REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I916 13/ 



which, radiating outward, have influenced not only our science but 

 also your State and our country. 



The sciences of geology and astronomy are founded upon postu- 

 lates which they in turn have done much to make real — the 

 permanence and universality of natural laws as we of today know 

 them. By training and almost by second nature the geologist may be 

 a conservative in politics ; at least, the believer in natural law should 

 possess the patience to wait for results in this particular epoch of 

 this geologic era. By training the eye to see far back into the earth's 

 remote past, geology can add to our power to put correct values on 

 the events and changes in the brief present in which we happen 

 to live. 



There is another way in which geology especially contributes to 

 the training of an enlightened citizen. Someone has said that a 

 man's breadth of mind is measured by the diameter of his horizon. 

 Geology as a study and especially as a profession leads to wide 

 travel, and travel surely maketh the broad man. This advantage 

 may seem to us so much a matter of course that we underestimate its 

 silent influence in fitting us for citizenship. The geologist has the 

 opportunity to think in terms of country rather than of' community, 

 of continents rather than of country; and his broader outlook over 

 the world surely gives perspective, just as his longer view back into 

 the past gives poise. 



In an address at the University of Illinois I referred to the 

 inspiration and incentive which come from Professor Chamberlin's 

 conclusion that there is good reason for measuring the future 

 habitability of the earth in millions or tens of millions if not hun- 

 dreds of millions of years. This belief in the high probability of 

 racial longevity is, as you know, the result of an exhaustive analysis 

 of the past as revealed by geology and of the future as forecast by 

 astronomy. But now I wish to add my personal acknowledgment 

 to our greatest American geologist for the inspiration gained from a 

 talk with him several years ago, when I realized that it was this 

 scientific expectation of the evolution of humanity continuing 

 through these millions of years that was prompting him to public 

 service not limited to his own city or country. 



The geologist's appreciation of that delicate adjustment of earth 

 to life by means of which "life has been furnished a suitable 

 environment for the uninterrupted pursuit of its ascensive career " 

 and the geologist's vision of the continued adaptation of the earth to 

 the uses of man together constitute a real call to larger service. 



