Excerpt from The Story of Our Planet
In writing this volume I have not had any intention of attempting to add another to the text-books of geology in the English language. Of these there is already an ample supply. Sir A. Geikie's "Text-book of Geology," Professor Prestwich's "Geology," and the edition of Phillips' "Manual of Geology" by Professor H. G. Seeley and Mr. R. Etheridge leave no gap to be filled among works of larger size, while a student not yet ripe for these has ample choice among books on smaller scale, which can be arranged in a graduated series from Mr. Jukes-Browne's "Handbook" to the most elementary "Primer."
So I have not endeavored to write a book which is designed to prepare for an examination or to serve as a guide to the literature of the subject. A class of persons, however, still exists to whom I hope this volume may be acceptable and useful. Many who, to use the common phrase, have received a good education, though they feel much interest in the history of the earth on which they live, have neither the leisure nor the inclination to master the technicalities or to enter into the minute details of any one branch of science. At the present time there is, I think, a real danger lest such persons should be repelled from all knowledge of science by its increasing complexity. To speak of geology only: Forty years since a book dealing with the main principles of geology, such as Sir C. Lyell's well-known work, would have been understood with little difficulty by any man of good general education: two pages of print would have contained all the technical terms which had to be mastered. But these have now become so numerous that the beginner has not only to comprehend new ideas, but also to learn a new language. To some extent this is inevitable. As science increases in scope and complexity technical terms become more necessary. They are helpful in expressing ideas concisely and precisely; still they tend inevitably to diminish the number of those who take an interest in any subject, and to restrict all study of it to those who make it a profession.
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