Geological history

“ I should like to make a stay here for a day or so. Your work opens right into my hands. I cannot remember seeing a geological formation which interested me so much. Look at the face of that cutting, for instance. Why! you can almost read the history of the geological world from yesterday—this morning as it were—beginning with the super-surface on top and going right down through the different layers and stratas—through the vanished ages—right down and back to the pre-historical—to the very primeval or fundamental geological formations! ”

“ Though perfectly adequate forty years ago, it has been greatly outgrown by the progress of geological discovery, and is, as I have said, adequate no longer; and it becomes a not unimportant matter to determine the special scheme that would bring into completest harmony the course of creation, as now ascertained by the geologist, and that brief but sublime narrative of its progress which forms a meet introduction in Holy Writ to the history of the human family. ”

“ T THE problem of the origin of the earth is essentially astronomical rather than geological, because geological history is considered to have begun when common earth processes, such as erosion, deposition, and transportation of sediments, etc., were brought into play. ”

“ Can it be maintained of Geology, which discloses to us the history of the first origin of organic beings, and traces their gradual development from the monade to man himself,—which enumerates and describes the changes that plants, animals, and minerals—the atmosphere, and the waters of the globe—have undergone from the earliest geological periods up to our own time, and which even instructs us in the earliest history of the human species,—that it offers no gratification to the philosopher? ”

“ Some of these problems belong also to zoology and botany, and are more fully discussed in the articles Palaeontology and Palaeobotany.
7. Stratigraphical Geology.—This section might be called geological history. It works out the chronological succession of the great formations of the earth’s crust, and endeavours to trace the sequence of events of which they contain the record. More particularly, it determines the order of succession of the various plants and animals which in past time have peopled the earth, and thus ascertains what has been the grand march of life upon this planet. ”

“ Questions as to the origin and history of life are not at the present time answered by mere philosophical speculation and poetical imagining. Such solutions of these questions as science can profess to have obtained are based on vast accumulations of facts respecting the remains of animals and plants preserved in the rocky beds of the earth’s crust, which have been successively accumulated in the course of its long geological history. ”

“ The variety of geological appearances which a traveler meets with, is not at all in proportion to the extent of country he traverses; and if he take in a portion of land sufficient to include primitive and secondary strata, together with mountains, rivers, and plains, and unstratified bodies, in veins and in masses, though it be not a very large part of the earth’s surface, he may find examples of all the most important facts in the history of fossils. ”

“ The geologist is now prepared to read the physical history—the geographical development—of any country or of any continent by means of its formations, when he has given each formation its true place in the geological record as a time scale. ”

“ In the present condition of our knowledge and of our methods, one verdict—"not proven, and not provable"—must be recorded against all the grand hypotheses of the palaeontologist respecting the general succession of life on the globe. The order and nature of terrestrial life, as a whole, are open questions. Geology at present provides us with most valuable topographical records, but she has not the means of working them into a universal history. ”

“ The great object of the geologist is, by studying the geological formations in regular order, from the oldest up to the newest, to work out, in their proper sequence, the events which constitute the earth’s history; and dynamical and structural geology are merely introductory chapters, the alphabet, as it were, which must be learned before we are prepared to read understandingly the grand story of the geological record. ”

“ Independently altogether of human history, these are two geological ages distinguished by different physical conditions and different species of animals; and the time has undoubtedly come when all the speculations of archæologists respecting early man must be regulated by these great geological facts, which are stamped upon those later deposits of the crust of the earth, which have been laid down since man was its inhabitant. ”

“ GEOLOGICAL CHRONOLOGY—REMARKS ON THE SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC LIFE. Summary of the history of stratified rocks—Striking characteristics of certain formations—Human remains found only in superficial deposits—Gradual transition from the organic life of one period to that of the next—Evidence in favor of this opinion—Advance from lower to higher types of organic life as we ascend from the older to the more recent formations—Economic value of geological chronology—Illustration—Search for coal—The practical man at fault—The geologist comes to his aid, and saves him from useless expense. ”

“ The publication of 'The Principles of Geology,' in 1830, constituted an epoch in geological science. But it also constituted an epoch in the modern history of the doctrines of evolution, by raising in the mind of every intelligent reader this question: If natural causation is competent to account for the not-living part of our globe, why should it not account for the living part? ”

“ For my part, following out Lyell’s metaphor, I look at the natural geological record, as a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a changing dialect; of this history we possess the last volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. Of this volume, only here and there a short chapter has been preserved; and of each page, only here and there a few lines. ”

“ I did not, at the time, fully appreciate the deep conviction which it displays of the slow manner in which geological changes have taken place, and the insignificance of thirty or forty centuries in the history of a species, and that, too, at a period when very narrow views were entertained of the extent of past time by most of the ablest geologists, and when great revolutions of the earth's crust, and its inhabitants, were generally attributed to sudden and violent catastrophes. ”

