“It is too true,” cried Mrs. Seymour, “that we are all apt to depreciate those branches of knowledge which do not bear directly upon the comforts or necessities of life; and the applications of geology are, perhaps, so remote as scarcely to be discovered by the mass of mankind.” “There I must differ with you,” replied her husband: “to say nothing of the practical advantages which have accrued to the miner from this study, it has been the means of bringing hundreds of acres into cultivation in districts where never a blade of grass had before grown;(18) and if scholastic researches have thrown additional light on scriptural subjects, they are no more to be compared with those of the geologist on these occasions, than is the light of the glow-worm to that of the sun.” “Hey-day! what do I hear?” exclaimed the vicar. “Would you compare the testimony of the Apamean medal with that of an unshapen flint?” “I would rest my faith upon a _rock_,” replied Mr. Seymour; “the caves of Buckland(19) have done more towards supporting the Mosaic account of the Deluge than all the medals of the virtuoso. Fossils, in truth, are to the geologist what medals are to the antiquary, preserving a record of events which must otherwise have perished in the stream of time.” Mr. and Mrs. Seymour and the vicar by this time arrived at the Wernerian Temple, where, having discussed several points connected with its objects, Mr. Twaddleton gave an account of Major Snapwell, whose history created considerable interest, and determined Mr. Seymour to call at Ivy Cottage, and invite its inmate to the Lodge. [Illustration: Rock teetering on a ledge.] ----- Footnote 16: Footnote 16: A common plate will answer the purpose; but the black surface gives the advantage of exhibiting more perfectly the motion of the water during the progress of the experiment. Footnote 17: See page 54. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Two boys rolling hoops along the ground using sticks.] CHAPTER VIII. _The subject of Rotatory Motion continued.--A Ball, by having a peculiar spinning motion imparted to it, may be made to stop short, or to retrograde, though it meets not with any apparent obstacle.--The rectilinear path of a Spherical Body influenced by its rotatory motion.--Bilboquet, or Cup and Ball.--The joint forces which enable the Balancer to throw up and catch his Balls on the full gallop.--The Hoop.--The Centre of Percussion.--The Whip and Peg-top.--Historical Notices.--The power by which the Top is enabled to sustain its vertical position during the act of spinning.--The sleeping of the Top explained.--The force which enables it to rise from an oblique into a vertical position.--Its gyration._