Zt NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
delight the passerby for many years, perhaps never in that spot. By 
methods like this many of our byways and woodlands, formerly so 
attractive with their wealth of true Americans, have become the 
abiding place of burdock, thistle, mustard, ragweed, and numerous 
other obnoxious aliens. Even more regrettable is the fact that the 
disturbance does not end with the mere change of plant life. The 
insects, animals and bird life also suffer a marked change, adding 
nothing to the attractiveness of such byways and woodlands. 
Geology is an essential, fundamental science. It comprehends the 
composition of the earth, the mode of its making, the history of the 
life upon it. It is the basis of agriculture and mining, meteorology 
and hydrology, and in a historical sense of all the biological sciences. 
It is the foundation of archeology and the history of man. Astron- 
omy is the complementary science; of the whole, of which the earth 
is a part; of the universe, of which our planet is a unit. It deals in 
immensitudes of space as does the earth in immensitudes of time; it 
is the mother of supreme conceptions. 
Neither geology nor astronomy is taught in the public schools of 
this State. Both have disappeared from the high school curriculum. 
The high school graduate who goes through college without electing 
either of these sciences, comes out ignorant of the fundamental phi- 
losophy and controlling facts of his existence and environment. 
School graduates of today in New York State are less acquainted 
with these essential departments of knowledge than were the acad- 
emy students of 50 years ago. 
The effect of this inadequacy of education is making itself clearly 
evident in the present generation of men, in an incompetent under- 
standing of the factors in human living. While interest in the works 
of nature has vastly grown, love for the objects of field and wood- 
land and mountains, of sky and sea, has become more keen and vital 
and widespread, yet this acquaintance does not often lead to an 
understanding of the laws governing the interpretation of these 
objects. The interest is in the objects themselves, as a lover of 
books may address himself to first editions. The same laws which 
have controlled the development of life from the beginning still con- 
trol and there is little help for the State till they are recognized in 
the construction of the statutes. And still the State instructs its 
future citizens in all laws except the basic and fundamental law. 
The Finley-Champlain memorials. When Dr John H. Finley 
was exchange lecturer at the Sorbonne, shortly before assuming his 
duties as President of the University and State Commissioner of 
