1854.] 



ON VISUAL EDUCATION AS APPLIED TO GEOLOGY, 



9 



On Visual Education as applied to Geology.* With Plate. 



It has been truly said, thatthe highest function of the Society 

 of Arts must be its endeavour to promote the general advance- 

 ment of education ; and in the belief that such are the practical 

 vievi's of this Society, I presume that its members cannot view 

 with indiiference any part of that great undertaking at the 

 Crystal Palace, which may be so justly called a grandcblld of 

 the Society of Arts. It was hero that the Great Exhibition of 

 1851 first saw the light, and, under the happy auspices of our 

 Eoyal President, was brought to maturity — a giant born of 

 peace and good-will to men ; of such parentage how much is 

 to be hoped for 1 



In this the 100th year of our existence as a Society, it is 

 most happily conceived to lay before the whole world an exhi- 

 bition of all the materials of education collected from all na- 

 tions'; therefore, in the hope that you will consider my attempt 

 at least seasonable, I shall endeavour, veiy briefly, to lay be- 

 fore you this evening a slight sketch of part of one of those 

 great efforts, in an educational direction, which the Crystal 

 Palace Company are making for the benefit of their fellow-meu 

 of all classes ; and no less is it a benefit to their fellow-men 

 because it is being done commei'cially, which, if properly ana- 

 lysed, will be found to be the most truly independent .system 

 and most congenial to the feeling of every right-minded Eng- 

 lishman. 



The whole of the great scheme now working to completion, 

 known as the Crystal Palace, might be properly described as 

 one vast and combined experiment of visual education ; and I 

 think it would be easy to show that its educational powers and 

 design constitute its legitimate claims to the support of all ci- 

 vilized Europe ; but like its great parent, the Exhibition of 

 1851, it is too extensive to allow of even a short catalogue in a 

 brief space of one hour ; I therefore confine myself to a hasty 

 sketch of part of the attempt to apply the active principle of 

 teaching directly through the e^'e that branch of the truths of 

 creation upon which I have been engaged for the last j^ear and 

 half 



This direct teaching through the eye has been recognized as 

 a principle and a facility of education for some years past, even 

 in the limited sphere of schools ; and I believe the name of 

 Pestalozzi deserves the most honorable mention in connection 

 with its first enunciation as a recognized facility upon principle. 

 His, and his followers' lessons on objects were urged upon the 

 public some twenty years ago, and a writer who was quoted at 

 the time, in support of the principle, shrewdly observed, that 

 " we daily call a great many things by their names, without 

 even inquiring into their nature and properties, so that in real- 

 ity it is only only their names, and not the things themselves, 

 with which we arc acquainted." If this remark was and is 

 still applicable to our superficial knowledge of every-day ob- 

 jects, how much more literal it becomes when applied to that 

 branch of science and truth (for science is only a synonj-mc 

 for truth) which the Cr3'stal Palace Company have so boldly 

 undertaken to lay before the multitude ; there we shall reverse 

 that order of teaching which is described a.s the names and not 

 the things with whicii wo become acijuainted : it will be the 

 things with their names that we shall present to the people ; 

 and not only the people in the restricted sense of the word, but 



* lUiLstratecl by Diagrams and Models of Die Gcologic.il Restorations 

 at tho Crystal Palace. By B. Waterhousp Hawkins, F.G.S., F.L.S. 



-r-Journal of the Society o/ Arts. 



2 



to the million, including the wcU-inforraed and those above the 

 average in education and acquirements; to the majority of 

 these the geological restorations will present all the novelty of 

 a first acquaintance, for, with reference to the true form and 

 size of the e.Ktinct animals, little more than the name was 

 known to many who had an earnest desire to acquire some 

 knowledge of geology, but whose scanty leisure would not allow 

 of their pursuing their inquiries sufficiently far to realize that 

 life-like interest which becomes almost es.«iential tiir the suc- 

 cessful continuance of any pursuit. Our natur.d sympathies 

 are with life. That which does or has lived will always be 

 found to interest far beyond any inorganic object, however 

 brilliant or beautiful. 



Of course it is not my intention to offer you on the present 

 occasion a lecture on Geology or Paleontology, but only sinqdy 

 to describe, in a few words, the fimndation upon which I have 

 constructed and restored these gieat animals, and how I have 

 obtained that truth and accuracy which may entitle my restor- 

 ation of the extinct animals to be viewed as useful and trust- 

 worthy lessons to all classes, and which we hope will render 

 the appearance and names of the ancient inhabitants of our 

 globe as fiimiliar as hcmsehold words. 



Geology and Palscontology, though deeply interesting to all 

 who have had the opportunity lor study, have hitherto been re- 

 stricted to the professed anatomist, or to those whose great re- 

 sources enabled them to make collections and to bring around 

 them the costly requisites of their enthusiastically followed 

 pursuits. Sir Philip Egerton, Lord Enniskillen, Sir lloderick 

 Murchison, iMr. Bowerbank, and other distinguished names, 

 illustrate the limited number to whom the study of Geology 

 and Paleontology was practically within reach. "We have 

 public museums, it is true, but even our national collection at 

 the British Museum, though containing some of the finest fo.s- 

 sils that have been collected throughout the world", from their 

 detached state, there being only two or three skeletons for com- 

 parison, offers little more than objects of wonder, literally only 

 dry bones or oddly-shaped stones to the majority who see them. 

 The inevitably fragmentary state of such specimens of course 

 left much to the imagination, even to those who looked at 

 them with some little knowledge of comparative anatomy, and 

 as that amount of knowledge is not found among the average 

 acquirements of the public at large, it was a flillow field, which 

 nothing less than the great enterprise and resources of the 

 Crystai Palace Company could have attempted for the first time 

 to illustrate and realise — the revivifying of the ancient world — 

 to call up from the abj'ss of time and from the depths of the 

 earth, those vast forms and gig-antic beast.s which the Almighty 

 Creator designed with fitness to inhabit and precede us in pos- 

 session of this part of the earth called Great Britain. 



Geology has been aptly called the science of nature's anti- 

 quities, for, however fresh, renewed, and vigorous in all her 

 operations, yet even nature has had her olden time ; her early 

 dajs must have seen fierce struggles, contentious storms, firo 

 and water, like the modern theories, straggling for the mastery ; 

 then her epoch of e;dmer subsidence and gentler nile, each 

 stat« leaving its indestructible monument.s, with their carvings 

 and inscriptions for man to decypher. Nature's pyramid.s arc 

 raount.iins of granite, slate, and limestone; her aquaducts ma- 

 jestic rivers, leaving gigantic boulders for land-marks ; but 

 more to our immediate purpose, the geologi.st, like the modern 

 antiquarian, finds his richest stores of information in nature's 

 cemeteries, where the bones of byegone cenemtions lie em- 

 balmed with proof of how they lived and where they died. 



