 

 of a geologist, it might be shown that geol- 

 ogy is one of the most useful studies in giv- 

 ing a person a sense of proportion, ideas as 

 to relative values, of perspective, qualities 

 of the first order in this world. It might be 

 held that the intellectual training of the 

 geologist is of a kind which helps him in 

 dealing with men and things; and, there- 

 fore, for handling the world's work. But 

 time does not suffice to develop this part of 

 the subject. 



I shall now suppose that a geologist is 

 adequately trained, that he has some power 

 in generalization, and consider what should 

 be his method of work. It is assumed that 

 the young geologist spends a part of each 

 year in the field. This field work should 

 include areal mapping with structural and 

 genetic interpretations. The wider a young 

 geologist has traveled, the more numerous 

 the excursions in which he has taken part, 

 the better will be his equipment. But no 

 general work such as this can supply the 

 place of systematic mapping. And the 

 more exact the mapping is, the better the 

 training. Very frequently the educational 

 value of the mapping in detail of a small 

 area is underestimated. Indeed, I hold 

 that nothing else can take its place. More- 

 over, the only sure way to test a geologist 

 is to require him to delineate upon a map 

 and in structural sections the detailed phe- 

 nomena of the field. For my part I have 

 more confidence in the future of a young 

 geologist who has mapped in detail twenty- 

 five square miles, and has got out of the area 

 much that is in it, than that of another who 

 has done no detail work but has run over and 

 written about thousands of square miles. 

 Rarely can the general conclusions' of a man 

 who has not done systematic mapping be re- 

 lied upon. In America there have been con- 

 spicuous eases of men calling themselves 

 geologists who have never carefully mapped 

 a square mile. Yet some of these by the un- 



