felt by every one interested in the study of geology; I only crave that these will join me in giving audible utterance to their feelings, and a practical tendency to their utterance. "It may not," as was aptly remarked by Hutton now more than seventy years ago, "import anything to human policy to know what alterations time has made upon the form and quantity of this earth, divided into kingdoms, states, and empires, or what may become of these continents long after every kingdom now subsisting is forgotten; but it much concerns the present happiness of man to know himself, to see the wisdom of that system which we ascribe to nature, and to understand the beauty and utility of those objects which he sees."

GEOLOGY AND MODERN THOUGHT.

WE hear a great deal in the present day about the tendencies of "modern thought;" let us inquire for a moment how far this newer thought has been influenced by the teachings of Geology. At first sight such a subject may seem to have little connection with the plain facts and practical observations which form the main business of working geologists; but as the highest aim of all science is the furtherance of human progress, so it is good for us now and then to pause and inquire how far the special department we cultivate has been concerned in this development. It is on this ground I now turn to the present topic, believing that geological discovery has had direct and beneficial influence on the development of modern thought and feeling, because this influence in certain quarters has been misapprehended and opposed, that it is the duty of every geologist to do what he can to remove the misapprehension. Had the leading geologists of this country always given full and free expression to their opinions, the opposers of geological generalisations, who are in general as ignorant of the facts of the science as they are of what is going on on the surface of Saturn, would have long since been silenced; and it is just because of this timidity and

reticence that we have still to encounter their outcry against the "dangers and disturbing tendencies" of the conclusions to which we are compelled to arrive at by a study of the facts and phenomena that surround us.

By "modern thought" is meant, I presume, those ideas now entertained respecting the nature of man, and his relations to the universe, in contradistinction to the opinions that were held by our more immediate predecessors. One notable feature of this thought is the view now entertained of the age of our planet, and the processes by which its crust has been moulded into its present form. The six or seven thousand years believed in by our forefathers is now a thing of the past; and if it remains at all, it is only with those unfortunately debarred by their position from this newer knowledge; or, still more unfortunately, with those who are obstinately unwilling to acquire it. The numerous formations-aqueous and igneous-composing the earth's crust, the gradual processes by which they have been accumulated, the successive races of plants and animals entombed within them, and the repeated oscillations of sea and land which these formations imply, all point to an inconceivable lapse of ages during which our planet has existed under its present ordainings. To question this high antiquity-whatever may have been the views of our forefathers-would be to shut our eyes to the most obvious facts, and oppose the clearest inferences that reason ever deduced from the phenomena of nature. Olden thought, restricted to a narrow circle of time, saw in creation a mere series of spasmodic efforts and revolutionary events; modern thought, on the other hand, limited to no circle, perceives in nature an undeviating regularity and solemn order, involving a lapse of time commensurate with boundless space and endless energy. In the olden view the manifestations of creative power were but things of yesterday; in the modern, they stretch back

wards through periods vast beyond the grasp of our finite comprehensions. And with this knowledge of a higher antiquity have also arisen other opinions as to the secondary processes by which the earth has assumed its existing form and appointments. Less than a century ago, the instantaneous creation of the solid framework of the earth was a matter of universal belief; now, every man of ordinary education knows that the rocky crust has been gradually formed by aqueous and igneous agencies-that it has undergone a thousand modifications, and is still, under the operation of these forces, passing on to other and newer aspects. At the same period, the existing seas and continents were regarded as the lands and waters originally separated at the creation; now, every one acquainted with the rudiments of geology is aware that sea and land have repeatedly changed places, and are even now gradually passing on to other distributions, with necessarily other climates and other vegetable and animal appointments. So far, then, as concerns the antiquity of our globe, and the simultaneous creation of its rocky exterior, modern knowledge and ancient belief are wide as the poles asunder. By the latter, the formation of the world was regarded as an act recent, instantaneous, and accomplished; by the former, it is received as a work of unknown beginning, gradual in development, and still in progress.

With this belief in the recentness of the world, our forefathers had no true conception of the creational order and succession of vegetable and animal existences. A vague notion, to be sure, prevailed as to the appearance of higher and higher forms within the space of one or two creative days; but at that time geology had not revealed the long and orderly ascent from lower to higher races; nor had it shown that during the vast ages of this ascent thousands of species and genera had become extinct, and that the plants

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and animals now living were but a mere fraction in comparison with those that had utterly perished. According to the belief of our forefathers, the flora and fauna now inhabiting the world were identical with those by which it was originally peopled. It was admitted there had been growth, and reproduction, and decay; but no idea was entertained that whole families and orders had become extinct ; nor was it ever dreamt that the existing races of plants and animals were so widely different in form and character from those that had gone before. Geology has thrown an entirely new light on the science of life; and modern philosophy has now to deal not merely with existing plants and animals, but with those found fossil in the earth's crust, and which bear, in many instances, but slender resemblance to those that surround us. How wide the field that botany and zoology have now to traverse! How different our notions of the great scheme of life compared with those that were entertained by the most accomplished biologists even at the commencement of the current century! Former notions were exclusively restricted to living forms; modern thought takes a wider range, embraces past and present, traces newer affinities, and arrives at other views of geographical distribution and functional performance. Former thought regarded the existing flora and fauna as things in themselves complete and accomplished; modern thought, on the other hand, views them merely as portions of a great vital scheme connected with the extinct by the nicest adjustments, and gradually passing on to other and higher developments. And who dare gainsay that, with this broader and more accurate knowledge of nature, will arise higher and sounder conceptions of the God of nature?

Again, believing in the six or seven thousand years of the world's existence, the antiquity of man was necessarily limited by our forefathers to the same duration. Neither