The making of Britain / Arch. Geikie.

  • Geikie, Archibald, 1835-1924.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The making of Britain / Arch. Geikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    470 16 THE MAKING OF BKITAINT J HAVE chosen for consideration this evening a subject which may on the one hand be discussed from the purely literary, and on the other from the strictly scientific side, but which is most thoroughly investigated by united research in both directions. I propose to ask your attention to the changes which have taken place in the outward aspect of this country since man first set foot upon its surface, and to the sources of information regarding them. That this subject appeals strongly to the instincts of the lover of science needs not to be insisted upon here. It deals with the evidence for many kinds of geological operations, and with their rate of progress. It may, consequently, be made to throw light upon one of the vexed problems of science—the value of time in geolo- gical inquiry. Of its relations to literature I would fain say more, be- cause it seems to me eminently calcu- lated to engage the sympathies and even the active co-operation of literary students. There can be no doubt that the future advancement of our know- ledge of this question must depend largely upon help from the literary side. A generation has hardly passed away since the truth was recognised that man is in large measure the creature of his environment; that his material progress and mental develop- ment have been guided and modified by the natural conditions in which he has been placed, The full extent and application of this truth, however, are probably not even yet realised by us. If the surrounding and limiting con- ^ The Changes in the Outivarcl Aspect of Britain since Man appeared in the Coventry: ail addrc,ss given in the lecture-hall of the Universitv Museum, Oxford, on ^larck 1st, 1887. ditions have been such potent factors in human development, we may well believe that any serious change or modification in them cannot but have reacted upon man. If nature alters her aspect to him, he too will in some measure be affected thereby, and his relations to her will be influenced. What then have been the kind and amount of the mirtations in the face of nature since man first appeared? In trying to answer this question I will restrict myself, for the present, to the consideration of the evidence in the case of Great Britain; but it will be understood that the principles laid down for the conduct of the inquiry with regard to this country must be of general application to other regions of the globe. Let me remark at the outset that considerable progress has been made in the investigation of this question, both from its scientific and its historical side. Lyell, and my revered friend Professor Prestwich, with the geologists who have followed them, have laid a solid foundation of knowledge regarding the later mutations in the physical geo- graphy of Britain. Guest, Pearson, Freeman, Green, and others, have shown in how many ways the his- torical development of the people has been influenced by the topographical features of the country. Yet in spite of all that has been done, I do not hesitate to say that we are still only a little way beyond the threshold of this wide subject. No one has realised more vividly at once the importance of the inquiry and the imperfection of the available data than the late Mr. J. R. Green. He would fain have been able to reconstruct the successive phases through which our landscapes have passed since the dawn of his- toiy ; and he did moie in this respect