Geology as a meayis of culture — A. Winchell. 107 
but endures in self-consciousness and self activity, and constitut- 
ing my essential self, unveils to vision another universe where 
;suns neither wax nor wane, and the limitations and infirmities 
of changeful matter never interrupt or ruffle the gentle current 
of eternal being. 
4. The Intellectual Powers which Geology 
calls into exercise. 
These thoughts are presented with no intent to expatiate on 
the themes of science. My purpose is only to indicate the vast- 
ness of the range of cognitions and contemplations to which the 
study of geology invites. It begins with simple facts of easy 
■observation. It calls the percipient powers into pl^sant exer- 
cise. In observing separate facts we compare them with each 
other. By processes oi judgment we pronounce tnem identical 
or similar or diverse. If similar we abstract the particular 
characters in which the similarit}- consists, and decide whether 
they are trivial or fundamental. The wide ranges of facts 
brought under observation are distributed into groups. Names 
for the facts there must be, and thus arises a technical nomen- 
clature, which gives us additional exercise in verbal 7nemory. 
In extending our knowledge of facts beyond the sphere of per- 
sonal observation, we resort to the records of the observations of 
others. We are led to the use oi foreign la?igiiages. We ob- 
tain the cultural benefits of linguistic study. Our various 
groups of facts lead to various generalizations or interpreta- 
tions. One group points to a former high temperature on the 
earth, as we have seen. Another convinces us that the lands 
have been covered by a universal sea, and that the bedded rocks 
are but its sediments. Another group indicates the magnitude 
of land erosions in the past, and the complete obliteration of 
ancient continents. Another group of facts establishes the doc- 
trine that the earliest animals were invertebrates; and that the 
oldest vertebrates were marine; and in short, that the order of 
succession in the advents of animal types was identical with the 
order of rank — thus contributing one of the principles on which 
we base that higher generalization which expresses the method 
•of Supreme Mind in all the successions of the natural world. 
Within each of these broader and more obvious <reneralizations 
