"[39]
[Footnote 36: "Illustr. of Univ. Prog.," p. 343.]
[Footnote 37: Vol. II, p.580.]
[Footnote 38: "Discourses," pp. 279-288.]
[Footnote 39: "The Glacial Nightmare," Preface, vii.]
And thus the matter remains even to-day, in this second decade of the
twentieth century. _Geology has never yet been regenerated_, as have all
the other sciences, by being delivered from the caprice of subjective
speculations and _a priori_ theories and being placed on the secure
basis of objective and demonstrable fact, in accordance with the
principles of that inductive method of investigation which was
instituted by Bacon and which has become so far universal in the other
sciences that it is everywhere known as the scientific method. In
accordance with this method, theories in all the other sciences are
always kept well subordinated to facts; and whenever unequivocal facts
are found manifestly contradicting a theory no matter how venerable, the
theory must go to make way for the facts. In other words, the
theoretical parts of the various other sciences are always kept revised
from time to time, to keep them in line with the new discoveries that
have been made. There has been no lack of astonishing discoveries of new
facts in geology during the past half century or so, while all the other
sciences have been making such astonishing progress.
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