“ The geologist, in his attempts to collate the Divine with the geologic record, has, I repeat, only three of the six periods of creation to account for,—the period of plants, the period of great sea monsters and creeping things, and the period of cattle and beasts of the earth. He is called on to question his systems and formations regarding the remains of these three great periods, and of these only. And the question once fairly stated, what, I ask, is the reply? All geologists agree in holding that the vast geological scale naturally divides into three great parts. ”

“ For what geology properly investigates is the antiquities of this terrestrial planet, and the primal condition of the mountain ranges, observing and seeking to read the long-hidden memorials that are daily brought to light of pristine convulsions, and to number the successive epochs of gradual change and decay. But it was not at once that geological science made any progress beyond the mere acquaintance with the surface of our globe. ”

“ The thousands of organic remains which have been cited as witnesses of the ancient character of land and sea, are called by the names which have been assigned them by zoology and botany; the mineralogist has given the titles of rocks and individual minerals; chemists and mechanicians supply the laws of corpuscular actions and movements among the larger masses of matter; and all these parts of knowledge must enter into the consideration of any one who may think himself equal to propose a general geological theory. ”

“ At all the confines of his science, the transcendental geologist finds himself confronted with some of the most stupendous problems which have ever engaged the restless intellect of humanity. The origin and primæval constitution of the terrestrial globe, the laws of geologic action through long ages of vicissitude and development, the origin of life, the nature and source of the myriad complexities of living beings, the advent of man, possibly even the future history of the earth, are amongst the questions with which the geologist has to grapple in his higher capacity. ”

“ For thirty years Geology has been gradually establishing, by evidence the fulness and accuracy of which are truly amazing, the regularity in the sequence of the geological formations, and distinguishing, with ever-increasing precision, the specific differences of the animals and plants contained in these accumulations of past ages. ”

“ On the three principal tests of relative age — superposition, mineral character, and fossils — Change of mineral character and fossils in the same continuous formation — Proofs that distinct species of animals and plants have lived at successive periods — Distinct provinces of indigenous species — Great extent of single provinces — Similar laws prevailed at successive geological periods — Relative importance of mineral and palæontological characters — Test of age by included fragments — Frequent absence of strata of intervening periods — Principal groups of strata in western Europe. ”

“ The idea of geology as history based on Darwin’s evolution never took root in my consciousness. Geology to me is the science of the globe. Science studies how things work, how things change, how they accomplish what they do, how they grow, and how they compare. ”

“ Nevertheless, The Principles of Geology was "a work destined to assist in paving the way for the removal of one difficulty attending the solution of the theory of the origin of species, namely, the vast period of time for the life-history of the globe which that theory demands." ”

“ Strong in its fundamental facts, corroborated in its inferences by the progress of all collateral branches of the study of Creation, linked in union with the highest forms of scientific truth, and grasping at objects full of the noblest interest for man, and the most reverential thoughts toward the Maker and Preserver of the Universe, nothing but the general decay of the human intellect will permit Geology to languish, till the Natural History of the ancient earth be known to its modern occupier Man. ”

“ Thus in the closest connection, geologically speaking, are we presented with the most striking examples of other great principles developed by geological research, viz., the extinction of old and the introduction of new species.—In consequence of the system of observation and close investigation now established, geology lost its highly speculative character, and rapid progress continued to be made in acquiring correct information of the arrangement of the strata of different countries. ”

“ In studying the periods of Palæolithic and Neolithic man we have stood on the borderland where Geology and Archæology meet. We have seen that vast geological changes have taken place since man appeared on earth. ”

“ The younger science treats, it is true, of recent periods, when compared with the eras of geological computation, and of a race newer than any of those whose organic remains are classified in the systems into which the strata of the earth's crust have been grouped. ”

“ And so Geologists go on ever searching out new phenomena, and grouping them together into classes, until from particular facts they lead us to general truths. Then starting with these general truths as the groundwork of their science, they proceed to sketch out the Natural History of our Globe from the remotest ages of the past down to the present time. They first study the stratified deposits of each succeeding age, and analyze the Fossil Remains embedded therein ”

“ Geology was but just beginning to make good its claim to a place among the sciences. This unfolded to man the physical history of the world as read from the rocks, and deals with times so vast and profound that we speak no longer of years, but of ages. And with the aid of Geology grand secrets were wrung from the past, and new light was thrown on the manners and customs of primitive man. Thus the foundation for still another science was laid, called Archæology, or the science of Human Antiquities. ”

“ But both ends of the geological scale, comprising those ancient systems older than the Coal, and representative of periods in which, so far as is yet known, life, animal and vegetable, first began upon our planet, and those systems of comparatively modern date, representative of the periods which immediately preceded the human epoch, were equally unknown. ”

“ Geology, as will be seen from the preceding details, is among the most comprehensive of the sciences. It invades the province of every one of them, and lays them all under contribution while following out its own peculiar researches. A dry description of rocks, in their simple mineral qualities, does not limit or exhaust its ample resources. Botany, zoology, meteorology—a part, in short, of every branch of natural history, as well as chemistry, physics, and astronomy, are severally enlisted in its service, and all give interest and importance to its discursive investigations. ”