TOADS FOUND LIVING IN STONE 379 



made to this inquiry or whether he was' eventually suc- 

 cessful in his attempt to secure funds from the millionaire. 

 The attitude which the millionaire took towards scientific 

 discovery is not a natural one, but the result of the 

 stifling of natural interest and curiosity by long con- 

 centration on the art and practice of money-making. 

 So, too — owing to other mental pre- occupations and 

 concentrations — though a boy or a savage might have 

 been puzzled and deeply interested in the occurrence 

 of a live toad in the middle of an apparently solid 

 piece of rock, the " country gentleman " of the eighteenth 

 century would have said, if the matter had been pressed 

 on his attention, " Who the hell cares if there are live toads 

 in the rocks ? " And a large but decreasing number.of 

 his representatives to-day would make the same remark. 



It, however, happened that at the beginning of the 

 nineteenth century a spirit of inquiry into the history of 

 the crust of our earth was set going. The science of 

 geology was eagerly pursued by many capable men, both 

 abroad and in this country. The Geological Society of 

 London was founded in 1809. The doctrine of the 

 vast age of the earth and the demonstration of succes- 

 sive layers of deposit — forming its rocks and containing 

 the remains of strange and of gigantic animals unlike 

 those now existing — excited widespread interest and 

 controversy. Buckland introduced the study of geology 

 in Oxford. Lyell was his pupil, and became the great 

 teacher and exponent of geological theory in a series of 

 masterly treatises, written in such form that they 

 appealed during half a century to educated men of all 

 professions and occupations. The country clergy and 

 their friends gave themselves with enthusiasm to the 

 investigation of strata and the collection of fossils. Now 

 came the opportunity of the toad embedded in stone ! 



