SCIENCE 



My interest in the rocks, in the fields, and in the 

 cliffs above them is enhanced by what science has 

 told me about them, but is not summed up by that. 

 A knowledge of the fundamentals of geology greatly 

 adds to one's enjoyment of the earth's features. 

 Science is always a good seasoning, but one does 

 not want too much of a good seasoning. 



§ 

 How it makes one wilt to think of the vast time 

 ahead of us — time to match the abyss of geologic 

 time behind us! How trivial and 'futile seem all our 

 ambitions and all our achievements in the face of 

 the eternity to come! Consider only ten thousand 

 years hence — a mere tick of the great Clock of 

 Time — what or who will be where the nations are 

 to-day? The natural philosophers think that life 

 upon this globe may go on two or three million 

 years yet. What a staggering proposition! Man has 

 probably been man only a few hundred thousand 

 years; with the brain and body he now has, only a 

 few millenniums. What will he he in half a million 

 years hence? Will any records or memories of our 

 times last till then? Of course it is possible that 

 some cosmic catastrophe may blot out our solar 

 system before that time — possible but not prob- 

 able. 



§ 

 We use the term "celestial mechanics," and fitly 

 enough, because the forces we see in operation are 

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