UC-NRLF Constance Naden: Further Reliques '■.'•■';>"•■'•' SSI an «n ERKELEY IBRARY MIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA . i w (,- T^CM^nU^ tfJ^&A£^'ifaj . jL/vCo U^otyccM^f. .-/ ;. , / GAhd^* tdf "sOty W -U- Reay writes : — "I have had the privilege of receiving your memoir of Miss Naden. I am very much obliged. Though only having had the pleasure of seeing her for a few hours, I mourn the premature death of this singularly-gifted lady as warmly as any of her friend-." The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., writes: — "I thank you very much for the Memoir of Miss Naden, Everything relating to her is to me matter of deep and touching interest." The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P., writes: — "I am much obliged to you for the copy of the Life of Miss Naden, which I shall read with interest." Sib Philip Magnus writes : — "I am indeed very much obliged to you for sending me the Memoir of Constance Naden Incommou with every one else who knew her 1 was deeply shocked when 1 heard the sad news of her death, which so abruptly terminated an acquaintance which I had hoped would ripen into friendship." In acknowledging the receipt of a copy of the Memoir sent to him by Mrs. Charles Daniell, Mr. Gladstone writes as follows :— ". . . 1 read through the whole Memoir with undiminished interest. There can be no doubt thai bj the death of Miss Naden the world has losl a person of gifts both extraordinary and highly diversified. As yet 1 believe in her rnainl) for her poetry, bul a mind highly scientific is shown by the wonderfully (lever verses on Solomon Redivivus. 1 am glad to be under the impression thai we have not gol the last of her remains. I shall always regrel my personal loss in not having known her per- ■ 1 1 1 1 1 \ . A''//- Press Notices set end of Volume. P R E F A C E . TPHE intrinsic value of the papers themselves, and, inter alia, JL the interest and attention which have been aroused by the publication of Miss Naden's posthumous volume of Essays, and by the succeeding Memoir which appeared last year, suggest the compilation of these her further literary Beliques. In the arrangement of the volume the Editor has en- deavoured, by introducing several reprinted papers, culled from the Journal of Science, etc., to add variety to the list now before the reader. The appendices are necessarily numerous. They consist of some valuable additions and illustrative notes contributed to the already published papers by Dr. Lewins, and by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. To this department the Editor has also ventured to add an article, written by Dr. R. W. Dale in the Contemporary Review for April, 1891, together with a reply written by himself and forwarded to that journal. This reply was made strictly in the interests of justice to Miss Xaden's memory. Eleven years of her life's noontide have been overlooked by Dr. Dale. I append, also, the facsimile of the last letter written by Miss Xaden, to face the portrait. It is thoroughly characteristic of her habitual serene courage and self- forgetfulness. INTRODUCTION. IN the original " Prefatory Note " to the first two Essays, " Induction and Deduction" and " Evolutionary Ethics," published in the former volume [Induction and Deduction, by Constance C. W. Naden — London : Bickers & Son] of Miss Naden's Essays, I find her scientific and philosophical standpoint indicated in a few words. I quote them here in order that, after the following papers are perused by the general reader, the consistency of her views may be con- firmed : " The inner bond of union between these two essays consists in the principle, implied where not explicit, that man evolves from his inner nature the world of experience, as well as the world of thought — that, in fact, these seemingly rival spheres constitute but one Cosmos. Whether I insist upon the truth that induction and deduction are involved in the simplest percept, or on the kindred truth that the germ of morality lies in the power which every man possesses to image and asself the feelings of his neighbours, I am equally enforcing this primary idea." This may seem prima facie a broad and all too bold gene- ralization. It is only, however, when we take a sample of Miss Naden's purely empirical papers, such as the Panton Prize Essay in the following pages, and unify it with the "primary truth" above mentioned, that we see how her life philosophy was based on foundations quite susceptible, in our age, of positive verification. Professor Tilden, in his interesting contribution to her "Memoir" [Bickers & Son, 1890], tells us that "no inducements seemed sufficient t<» prevail upon her [while at Mason College] to become a X INTRODUCTION. mere scientific specialist." Still more definitely Professor Lapworth, in his introduction to the same volume, informs us to the like effect, "I take it," he says (xv), "that Miss Naden's study of Geology, as that of other sciences, was only as a means to an end." What this "end" was may not lie exoterically manifest upon the surface of all her published prose writings, yet it is, nevertheless, true that — " Without this revelation of her inner life, much, especially of her later poetry and prose, must be as enigmatical and, indeed, incomprehensible as Volaptik." [Addition to Memoir by Robert Lewins, M.D.] Such a life purpose as this, based upon the latest acquirements in modern science, and yet employing these, not in any special line of empirical study or research, but concentrating them in the elaboration of a "world scheme" or Cosmic synthesis — above all, in all and through all — constitutes, as a whole, a study so unique, that it can be but briefly dwelt upon within the limits of this introductory paper. Of the "profound simplicity" of this her life gospel, there can be no better evidence than the fact that, in its entirety at all events, so many of her earlier teachers have contrived to miss its real significance. The profoundly simple eludes observation by reason of its very nearness and closeness, and resolves into the simply profound. To say, for example, that the query, "Man, whence and whither ? " was the question which bulked most largely with her, is disproved by the singularly able philosophical bracts now for the first time published in these pages. The question is not even mooted. To say that the bent of her mind was " Spencerian " is but inadequately to convey an idea of her mental grasp, which was more than equal to the problems of the newest philosophic schools ; she was equally at home in the Synthetic Philosophy as in the speculations of MM. Renouvier and Pillon, as well as in those of the INTRODUCTION. xi late Prof. T. H. Green. But she identified herself with none of these. It would be quite as reasonable to state of the last-named that he was a Kantian. [f the highest art be to conceal all traces of art, the profoundest philosophic ability conceals all evidence of acquirement — is simply informed, and speaks from know- ledge. Although the papers which follow have not had the benefit of her personal revision, I need scarcely point to them as characterized by an entire absence of the literary undress and scrappiness so common now-a-days. The MSS. have been written by the "vanished hand" with such mature de- liberation and calmness, that one is at a loss which most to admire, the brilliant and original thoughts or the classical repose of manner and expression. Again and again while perusing these r cliques has the present writer had, as it were, to reassure himself as to their veritable authorship. These quiet forceful words, this commanding grace of expression, this workmanship of phrase, so apt that not one word could be substituted without changing the whole meaning, all are the work, little more than the beginning of the life-work, of one of England's daughters ! Comparisons at once suggest themselves in these cir- cumstances. But these need not be, in the least degree, invidious, since it goes without saying that, as regards scientific, up to date, training, as a basis for philosophical elaboration, she had advantages such as no woman of mark preceding her has ever enjoyed. And, as Mr. Herbert Spencer has remarked of her, " Very generally receptivity and originality are not associated, but in her mind they appear to have been equally great." In respect of solid acquirements, perhaps the nearest name to hers in this con- nexion is that of the late Miss Harriet Martineau, — who with unquestionable talent and ability, and under the xii INTRODUCTION. guidance of the late Mr. Atkinson, did endeavour, if not to construct a philosophical system, at least to impress the public at large with some very pronounced views as to Mesmerism and kindred topics. It will not be seriously contended, however, that Miss Martineau's range of acquire- ment, or capacity for abstract thought, at all equalled Miss Naden's, even making allowance for the difference of their respective epochs. The former's correspondence with her mentor on the " Laws of Man's Xature and Development " only marked a stage in a long series of intellectual divaga- tions on her part, in the course of which every depth and shallow, lying between Unitarianism and Neo-Phrenology, had been attempted. At the present day it may safely be affirmed that the influence upon modern thought, whether of teacher or disciple, is practically nil. Continuing the above extract from Mr. Herbert Spencer, which is quoted in the Memoir (p. 89), we find the following- words, " I can think of no woman, save ' George Eliot,' in whom there has been this union of high philosophical capacity with extensive acquisition." A closer examination, however, shews this well-meant comparison inapplicable. There was all the difference between the early and thorough scientific grounding, in the case of Miss Naden, and the scientific acquirements, picked up comparatively late in lite, in the case of George Eliot. It is no dispraise to allude to this in the case of the latter. It is impossible, however high a tribute may be intended, as it is doubtless due, to her imagi- native powers, to credit her with having been scientifically educated, while, as a matter of fact, she did not possess any such advantage as an aid to philosophical bheorisings, with all the disadvantages which, on the other hand, accompany acquirements gained after the normal period of receptivity had passed. It is evident, also, that the disparity of age [NTR0D1 CTION. xni tells much in favour of the younger thinker, if only on account of the notable advances made in scientific methods during the last forty years. In many department- scientific theories have been practically revolutionized during that period. Miss Xaden's teachers at Mason College, who share the symposium on the title-page of her Memoir — Professors Lapworth and Tilden— are scientists of the newest schools in their respective departments. The former has practically revolutionized Sir E. Murchison's Geology of the Sottish Highlands as well as that of the Scandinavian Peninsula : the latter, like other professors of Mason College, is, unlike Dr. Tyndall and other established authorities, at the high- water mark of present-day Empiricism. Here, also, the question of mere