Vol. 59.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. Ixix 



But while Astronomy and Geology share almost equally in the 

 vague dread which they inspire in the minds of those who look only 

 at Nature from the side of the emotional and the beautiful, they by 

 no means share equally in the admiration instinctively accorded by 

 the average thinking man to the sciences in general. Along the 

 whole range of the concrete sciences, there is perhaps not one that 

 has so effectually compelled the respect of men as Astronomy. 

 There is not one in whose progress they have taken so keen an 

 interest, or whose conclusions have been so unhesitatingly accepted. 

 On the other hand, every new discovery arrived at by Geology 

 appears to have come upon the minds of men with something of the 

 nature of a shock. The conclusions of our science seem rarely or 

 never to have been accepted with pleasure because of their value or 

 their grandeur, but rather to have been adopted with reluctance and 

 regret and because they were found to be irresistible. 



Yet, after all, this is hardly a matter for astonishment, for it has 

 its root in the origin and the growth of the two sciences themselves. 

 Astronomy had its birth in the childhood of mankind, in the silence 

 and calm of the night, and in the wonder of curiosity and awe. It 

 carried with it from the very first the mystic fascination of the 

 distant and unknown. It was associated in man's mind with the 

 peaceful hours of rest and of contemplation. It held within it much 

 of the enthusiasm and elevation of religion, for it lifted man's eyes 

 upward and heavenward, away from the never-ending struggle in 

 the world below. 



Geology had none of these attractions. The world over which 

 early man wandered was to him the theatre of a never-ending 

 conflict, in which were arrayed against him impassable seas, un- 

 scalable mountains, gloomy forests peopled by deadly beasts of prey, 

 raging streams and foaming torrents, each and all the haunts of 

 spirits luring him to doom. 



What wonder, then, that Astronomy was one of the first of the 

 sciences to come into being, and that the successive generations of 

 mankind have mingled with an awe of her greatness a tender and 

 respectful appreciation of her work and of her results T 



And it was but natural that Geology should be non-existent until 

 long after most of the other sciences had come into being, and 

 some had grown almost to maturity. Even when she at last 

 appeared and thrust herself, as it were, into the established 

 aristocracy of the sciences, she brought with her the stigma of her 

 lowly origin. And to that she added much of the recklessness 



