244 J. C. MERKIAM EARTH SCIENCES, BACKCxROUXD OF HISTORY 



also show possibilit}^ of large use of this supph^ through cultivation of the 

 wild stock, thus making the desert an important area of production. 



History shows us that sufficient understanding of the natural world 

 about us brings large contribution to human comfort and efficiency; but, 

 in spite of the lesson before us, many feel that the day of discovery of 

 species most useful to man is past. 



Returning to the larger view of our problem, the value of ancient his- 

 tory depends on our breadth of interest. If we are to deal only with 

 matters of limited personal or national significance, only for immediate 

 ends, and without reference to other generations; if our democracy i^ 

 circumscribed in space and time, then lack of perspective and of funda- 

 mental laws in history may not be felt. If, on the other hand, we see the 

 impending necessity of full understanding of the world's needs in their 

 present relations and future complications, it behooves us to increase the 

 range of human knowledge and of our comprehension of all factors enter- 

 ing into the problems. To most of us it appears that these great questions 

 require the widest and deepest possible range of human understanding 

 and the labor of generations for their satisfactory adjustment. The world 

 statesman of the future must not only be trained to larger and higher 

 vision, but he must have available an organization of knowledge, perfect 

 in its simplicity and infinite in its detail, covering every interpretable 

 phase of the intricate human problem. As we approach the preparatioji 

 for this task, we recognize at once the limits of the human mind and of 

 human life, and accomplishment seems realizable only through operation 

 in an altruistic democracy, making possible intellectual cooperation cover- 

 ing a wider range of experience than can be available to the individual 

 mind. 



If, in consideration of the larger prol)lems suggested, we assume that 

 man was created as we find him and destined to no higher plane, the 

 sequence of history is of little value. If, however, the evolutionary view 

 of life be correct, the continuity of history becomes of great importance, 

 and origins, however far back, interpret the present. Should we consider 

 that man in his environment is the product of a long series of changes 

 determined by laws laid down in the record of the earth sciences, we have 

 reason to consider, as bearing on the present, every fact leading from 

 the past. In the interpretation of this record we shall view history feel- 

 ing assured that nothing on the earth or in life stands still, and that this 

 movement means continuous lifting of the plane of the more complex 

 and more progressive. 



In the lines which have been read it has been my purpose to indicate 

 tlie extension of history backward into the earth sciences, and to point 