acquirements apart, we have to contrast, as it were instinctively, the calm serenity, the just balance and equipoise, of our author's mind with not a little wavering and hesitancy on the part of the distinguished psychological novelist. Doubtless the companionship of the latter with the late Mr. G. H. Lewes had much to do with this. AVhere there was no approach to anything like a monistic cosmical synthesis on the part of the teacher, the disciple could not be expected to originate one. The dra- matic and prudential requirements of the successful novel writer, also, did not square with the severity of a monistic persuasion. So that, in the end, although the genius was unquestionable, the aspiration high and the moral lofty, we have compromise instead of constancy, dualism for monism. and a general impression of " trimming " conveyed, which may be false or not, but which, in the case of one more single-hearted and sincere, would never have been originated. As Miss Xaden did not essay the role of novelist, it would seem out of place to mention any of the Bronte family in this connexion, even if there were any link of association xiv INTRODUCTION. between the somewhat feverish genius of the daughters of Haworth Vicarage and the achromatic vision and faculty divine of Constance Naden. Pure specialists in science, like the late Mrs. Mary Somerville, cannot be classed with her, tor she soared far above mere specialism — though she had the training of a specialist of the specialists, as it were, thrown in, to incline the balance of adjudication more markedly in her favour. And, at the other end of the vista, place beside her calm insight, beside " the vigour and sound sanity of her brain," the pitiful autobiography of that spoiled child of modern society, Marie Bashkirtseff — that hectic record of genius, vanity, folly and despair. But, far more important than the petty details of literary comparison and estimate, remains the actual philosophic work performed by Miss Xaden. Its quality is such as to dwarf, for the most part, the other departments of her activity. Poet she was, but her poetry suffers, not in comparison with the work of other women of letters in the same sphere, but with her own still more precious and enduring contributions to the literature of abstract thought. We have seen that, by her own statement, one "primary truth" runs like a silver thread through all her graver papers; it gleams through the Heslop Prize Essay on Induction and Deduction, and also through the shorter papers published in the same volume. In the following pages, the same conclusions are reaehed through an analysis of Transcendental Psychology — notably the position of the late Professor T. H. Green, of Oxford. I" order to show how firmly based on positive science were Mi- Naden's theorisings, there is reprinted in the following pages a paper entitled "Hylo-Zoisra v. Animism," from the .lour, ><r the wavelet in the ocean, but itself the veritable " universe as felt and known." In this light the resort of Prof. Green, and other similar [NTRODUCTION. xvii thinkers (acute enough in their way, but purblind when it comes to be a question of the last recess of knowledge), to a supreme outside consciousness of whom much is re- quired, and who therefore is made Infinite, Eternal or what not, and is supposed to play upon the human organism as upon a harp, is found to be superfluous, an illegitimate complication of a problem already solved. A Cosmic Soul, or Anima Mwndi, is as unnecessary as an Anima Human". Neither are required by the conditions, for just as the human organism needs no quickening spirit to enable it t<» perform its functions, so the Ego in its entirety — viz., the Universe as felt and known — needs no energy save its own vis insita. As put in the paper on Hylo-Zoism v. Animism, p. *208. " The vis insita of matter (which etymological 1_\ means in-dwelling, but practically means inalienable eneru v ) supplies the place of the Divine afflatus, and affords, in the strictest sense of the phrase, a logically sufficient ' cause ' — i.e., a rationale reducing apparently anomalous phenomena to a familiar category." The animal economy is clearly auto- matic and requires no external instrumentality to energize it. These things are not hard to be understood, as some have ignorantly supposed. Should their significance be missed by the sincere enquirer, let it be pondered whether the error does not lie with himself or herself, or by reason of the unexpected nearness and plainness of the truths involved. For Cosmic Identity is a transcendent truth hidden by its own conspicuousness. To the unsophisticated mind this all- subduing solution of " the riddle of the painful earth " is clearer than to one darkened and blinded by the glare of light, which purely fractional, empirical science affords. The whole must ever be greater than the part. " The stars are well, but the self is better." It is thus not a singular, though perhaps a noticeable XV111 INTRODUCTION. feature in the propaganda of Hylo-Idealism, that no type of intellect is so difficult of access as that of the modern specialist, who is specialist and nothing more. The plain directness of the Solipsismal verity irritates and upsets him. The intellectual focus in such cases is adjusted for the far, the remote, — for anything but the near at hand, the " simply simple." Yet it is to this erroneous perspective that so-called " modern thought" asks its votaries to trust implicitly, to the neglect of certain antiquated myths and fables. Let us have correct perspective by all means, true insight and achromatic vision, but till this be