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NOTE
All documents in
this library exist as searchable PDF pages and as jpeg page images. The
Google search (above) will present individual pdf pages. You can view
the full document by editing the individual page web address as
follows: If the pdf page address is: "http://19thcenturyscience.org/HMSC/HMSC-Reports/Zool-08/PDFpages/0126.pdf" then the entry page to the full document is: "http://19thcenturyscience.org/HMSC/HMSC-Reports/Zool-08/README.htm". This naming convention is followed throughout this website. |
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The Golden Age of
Geology
I confess indeed for my
own part, I do not
look to see the exertions of the present race of geologists surpassed
by any who may succeed them. The great geological theorizers of the
past belong to the Fabulous Period of the science ; but I consider the
eminent men by whom I am surrounded as the Heroic Age of Geology. They
have slain its monsters and cleared its wildernesses; and founded here
and there a great metropolis, the queen of future empires. They have
exerted combinations of talents, which we cannot hope to see often
again exhibited; especially when the condition of the science which
produced them is changed. I consider that it is now the destiny of
Geology to pass from the heroic to the Historical Period. She can no
longer look for supernatural successes: but she is entering upon a
career, I trust a long and prosperous one, in which she must carry her
vigilance into every province of her territory, and extend her dominion
over the earth, till it becomes, far more truly than any before, a
universal empire.
the Rev. William Whewell
*
Address as President of the
Geological Society (England).delivered February 15, 1839* |

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The Golden Age of Geology Library and the H.M.S. Challenger Library are available for purchase on DVDs here. |