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vation. It is in providing that particular training to which President Eliot has recently called attention in the Forum (Dec., 1892, Wherein Popular Education Has Failed), that geology can be used to such advantage. Speaking particularly of the lower education, President Eliot says it is "the judgment and reasoning powers" that particularly require attention. Their systematic development is to be attained in the four directions of "observing accurately, recording correctly, comparing, grouping and inferring justly, and expressing cogently the results of these mental operations." (p. 421.) The attainment of these ends is one of the purposes of liberal education, whether it be in the primary school or in the university. And geology, or any other science, is of value in a college course in proportion to its fitness for the exercise and development of these functions of the student. Geology may be taught without regard to these ends, and then it is valuable from the practical point of view, but when we examine it in respect of its availability as a disciplinary study we find it offering particular attractions.

Using the distinction between theory and practice, which is as old as Aristotle, geology in its theoretical aspect is more easily comprehended than is the theoretical aspect of most of the modern sciences. This arises first from the fact that the facts and phenomena are of a simple and grand nature, making it possible for the teacher to direct certain attention to the specific facts under consideration. The water of the rivers, the mud by the road side, the rocks and sands on the shore are familiar objects to all, and it is a simple matter to call attention by ordinary language to the specific facts regarding them, which, analyzed out, are to form the basis of exact ideas and scientific definition and classification. Geology is the one science among the natural sciences which may begin with the common language of the pupil, and by means of such language alone may build up ideas of precise phenomena in scientific terms. Physiography or physical geography surpasses geology proper in this particular, as the admirable work of Professor Davis is showing, and on this account it is the best introduction to geology. But