attained, fables young and old will seem fables equally — the invention of the Bathybius of much the same value as a solar myth, and the doctrine of atomicity [Stallo's Concepts and Theories of Modern Physics'] quite as shaky as any oft-impugned Christian symbol. Perhaps no collection of posthumous essays ever required so little of introduction or direction to be addressed to the reader. The arrangement of the present volume has been made in accordance with a plan which, upon consideration, will make itself readily understood. The student will find it to his advantage to peruse, first of all, and more especially in advance of the philosophical tracts which follow, the lesser papers connected with Hylo-Idealism, contained in the for- mer volume of essays already alluded to — and then to follow up the papers in the order of their arrangement in the pre- sent volume. At first glance it may seem as if the view- point shifted abruptly, and as if the topics varied at hap- hazard — but this kaleidoscopic alternation, besides bring ( haracteristic of the many-sided genius of the writer, has its wider lesson and its moral in connection with the all-inclu- sive synthesis which inspires these papers throughout. The study of the Ego which these pages present, in accordance with the motto on the title-page, is a reflection of personality, INTRODUCTION. xix not in the narrow sense of a purely individual centre, a vortex constant amid the Cosmic whirl, but in that supreme one which identities all that is with the I of the thinker. When think and thing are reconciled, knowing and being are found identical, and the view-point of philosophy broadens to the limit of the conceivable. Towards the hastening of the better day of clear envisage- ment and sober judgment, the eminently calm and judicial writings left us by Miss Xaden promise incalculable help. The times have need of it. The prosecution of the study of abstract thought has, for the most part, fallen into the hands of the inconstant and half-hearted, who confess their intel- lectual feebleness by resorting to an ".unknowable" fount as the source of all that is, while the study of physical science has degenerated into a microscopic specialism, which utterly ignores the origin and bourne of all possible knowledge, whether empirical or metempirical, the Ego, which is itself " the Universe as felt and known," the autocosm which enfolds macrocosm and microcosm alike. Both of those extremes (a metempirical system by its own confession blind and dumb, and an empirical scientism wholly insufficient, as being without any other foundation than the concrete) both spell one word in the end, and that is dualism, and dualism is but ignorance confessed. If " to be weak is miserable," to be ignorant implies some measure of despair. Listen, in this connexion, to the confession of one who finds his philosophic model in the " common sense " conclusions of an outworn creed.* " God, if at all, must rise above the line of the finite regress ; He cannot be a cause in that ; He cannot be a cause dependent on another cause ; He must be somewhere, or at * Professor Veitch, a follower of Reid and Hamilton's so-called "Com- mon Sense" philosophy, — "Knowing and Being" p. 3^0. XX INTRODUCTION. some point, in the line of an otherwise endless scientific regress [!], — there above it, yet related to it, and in it — other- wise He is nothing for us." Well has Miss Xaclen written. " The first step towards knowledge is the exclusion from our search of all that we cannot know (Transcendental Psycho- logy, p. 144)." Verily, then, the first thing to be excluded as unknowable would be a point in a line, above it, and, at the same time, related to it. But let that pass ; only how clearly does her own calm pronouncement ring out by way of con- trast to the foregoing medley, "Man, if pure of heart and lofty of mind, must be ' crowned with glory and honour' whatever be the first cause of his sovereignty. A material origin cannot degrade his thoughts if they be lofty; a spiritual origin cannot ennoble them if they be base. Nor does it seem more glorious to be f a little lower than the angels ' than to be the Creator and fashioner of an ideal host of heaven, even though their bright array be the offspring of a material organ (' What is Religion V pp. 122-:))." Dr. Dale, her latest biographer, tells us (Contemporary Review, April, 1891) that a she died too soon." Perhaps it were better to put it that she lived too soon, before the time had come when her pure evangel — sublimely simple, simply sublime — could meet with ready acceptance. But manet litera scripta, her words will yet be read (as they even now are by many who never heard her name during her life-time) by the light of a brighter dawn. G. M. McC. London, September, 1891. "PIG PHILOSOPHY." A Protest. Declined by the Editor of Fortnight!