COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF GEOLOGY. 319 



which we have to deliver and the manner in which the transmission may 

 best be effected. So far, doubtless for the reason that geologists are un- 

 commonly busy people, there has been little note taken of the importance 

 of the store of the science to society or the way in which the knowledge 

 should be handed down. We have been content to harvest and have 

 hardly considered the work of cultivation ; therefore the assessment 

 which I am about to give will doubtless need much revision. 



In the first place, we should note well the fact that geology differs 

 from all other divisions of natural learning in that it is not limited to a 

 particular group of facts or modes of energy, but is in a way concerned 

 with nearly all the work which is done in and on this sphere. We 

 should, perhaps, except human affairs ; but if he is so minded the geolo- 

 gist may make good his claim to a large share in interpreting that group 

 of phenomena also. In fact, the earth lore is not a discrete science at 

 all, but is that way of looking at the operations of energy in the physical, 

 chemical and organic series which introduces the elements of space and 

 time into the considerations and which furthermore endeavors to trace 

 the combination of the various trends of action in the stages of develop- 

 ment of the earth. It is in these peculiarities of geology that we find 

 the basis of its value in education and in the general culture of society, 

 which it is the aim of education to create. It should be in its province, 

 as it is clearly in its power, to give to mankind perspectives which will 

 serve vastly to enlarge the evident field of human action. 



All observant teachers know that no true success in education is possi- 

 ble until we contrive an awakening of the youth from the sleepy accept- 

 ance of the world about him. To rid the student of this benumbing 

 relic of the bone-cave, the spirit of the commonplace, there is no treat- 

 ment so effective as that which it is in the power of the master in geology 

 to give. The story of the ages clearly told, with a constant reference of 

 the bearing of the matter on the appearance and the fate of man, will 

 quicken any mind that is at all fitted to profit by the higher education. 

 Although geology can hardly be said as yet to have made any such gen- 

 eral impression on laymen as is justified by the body of truth which it 

 has to deliver, the close observer may notice certain important changes 

 in the state of the public mind which seem clearly to have been due to 

 the teachings of the science. While many things go into the making of 

 the world's judgments, there can be no question that the plain truths 

 concerning the antiquity of the earth and the series of events which have 

 led to the coming of mankind have in this generation been most effective 

 in overturning sectarian bigotry and in other ways enlarging the spirit 

 of all educated people. 



It is evident that the main contribution which geology has to make to 



