ng, these are to be regarded rather as the relics
of the great agencies and the proofs of their actions, than as the
most vital subjects of study, which are the agencies themselves. As
already remarked, the geologic formations are to be treated rather as
the credentials of the potencies that reside in the earth organism,
than as the vital things themselves. The vestiges of creation and the
footprints of historical progress embody the soul of the subject; they
constitute the chief source of inspiration to those who aspire to
think in large, deep ways of really great things. It is of little
value, from the viewpoint of liberal culture, to know that there is a
certain succession of sandstones, shales, and limestones; that
professional convention has given them certain names, more or less
infelicitous in derivation and in phonic quality; but it is of vital
consequence to learn how and why these relics of former processes came
to be left as they were left, and thus came to be witnesses to the
history of the far past. It was a wise thing, no doubt, that the
fathers of geology strongly insisted that there should be a rigorous
and rather literal adhesion to the terrestrial record in all earth
studies, because in those times of transition from the loose, more or
less fantastic thought that marked the adolescent stage of the human
race, it was imperative that students should stick close to the
immediate evidence of what had transpired, and should withhold
themselves from much enlargement of view based on the less tangible
evidences; but at the present stage, when the general nature of the
earth's history has been firmly established, it would be an error on
the part of those who seek for the most liberalizing and broadening
values of the science, to treat the record merely as a material
register of immediate import only, to the neglect of the less tangible
but more vital teachings immanent in its great forces and processes.
The seeker of liberal culture should direct his attention to the great
events, and, above all, to the larger and deeper meanings implied by
these events.

And so--may I be pardoned for reemphasizing?--the teacher of geology
whose essential purpose is liberal training, leading to broad and firm
knowledge and to sound processes of thought, will critically observe
the distinction between geology taught appropriately from the
collegiate point of view, and geology taught specifically from the
professional and techn