i6o The American Geologist. September, 1002 
but that broadening- studies should not be discontinued. This 
rule should obtain not only through the undergraduate course, 
but in the postgraduate work and during professional life. 
The specialized work will be better done because of the broad 
grasp given by the other subjects. The broadening studies 
will be better interpreted because of the deep insight and 
knowledge of a certain narrow field. Thus each will help the 
other. No man may hope for the highest success who does 
not continue special studies and broadening studies to the end 
of his career. 
But is it held that a geologist lacking an adequate working 
knowledge of basal studies cannot perform useful service? 
Xo, the domain of geology is so great, the portion of the earth 
not geologically mapped and the structure worked out is so vast, 
the ore and other valuable deposits which have received no 
study are so- numerous, that there is an immense field for the 
application of well-established principles. In geology, as in 
engineering and other applied sciences, there is an opportunity 
for many honest, faithful men to perform useful service to the 
world even if their early training and capacity are not all that 
could be desired. But even the application of old principles 
to new areas will be well done in proportion as the geologist 
has training in the basal sciences, and to the man who com- 
bines with such training talent must necessarily be left the ad- 
vancement of the philosophy of geology. The philosophy of ge- 
ology, the inner meaning of phenomena, wa? the paramount 
consideration to Hutton and Lyell and Darwin. To them facts 
were useful mainly that they might see common factors, the 
great principles which underlie them, or in other words, gener- 
alization. To correctly generalize in geology involves the capa- 
city to hold a vast number of facts in the miind at the same time ; 
to see them in their length and breadth and thickness ; to see 
them at the same time as large masses and as composed of 
parts, even to the constituent mineral particles and the ele- 
ments ; to see the principles of physics and chemistry and min- 
eralogy and biology interlacing through them. Only by hold- 
ing a multitude of facts and principles in one's mind at the 
same time can they be reduced to order under general laws. 
Failure thus to hold in one's mind a large number of facts 
and principles leads to lack of consistency. Often in a single 
