Charles Kingsley

Town Geology Charles Kingsley

volume contains the substance of lectures delivered to the "Chester Natural History Society "-are as pleasant and instructive reading as any one could wish to meet with. He takes common objects with which the dwellers of towns must be familiar (Chester people are probably used to see "the soil of the field," but there are Londoners to whom it is almost as strange as diamonds), and discourses of their history. No man can describe an actual scene better than Mr. Kingsley -witness his pictures of West Indian landscapes in "At Last "-no man can call one up from the past with a more skilful magic. Here he puts geologic facts into very attractive form. Nothing can be better than the account of glacial action in "The Pebbles in the Street," or the description of the forests from which we get "The Coal in the Grate." Mr. Kingsley's science is, as far as we can judge, thorough, and it is certainly expressed in forcible and even eloquent language. Bat with his preface, i.e., with the view which he takes of the functions of science, we cannot agree. He sings a great man over this last object of his devotion, as he has sung means over more than one thing before. Listen to this: - "Do you wish to be great? Then be great with true greatness; which is-knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish to be strong? Then be strong with true strength; which is- knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish to be wise ? Then be wise with true wisdom; which is-knowing the facts of nature, and being able to use them. Do you wish to be free? Then be free with trite freedom; which is, again, -kno wing the facts of nature, and being able to use them."