892 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXII. 
In Hall there was a distinct philosophical aptitude, sometimes 
evinced in remarks outside of the range of strictly scientific 
study, and this philosophical instinct led him into paths of 
induction which freed him from the bonds of stereotyped views 
in science itself. This dsguzsitional quality, as I venture to 
call it, is not inconsiderably shown in the opening pages of his 
“ Preliminary Considerations ” to the Report on the Geology of 
the Fourth District, in the same way that the pedagogical strain 
of his mind appears in the two or three succeeding chapters of 
the same work. 
As illustrating both of these traits, under a somewhat oracu- 
lar disguise, the following paragraph is of interest. It closes 
some remarks made upon the absence of the coal formations in 
New York State, for whose fancied presence money and labor 
had been unavailingly expended in exploration : 
“It is thus negatively, as well as by direct and positive dis- 
coveries, that science ameliorates the condition of mankind ; 
turning attention from useless and visionary pursuits, and di- 
recting it to that which yields a ready and satisfactory result 
for the expenditure of labor and time. And although the pro- 
mulgation of scientific truths may restrain the vagaries of minds 
which delight to build the splendid air castles of suddenly 
acquired wealth, it will, nevertheless, direct man’s energies to 
sources where perseverance is sure to be crowned with rewards 
which a morbid fancy would crave at the commencement of the 
enterprise. From science alone will man learn his true inter- 
ests as regards his well-being in the world.” 
It was the philosopher in Hall which led him along the 
lines of wide conclusions so favorably and notably shown in the 
introduction of vol. iii of the Paleontology of New York. 
Here, as Walcott once remarked to the writer, “the substan- 
tial worth of Hall as a geological writer is fully illustrated,” for 
in these ninety-six pages he sketches with considerable _ 
tery at least, the relations of the palzeozoics in the east, points 
out the: misleading assumption of a Taconic system, and 
projects the theory of troughs of sedimentation as essential 
causes of mountain-making, a theory he had before laid be 
fore the scientific world in the Proceedings of the American 