// Beview. rpHE task of the present age seems to be the identification ERRATA. p. 18, 3rd line, for marks read marls. p. 26, 10th line, for Gharmwood read Gharnwood. p. 32, 2nd line, strategraphical read stratigraphical. p. 36, last line but one, for Terebratuluhastala read Terebratulaliastala. p. 38, last line but four, for Leckey read Lickey. p. 59, 12th line, for Rlmtic read Rhcetic. A o xrousxxj nmiv,i, aiau. vvaucJ. >vmc. it UUHOiSLO ill OllL» \> illy llittt; the two ideas are two aspects of one philosophy ; and that, while each preserves its distinctive value, there is a unity of import clearly visible in the midst of the diversity. Deny the diversity and you destroy the possibility of identifica- tion ; for one or other of the ideas must be nullified. Deny the unity, and you have assumed that the whole truth lies on one side ; an assumption which may be correct, but is more likely to be erroneous when it concerns the sincere thoughts of sane thinkers. Mr. Lilly, in his treatment of the Intuitional and Utili- B XX INTRODUCTION. some point, in the line of an otherwise endless scientific regress [!], — there above it, yet related to it, and in it — other- wise He is nothing for ns." Well has Miss Xaden written. " The first step towards knowledge is the exclusion from our search of all that we cannot know (Transcendental Psycho- logy, p. 144)." Verily, then, the first thing to be excluded as unknowable would be a point in a line, above it, and, at the same time, related to it. But let that pass ; only how clearly does her own calm pronouncement ring out by way of con- litera xcr'qrta, her words will yet be read (as they even now are by many who never heard her name during her life-time) by the light of a brighter dawn. (i. M. McC. London, SejpU mber, 1891. "PIG PHILOSOPHY." A Protest. Declined by the Editor of Fortnightly Review. THE task of the present age seems to be the identification of apparently opposite modes of thought. " Identification " is a bold word, and the cautious critic will probably suggest " harmonisation " or " reconciliation " as at once milder and more correct. But both these phrases imply something of concession, something of toning clown and filling in, which, however necessary in practical life, is hardly compatible with philosophical precision. "We all know how cleverly Genesis may be reconciled with Geology, Evolution harmonised with Special Creation, — we do not hanker after further specimens of this ingenious art. True identification differs toto ccelo from compromise. It does not consist in emptying an idea of its own proper significance, in order to charge it with the significance of a contrary idea, and triumphantly to exhibit the harmony of the two ; which is very much like pouring out the contents of a water-bottle and filling it with champagne, for the sake of proving that wine is really water, and water wine. It consists in showing that the two ideas are two aspects of one philosophy ; and that, while each preserves its distinctive value, there is a unity of import clearly visible in the midst of the diversity. Deny the diversity and you destroy the possibility of identifica- tion ; for one or other of the ideas must be nullified. Deny the unity, and you have assumed that the whole truth lies on one side ; an assumption which may be correct, but is more likely to be erroneous when it concerns the sincere thoughts of sane thinkers. Mr. Lilly, in his treatment of the Intuitional and Utili- B 2 PIG PHILOSOPHY. tarian systems of Ethics, prefers the denial of Unity ; thus choosing the latter horn of the dilemma.* He emphasises this choice by the use of extremely vigorous language. There is, indeed, a certain incongruity in the spectacle of a philo- sopher in a passion ; a philosopher appealing to prejudice in the name of reason ; a philosopher shrieking out " blas- phemy," " gross outrage," " ignoble surfeit," " Pig-philosophy," so soon as his favourite theories seem to be endangered. The atmosphere of the Inquisition hangs about his pages, and we half expect to be summoned to an auto-da-ft, in which Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. Leslie Stephen and Professor Bain, are to be the principal victims, clad in black robes embroidered with the demoniac features of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham. It is perhaps significant that Mr. Lilly clenches his arguments with a dictum of the Latter-day Sage, who could write powerfully, imagine vividly, feel profoundly — could, in a word, do everything but think exactly. If ques- tions of this nature are to be examined at all, they should surely be examined in another spirit. Mr. Lilly should have reflected that the mot " Justice is volitional, not abdominal," will be taken seriously by some of his readers, who will actually believe that the ethics of utilitarianism are in some way based on the digestive functions ; that the brain must resign the place of honour to the splanchnic plexus, and that the motto of fully-developed Hedonism is in truth " Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." He himself is of course aware that this is not a true conception ; but he forgets that many of his readers may not be similarly in- structed ; and that, in yielding to his love of antithesis, he ministers to an ignorant hatred of the systems which he attacks. It is a relief to turn for a moment from Mr. Lilly's diatribes to the calm wisdom of Professor T. H. Green ; who, ic will be remembered, expressed deep regret for the solitary * The Ethics <>f Punishment, by W. S. Lilly. Fortnightly Review, July L889. 1 use the term "intuitional" for the sake of convenience, though its connotations are ambiguous. It seems to express fairly well tin- ethical theory ;i]»tef fear and hope, love and hate, anger and sym- pathy; lie can think, and communicate his thoughts. This self-consciousness involves a consciousness of others, different from himself and yet generically one with himself. Hunger, PIG PHILOSOPHY. 