great enterprises. In the judgment of the writer, it is a
false view to suppose that any short, superficial study of so vast a
subject as the constitution and history of the earth can result in
economic competency. In so far as time for study is limited, it should
be concentrated on the great underlying factors that constitute the
essentials of the science. It is here assumed that men who care to
take a college course at all are seeking for a large success and are
ambitious for a high personal career. If they look ultimately to
professional work in economic lines, they may safely be advised that
the straight road to declared success lies in a search for the vital
forces, the critical agencies, and the profound principles that make
for great results, not along the by-paths whose winding, superficial
courses are turned hither and thither by adventitious conditions whose
very nature invites distrust rather than confidence.

=Evaluations of methods of teaching=

Turning to some of the more formal phases of treatment, three types of
work are presented: (1) the use of nature's laboratory, the world
itself, (2) the use of the college collections and laboratories, and
(3) the use of the literature of the subject.

(1) Fortunately, there is no place on the face of the earth where
there is not some natural material for geologic study, for even in the
most artificialized locations geological processes are active. In
crowded cities these processes may be easily overlooked, but yet they
are susceptible of effective use. Within easy access from almost every
college site there are serviceable fields of study, and these, in any
live course, will be assiduously cultivated. They may be relatively
modest in their phenomena; they may seem to lack that impressiveness
which has played so large a part in the popular notion of the content
of geology, but they may nevertheless serve as most excellent training
grounds for young geologists. If students are so situated as to be
brought at the beginning of study under the influence of very
impressive displays of geologic phenomena--precipitous mountains,
rugged cliffs, deep canyons, and the like--there is danger that their
mental habits may become diffusive rather than close and keen; the
emotions may be called forth in wonder rather than turned into zest in
the search for evidence. If students are to be trained to diligence in
inquiry and to the highest virility in inference and interpretation,