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Geology - a lecture for the Milwauke [Milwaukee]
High School Delivrd [Delivered] March 1848

The subject assigned to me, for the lecture this
evening, is the science of Geology; or that science which
teaches the nature of the Earth's structure - the various
rocks and minerals, of which it is composed - their
order of arrangement - and also, the changes that
have taken place, on the surface of our globe, since
its first creation. The word, geology, is a compound
of two Greek words yn (ge), earth and [lambda]oyos (logos) a discourse;
and is therefore appropriate to the subject.

Geology is, pre = eminently, a modern science.
It has sprung up, only within the last few years.
We are not, as in astronomy, and some other
sciences, indebted to the ancients for our knowledge
of the Earth. It has been acquired almost
entirely by ourselves. A few years since, geology
was only known as the wild and worthless visions
of philosophers, unworthy of serious consideration,
and productive of no practical or useful results
to mankind. Those who devoted themselves to the
subject, spent their time in useless efforts to pull
down the theories of their predecessors, and to establish
others, equally destitute of foundation in truth.
Few were disposed to investigate facts, and draw legitimate
conclusions from them. This required an effort
which they, from indolence, or other cause, were
not willing to make. If some new discovery
was announced, it only served as the basis of
some new "theory of the Earth," about which to
dispute, and which was destined to fall to the
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