1881.I Geology as a Science and an Art. 459 
trary, if he is to advance our knowledge of the subjedt he 
must pick out a small plot of the wide field of geological 
science, and rather spend his time in cultivating that 
thoroughly, than in wandering up and down that and 
adjoining fields, and doing a bit here and a bit there. If he 
be a man of genius he may in time be promoted to be an 
overseer. But it requires very exceptional powers to be a 
geological philosopher like Sir Charles Lyell, not only 
surveying but organising the whole field of geological 
science. 
I may here, perhaps, be allowed to say a few words con- 
cerning the value of geology in education. In the University 
of the Cape of Good Hope, chemistry and geology are alter- 
native subjects for matriculation. We may, I think, take it 
for granted that the vast majority of candidates are 
acquainted with no other branch of science, except of course 
the mathematics. Refer now to the table above. A text- 
book on geology deals more or less fully according to its 
scope, with all the branches of science set down on that table, 
except, of course, formal logic. A text-book on chemistry, 
on the other hand, deals with its own subject matter alone, 
plus some applied mathematics, and some physics, the first 
principles of which are generally so clearly explained that 
this is a clear gain. I leave you to judge which is the best 
for a candidate to take up. Wherever it is possible I should 
advise the student, who wants to gain some scientific culture, 
to study an example of each of the three kinds of science, 
say mathematics, physics or chemistry, and geology or 
natural history. From each a distinct kind of training is 
acquired ; from the first, accuracy of thought and exactness ; 
from the second, the application of exadt methods of adtual 
fadts encountered experimentally, under conditions fairly 
within control ; from the third, comprehensiveness, power 
of observation, and the invaluable habit of taking all the 
fadts into consideration to the exclusion of none. If, how- 
ever, he has only time to take up two branches, let them 
by all means be mathematics and physics or chemistry. 
With these as a foundation he will be able at any time 
to take up and make rapid progress in such a science as 
geology. 
Leaving “ Geology as a Science,” let us now turn to 
“ Geology as an art.” [Here followed examples (1) of the 
loss of money which has so frequently been the result of 
sinking for coal in subcarboniferous rocks, in wilful ignor- 
ance of geological results, or even in spite of the warnings of 
geologists ; and (2) of the pradtical good that has come of 
2 H 2 