9 no doubt, is a purely individual sensation; fear, also, may be purely individual; but love, hate, sympathy, anger, can exist only so far as the subject and object of these emotions are be- lieved to be one in nature. It is a fellow-creature that we love, so soon as " love " means anything more than the barest appetite; a fellow-creature with whom we sympathise, to- wards whom we feel anger, jealousy or gratitude. Thus the emotional nature of man presupposes a more or less vague recognition of Humanity, and, without such a recognition, could not even exist. Further, his intellectual nature, if developed beyond the merest rudiments, involves the conscious identification of his fellows with himself. The very need of communication arises from and implies this perception. The use of names, as meaning the same thing to different ears, implies that the individual difference is less important than the racial unity ; that there is one intellect in all, however great may be its particular diversities. But for this conscious identity, there could have been no language and no thought, beyond the beggarly elements of sensation and memory. In the most literal sense, the individual man is unthinkable apart from the community, just as the community is unthink- able apart from the individual man. Eemove, one by one, the bonds which unite him to his species, and you have stripped away all the qualities of the human Self, leaving a mere eating and drinking brute in the semblance of a man. Xo doubt, man was originally evolved from an eating and drinking brute ; but the precise manner of this develop- ment is a hard question for Evolutional Philosophy. But we may fully accept any theory of the Descent of Man without invalidating the fundamental truth that the individual is a social unit, and thus presupposes society, just as truly as society presupposes him as a social unit. Every man, so far as he is really human, knows that other human beings share his own nature. He knows that their pleasures and pains are like his ; for his physical feelings are clearly mirrored in their spontaneous actions, while his higher emotions concern them, and imply their possession of corre- 10 PIG PHILOSOPHY. sponding emotional capabilities. His whole nature requires satisfaction and seeks development, and in complete satisfac- tion and development finds its welfare ; by which I mean, its fullest and most permanent happiness. But he cannot help knowing that other men, of like nature, make a similar de- mand, and towards their demand he is compelled to assume a definite attitude. He feels, of course, that it does to a certain extent set bounds to this gratification and his own desires ; but on the other hand he feels, more or less vaguely, that the fulfilment of these desires can never be completed unless it is shared by others. Eeason, the principle-forming faculty, can alone decide upon the attitude which should be assumed ; that is, which it would be rational to assume. It by no means follows that Eeason will prevail ; but it, at least, utters its protest. The rational view, expressed, of course, far more clearly and distinctly than it usually expresses itself in the average conscience, is somewhat as follows : — The nature of the human beings around me is fundament- ally the same as mine. Their needs are the same, their demands are the same. My attitude towards this common nature and towards its welfare, ought in reason to be identical with my attitude towards my own nature and welfare. I ought to feel towards humanity in them as I feel towards humanity in myself ; I ought to do to them as I would wish them to do to me. For if my desire of self-fulfilment is ac- cording to reason, so also are their desires of self-fulfilment. In those respects in which we are identical, we deserve to be treated identically. I should, as far as possible, treat my neighbour as myself, though I may not be able to love him as myself. My neighbours, of course, must treat me and each other according to the same principle. Failing in this, they have sinned against the law of reason and of our common nature. This conception appears, under more or less comprehensive forms, in the moral teaching of all ages. What for Moses and Plato took the form of tribal and civil duty, appeared to Christ and to Confucius as duty towards the whole of PIG PHILOSOPHY. 1 1 humanity. Wherever justice and mercy have been conceive d in the heart of man, there the Golden rule " Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you," has been im- plicitly or explicitly present as the true meaning and inun- dation of morality and religion. This internal necessity is reinforced by the external ne- cessity so clearly set forth in modern evolutional ethics. Without moral principles, society could not cohere ; and as the more coherent societies tend to survive those which are less coherent, so the individuals better fitted for social co- hesion tend to survive the worse fitted individuals. Upon this phase of the subject I need not dwell, as it has been treated by the hand of a master ; nor need I do more than touch upon the emotional side of the rational function, upon which Mr. Leslie Stephen dwells in a fine chapter of the Science of Ethics* It should now be evident that the Intuitional and Utili- tarian systems are but two aspects of a single philosophy. The Utilitarian theory regards the content or subject-matter — human welfare — with which reason deals, while the in- tuitional theory regards, without sufficiently explaining, the dealings of reason. The differentia of the practical applica- tion of reason, as distinguished from its speculative applica- tion, is that the former directly concerns human welfare, while the latter concerns knowledge in general. From the very beginning to the very end, morality is occupied with human feelinss and needs, with human iovs and sorrows. Man could not be moral, unless he were a being capable of and desiring happiness. This personal craving for satisfac- tion lies at the very root of his morality. He understands the wants of others by his own wants, the desires of others by his own desires. His sense of justice springs from the recognition of their needs as not less imperative than his own ; and becomes, in its full maturity, the recognition of the right of all men to equal chances of self-development. Human welfare is the beginning and the ending of morality. If the dictates of reason led, on the whole, to misery, then it * Ch. vi, § 2. 