Book contents
- Frontmatter
- A PREFATORY LETTER
- Contents
- LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS
- I ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
- II EMANCIPATION—BLACK AND WHITE
- III A LIBERAL EDUCATION: AND WHERE TO FIND IT
- IV SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH
- V ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES
- VI ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
- VII ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE
- VIII THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM
- IX ON A PIECE OF CHALK
- X GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY AND PERSISTENT TYPES OF LIFE
- XI GEOLOGICAL REFORM
- XII THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
- XIII CRITICISMS ON “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
- XIV ON DESCARTES' “DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE METHOD OF USING ONE'S REASON RIGHTLY AND OF SEEKING SCIENTIFIC TRUTH”
X - GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY AND PERSISTENT TYPES OF LIFE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- A PREFATORY LETTER
- Contents
- LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS
- I ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
- II EMANCIPATION—BLACK AND WHITE
- III A LIBERAL EDUCATION: AND WHERE TO FIND IT
- IV SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH
- V ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES
- VI ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
- VII ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE
- VIII THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM
- IX ON A PIECE OF CHALK
- X GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY AND PERSISTENT TYPES OF LIFE
- XI GEOLOGICAL REFORM
- XII THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
- XIII CRITICISMS ON “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
- XIV ON DESCARTES' “DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE METHOD OF USING ONE'S REASON RIGHTLY AND OF SEEKING SCIENTIFIC TRUTH”
Summary
Merchants occasionally go through a wholesome, though troublesome and not always satisfactory, process which they term “taking stock.” After all the excitement of speculation, the pleasure of gain, and the pain of loss, the trader makes up his mind to face facts and to learn the exact quantity and quality of his solid and reliable possessions.
The man of science does well sometimes to imitate this procedure; and, forgetting for the time the importance of his own small winnings, to re-examine the common stock in trade, so that he may make sure how far the stock of bullion in the cellar—on the faith of whose existence so much paper has been circulating— is really the solid gold of truth.
The Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society seems to be an occasion well suited for an undertaking of this kind—for an inquiry, in fact, into the nature and value of the present results of palæontological investigation ; and the more so, as all those who have paid close attention to the late multitudinous discussions in which palæontology is implicated, must have felt the urgent necessity of some such scrutiny.
First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the results of pal æontology, must be mentioned the immense extension and impulse given to botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy, by the investigation of fossil remains.
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- Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews , pp. 223 - 250Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1870