THE gf:ologist's rolk ov interpretp:r 245 



out the si<rniHcaiU'e of this sequence as a contiuuity ])resenting in its 

 formula an expression of the present. One may not leave tlie subject 

 without referring- also to the possil)ility of extending this continuing 

 series from ancient geologic time into the future through a span com- 

 ])aral>le to tlie past we know. 



To one who views the story of the world as presented through tlie 

 medium of the earth sciences, it must seem unnatural to conceive of the 

 physical and biological forces now in operation as ceasing to act before 

 lapse of many periods like those which we have viewed. Unless there 

 intervene some extraordinary force beyond the reach of our understand- 

 ing, the laws whicli have so long defined the course of nature must con- 

 tinue operation. AVitliout the addition of any power beyond the spring 

 of action furnished by laws now working, the clock of the universe must 

 go for almost infinite ages before it runs down. 



Just as we are not able to conceive of crustal movements ceasing, so 

 long as we are subject to physical forces like those now controlling nature, 

 so wh.en we visualize the history of life in the broadest sense we are unable 

 to understand how tlie biological world, if it continues to be, and if it coji- 

 tinues in the environment of physical change, can do other than go on To 

 greater extremes of specialization, to greater range of complication, to 

 greater comprehension, and to greater intelligence. If man of the future 

 continues to maintain the relation between mental and biological wliicli 

 has ol)tained in tlie ])ast stages of his evolution, there is reason to believe 

 tliat he may reach to heights of mental al)ility, of comprehension, of in- 

 tellect, of understanding, greater than those yet known. What the ulti- 

 mate goal will be no one may yet see: without fundamental change of 

 governing laws, the movement must go on. 



Thk Geologist's Rolk of Ixteepretpjr 



One does not expect a geologist to state his own views in philosophy or 

 in phrases aiming at the dee])er human understanding, and yet there seems 

 reason for feeling that the wider outlook of science in all of its phases 

 lifts us up to the identical viewpoint from which the philosopher and the 

 poet obtain their comprehensive vision. T'^nlike the philosopher, we do 

 not reach backward or forward to interpret the final unity and purpose of 

 Xature: nor can we, like the i)oet, pictui-e in words with fullness of mean- 

 ing the view which opens to us; but the kind of a landscape which we see 

 and the training of the eye which sees it give to our picture a measure 

 of reality which its stupendous magnitude does not lessen. 



Of all favored men, it is the geologist and |)aleontologist only who see 

 the panorama of ages unrolled in fullest length and in truest reality. To 