12 PIG PHILOSOPHY. were better, in reason, that the human race should be annihi- lated ; so that reason cannot lead to misery without destroying its own right to exist. But to ask what would happen should reason cease to be the chief ground and instrument of human welfare, would be very much like asking what would happen should a straight line cease to be the shortest way from point to point. The true answer is " Nothing would happen ; because, in that case, reality would cease to be real." The Utilitarian system, at least in its later developments, prescribes a course of conduct identical with that prescribed by the rational or intuitional system. I do not wish to imply that any utilitarian thinker would agree with the views expressed in the preceding pages. I mean simply that ethical theories which regard happiness, not as an end to be directly pursued, but as an end to be attained by rational conformity to the authoritative laws of justice and benevo- lence, have precisely the same practical outcome as ethical theories, which regard reason as the faculty which models and rules our well-doing and well-being. Developed utilita- rianism in no way countenances the mere chase of pleasure, or even the attempt to increase the happiness of others, without regard to principle. It is as remote as possible from the crude Hedonism of the Cyrenaic school, from the im- moral legalism of Hobbes, from the conventionalism of Paley, and even from the fruitful but imperfectly deve- loped ideal of Jeremy Bentham. Yet the view — if view it can be called — which Mr. Lilly attacks, appears to be a compound of all these, with a spice of swinishness peculiar to itself. I did not set out to criticise the main point of Mr. Lilly's article — the meaning and object of punishment — and I am sorry that I can devote only a few lines to its consideration. But from what I have already said, it should be sufficiently dear that the utilitarian, as well as the intuitionalist. must regard punishment as the vindication of a principle, not merely ms an isolated measure of social expediency; and that he may quite as consistently value and foster the spirit of indignation against brutal or treacherous crimes, and of PIG PHILOSOPHY. 13 hatred towards the dark natures that give them birth. To both philosophers the offence is an offence against law, which the one will call the law of reason, and the other the law of happiness. The one may lay greater stress on the principle itself, the other on the consequences of its violation ; but t< » both the context of the principle is the same. Opinions may differ as to the due punishment of the worst class of criminals, such as the wretch whom Mr. Lilly mentions as having barbarously mutilated a child for the sake of its silver ornaments. Personally, I agree that no punishment would be adequate but one involving " sharp and repeated" physical pain. Many would dissent from this view; but no one, whatever his philosophical creed, would wish to be able to look upon the crime except with burning indignation and heartfelt abhorrence. "We can now see where Mr. Lilly's misapprehension really lies. Understanding that the object of Utilitarianism is happiness, he has failed to understand that it is human happiness. Why the pig should be taken as the type of felicity, I cannot conjecture, except that it is presumably untroubled by dyspepsia. But, even supposing the pig to be the happiest of animals, it is plain that the human species cannot live down to the swinish ideal. Man must have a happiness of his own, not porcine but human. His social and intellectual faculties, as well as his appetites and pas- sions, crave to be satisfied. There is a pleasure in ministering to the welfare of others, and in doing what we may for the advancement of the Eace. There is a joy in the search for truth, and the keenest delight in every glimpse of her countenance : — " As when a great thought strikes along the brain, And flushes all the cheek." These are distinctively human pleasures, which, though not attainable in their fulness by the average man as at present constituted, are yet necessarily consequent on the full development of distinctively human qualities. The per- fection of this development would fulfil the aspirations of 14 PIG PHILOSOPHY. the utilitarian philosopher, as well as of the poet or idealist who feels the truth of Wordsworth's lines : — " Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. And they a blissful course may hold Even now, who, not unwisely bold Live in the spirit of this creed, Yet find that other strength, according to their need." This ideal is certainly unimpeachable on the grounds adduced by Mr. Lilly. It is not one which a pig, however learned, could be brought to appreciate. It is perfectly conformable to Kant's apothegm that " Everything in nature acts according to laws ; the distinction of a rational being is the faculty of acting according to the consciousness of laws." If there be, in truth, any pig who is prepared to accept and act upon developed utilitarianism, then let us welcome him at once as a rational being and a brother, deserving immediate relief from the vile Circean spell. GEOLOGY OF THE BIEMINGHAM DISTRICT. Panton