Geology For Students And General Readers PDF Download

Excerpt from Geology for Students and General Readers: Physical Geology I have had it in my mind to produce a book which will supply the requirements of two classes of readers. I wished to draw up a manual which would serve the purpose of those students who, without going very deeply into the subject, desire to know as much of the Science as any man of culture may be reasonably expected to possess. To be familiar with only thus much of Geology affords many opportunities of agreeable intellectual amusement, for some of its branches, such as the connection between the scenery of a country and its geological structure, can be understood without any special knowledge, and may be mastered and enjoyed by any one who can use his eyes, and reason in a very common-sense way about what he sees around him. But I have been still more anxious to produce a textbook for the School and Lecture-room; and in the hope that the book may be found suitable for educational purposes, I am tempted to venture a few remarks on the rank which Natural Science is entitled to hold as an instrument for training the mind to reflect and reason, a subject just now of somewhat brisk controversy. As a means of cultivating the faculty of observation its superiority is unquestioned; but it is not so generally allowed that it is as powerful an engine for developing the reasoning powers as the older studies of Mathematics and Classics. If Natural Science is ever to take rank beside these, it must show that it is equal to them in this very important respect; and any work on Natural Science, which is intended for educational use, must not only state clearly the results arrived at, but must also put forth the methods by which they have been obtained. For this reason I have dwelt, with I hope not wearisome minuteness, on the logical processes by which the conclusions of Geology have been reached. One point more perhaps deserves notice. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.