io8 Geology as a means of culture — A. Winchell. 
are others of more limited scope. If the first vertebrates were- 
marine, so the first marine vertebrates were not fishes of typical 
structure, but of archaic forms now long extinct. If land vege- 
tation appeared after marine, it was at first only a flowerless. 
jungle. The great body of geological doctrines consists of in- 
ductions like these, founded upon facts of observation. Many, 
very many of the facts are near and familiar; many are remote 
and unfamiliar. A large part of the body of geolgical science 
consists of a record of facts. The generalizations are not, in- 
deed, postponed till all the facts of the science are catalogued. 
We begin to draw our generalizations while vet we must hold 
them as merely tentative. Final generalizations may displace 
them ; and even these in some cases, may prove not to be final ;, 
or may prove to be wholly erroneous. By a law of our minds 
we begin to generalize as soon as two or more cognate facts 
are brought together; and continually test and revise our gen- 
eralizations, as long as new facts of the same group prove in- 
compatible with earlier generalizations. Then we have reached 
a principle or doctrine. Thus it is a doctrine today that Dino- 
saurs did not survive the close of Mesozoic time. But if to- 
morrow w^e find the remains of Tertiary Dinosaurs, that gener- 
alization must be rectified. 
Thus in dealing with the great body of geological science,, 
we keep the observational faculties in training. With this, we 
exercise the powers of sense-memory and of language. This 
training holds a large place in the exactions of geological study.. 
So far as trained quickness and exactness of perception consti- 
tute mental culture, the study of geology is eminently cultural.. 
In dealing with the same great body of the science, we. keep the 
inductive poxvers in constant exercise. Their activitv, as I have 
said, is the characteristic activity of modern intelligence, in dis- 
tinction from medieval and ancient thought. If the training of 
the mind in those methods of activity which tend to identify it 
with modern thought, and make it master of the characteristic 
results of modern thought is a useful training and a desirable 
training, then the habits of inductive reasoning fostered by ge- 
ology constitute an eminently valuable form of mental culture. 
But with these studies come various forms of incidental cul- 
ture. Many of the facts are recorded in works of travel and de- 
