9 
and greater laws pertaining to geological phenomena arc now 
so distinctly understood, that there is no difficulty in imparting 
them to others. To draw an illustration from astronomy : we 
all know the truth of the revolutions of the planets and their 
satellites, of their general relations to the sun, of his relation to 
the fixed stars, of their motions in space, and of the dependence 
of their movements on the law of gravitation. Every well- 
informed schoolboy knows these things. We cannot all demon- 
strate them, but we believe in their demonstration ; not alone 
that they do not contradict our experience, but principally by 
virtue of our faith in the men who have possessed a knowledge 
sufficiently high to solve the problems. Is it because geology 
as a science only numbers hundreds of years where astronomy 
numbers thousands, that beyond the pale of the student so much 
ignorance prevails regarding the simplest elementary principles 
and laws of the science, and that its cultivators are by many still 
looked upon as mere speculators ; or, worse still, that others 
fancy themselves licensed to theorize without a particle of pre- 
liminary geological knowledge ? Certainly not : true chemistry 
is but little older than geology ; and no man fancies himself a 
chemist because he can see substances that enter into combina- 
tion with each other. Not so with geology; without study, 
without training, without extended observation, and almost 
without reflection, many a man fancies himself qualified to decide 
on the nature and disposition of rocks (because they are before 
his eyes), whose decision is utterly worthless. If the leading 
features of astronomy are easy of comprehension, those of geology 
are more easily demonstrated, and but little less easy of under- 
standing ; the doctrines of superposition of strata, of succession 
of species in time, of disturbance of beds and consequent uncon- 
formity, these and all other simple problems might (did there 
exist a race of qualified teachers) be made a part of every well- 
advanced schoolboy’s education. Then, at all events, ignorant 
or mistaken men, misnamed practical, could not so readily 
delude the credulous or unwary into ruinous speculations : the 
iron-charged water of a spring, the colour of a rock, or the mere 
association of limestone and shale, might cease to induce 
explorations for coal among those who, hastening to acquire 
