lxxxii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May I903, 



Geology and Practice. 



Geology and the Useful A?is. — Up to this point I have dealt 

 mainly with the so-called ' scientific ' aspect of Geology, regarding it 

 from the inside point of view, — as an interpreter of Nature, and 

 a member of the great family of the sciences. But, as I have 

 already hinted, we are bound also to consider it from the outside 

 or ' practical ' point of view, — as being one of the servants of man- 

 kind and an associate of the useful arts. Indeed it is wholly 

 impossible to avoid dealing with it from this outside aspect. In 

 the words of Herbert Spencer : — ' Not only are the sciences 

 involved with each other, but they are all inextricably interwoven 

 with the complex web of the arts, and are only conventionally 

 independent of it. Originally the two were one, and there has 

 been a perpetual inosculation of the two ever since. Science 

 has been supplying art with higher generalizations and more 

 completely qualitative previsions ; art has been supplying science 

 with better materials and more perfect instruments. . . . And all 

 along this interdependence has been growing closer, not only 

 between the arts and science, but among the arts themselves and 

 among the sciences themselves.* 



I have already noted how greatly Geology is indebted to her 

 sister-sciences, and how in every case the aid which she has 

 been given has been fully reciprocated and the mutual sympathy 

 broadened and enlarged. Surely there is no need for me to recall 

 how deep and how fundamental are the obligations which Geology 

 owes to the arts in general, and to those of mining, engineering, 

 and topographic surveying in particular. But it may not be without 

 advantage if we geologists remind ourselves of that which in the 

 absorption of our researches we are sadly prone to forget, namely, 

 the existence of those many links that bind our science to the 

 world of practice, and the vital need there is of strengthening 

 those links by every means in our power. 



It is true that the first duty of every science is to move inces-r 

 santly forward from discovery to discovery along the straight path 

 of unremitting investigation and research, following truth whither- 

 soever it may lead, wholly unbiassed by the question as to whether 

 that discovery bears any relation whatever to the material wants 

 of mankind. But it is equally true that once a fresh fact has 

 been discovered, or once a new and satisfactory conclusion has 



