PROCEEDINGS-PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, lxxxix 
I now proceed to the subject which I have chosen for my 
Address this evening, namely,— 
THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
Since our last Annual Meeting we have passed two great dividing 
lines of History. Within a few weeks, the Nineteenth Century and 
the Victorian Era silently became closed chapters in the World’s 
Record, and, almost unconsciously, we were launched on a new 
epoch. Already a brief reference has been made in our Minutes to 
the loss which Science, in common with all departments of modern 
thought, has sustained in the death of Queen Victoria. To-night I 
wish to glance backwards for a few minutes over the record of the 
past Century,—and particularly that part of it covered by the 
Queen’s Reign,—in regard to one particular branch of Science, 
namely, Geology. 
In looking back on the Queen’s reign, I think it will become 
increasingly evident that it forms a sharply-defined period in nearly 
all departments of human thought. In many senses, the word 
“ complete ” seems written large on the record of the Queen’s life. 
By a few weeks she had outlived the century, by a few days she had 
outlived the oldest of her predecessors on the Throne. Her reign 
was the longest on record, besides being unique in its blamelessness. 
But apart from these personal senses in which she had fulfilled her 
life’s work, she also witnessed the completion of a distinct period in 
literature, in art, and in science. Of all the great names which made 
the period of her reign famous for all time in poetry, in music, in 
painting, in philosophy, only one or two of the first magnitude have 
survived her. The future historian, therefore, will be able to define 
the boundaries of the Victorian Era as sharply as those of the 
Elizabethan. 
The chief characteristic of the reign has been the progress which 
has been made in all the arts of peace. For this we are largely 
indebted to the personality of the Queen herself, whose influence has 
always been cast on the side of peace, although, alas ! her last days 
were saddened by an inglorious war. The progress of science and 
of the fine arts during the last sixty years also owe a good deal to the 
impetus which was given to them by the late Prince Consort, who was 
keenly alive to the importance of encouraging both original research 
and science and art teaching. 
At the present moment, we seem to have reached a transition 
stage, and it is impossible to forecast in what particular direction 
development is likely to proceed next. In physical science, experi¬ 
ment has gradually been confirming the views put forth regarding the 
nature and properties of matter; in biological science, the theory of 
evolution has brought a mass of observed facts into orderly array; in 
applied science, the forces of nature have one by one been subjugated 
to the uses of man. In what domain of human knowledge will the 
next forward movement take place? For the answer to this question 
we shall probably have to wait until a new generation of workers 
comes forward, but we must bear in mind that whatever they may 
H 