Prize Essay at Mason College for 1885. I. BOTH geographically and geologically, the position of Bir- mingham is central. It stands nearly in the middle of the Midlands, and close to the line of junction between the highly contorted strata of the west and the more gently in- clined strata of the east. On the one hand lie the older rocks, squeezed and bent and wrinkled by unnumbered ages of alternate upheaval and depression ; on the other lie newer rocks, which in some cases have been so little disturbed that they retain the horizontal position in which they were origi- nally laid down. Between the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic de- posits there is a great physical and biological break, and both periods are characteristically represented in the immediate neighbourhood of Birmingham. These facts are not only interesting to the geologist ; they are of the highest practical importance to the manufacturer, the tradesman, and even to the politician. Though the town is of modern growth, the origin of its present prosperity can be traced back to those ancient times, which produced the gigantic tree-ferns and club-mosses and horsetails of the Car- boniferous jungles. It is chiefly to the coal and iron of South Staffordshire that the " Midland Metropolis " owes its manu- factures, its dense population, and its political importance, though some thanks are also due to the inland lakes of Trias times, where those red sands were deposited which now form the agricultural plains of Warwickshire and Worcestershire. 16 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. For present purposes, the " Birmingham district " may be defined as the area included in a circle with the town at its centre, and a radius of about thirty miles. This would com- prise nearly the whole of Warwickshire, North Worcester- shire, South Staffordshire, a small part of Shropshire, and the western edo-e of Leicestershire. The district is, as a rule, flat or gently undulating. A long broken ridge of high ground stretches from the Wrekin, through the Forest of Wyre, southwards to the Malverns. Between this and the South Staffordshire coal-field there is a stretch of rolling ground, which can be well seen from the (Tent Hills. From the plain of South Staffordshire itself rise the Lickey Hills, the Clent Hills, the Rowley Hills, the ridge of high ground running from Dudley to Sedgley, the high ground about Barr, and the plateau of Cannock Chase. East of Birmingham stretches the plain of East Warwickshire, broken only by a few unimportant elevations. To the north- east are the hills of Charnwood Forest and Ashby. As the watershed of England runs through Wolverhampton, Dudley, Rowley, and the Clent Hills, there are no navigable rivers in the immediate neighbourhood of Birmingham, and the streams are few and unimportant. The Severn skirts the Forest of Wyre, and waters the Worcestershire plain, and the Tame rises near Bloxwich, and sweeps off northward to join the Trent. The distinctive scenery of the Midlands will be better understood after a description of the geological formations which determine its contour. It must be remembered that the highest ground in a district is generally formed by the oldest rocks, which have been subjected for the longest time to the action of the forces at work in the earth's crust, and which are not only the most steeply inclined, but also the hardest and densest, and therefore best able to resist denu- (latimi by rain and rivers. High ground may also be formed by hard igneous rocks, which have forced their way upward through (lacks and faults. Plains are generally mantled by the newer stratified rocks. £ GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. 17 TABLE OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. r g Recent — Peats, Gravels, Alluvium, &c. g j Prehistoric — Cave remains, Kjokken-moddings, &c, not dis- p3 ] tinguishable in Birmingham district. g I Glacial— Till, Boulder Clays, Inland Shell-beds. ^ I x- Pliocene— Crag, Sub-Apennine Beds ,. ^ o Miocene — Bo vey Tracer Lignite, Leaf-bed oil Not found in q o ^ Mull > Binningham q S ^ Oligiocene — Healdon Beds, &c. i district. W £5 Eocene — London Clay, Tlianet Sands, &c. r Cretaceous — Chalk, Upper Greensand, Gault \ Not found in j Neocomian — Lower Greensand, Wealden >- Birmingham o I Oolitic— Portlandian, Oxfordian, Bathonian ) district p ^ Liassic and Rhaetic — not found nearer to Birmingham than h Harbury and Rugby, with the exception of an isolated S j patch at Barston in Warwickshire. v. Trianic or New Red Sandstone — Bunter, Keupes, &c. ^ T Permian or Dyassic — Magnesian Limestone, Breccias, &c. § J Carboniferous — Coal Measures, Grit, Mountain Limestone. O h 1 Devonian or Old Red— not found nearer to Birmingham than N g I Bewdley. § ft ^ 2 C Silurian — Llandovery, Tarannion, Wenlock, Ludlow. <{ § I Ordovician — Arenig, Llandeils, Bala or Caradoc— missing in % j Birmingham district. g L Cambrian — Paradoyidian, Olenidian. o ARCILEAN. 18 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. I L— GEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY IN THE MIDLANDS. Modern Geology is not more than a century old. About 1790, a land-surveyor named William Smith began to make observations upon the red marks of Warwickshire and the oolites of Gloucestershire, and in the following year he found evidences of a " constancy in the order of superpositions " of strata, more extensive and regular than had before been ad- mitted. In 1815 he published a Geological Map of the whole of England and Wales, and a work entitled Strata Identified by the Supcrpositioii of Organic Remains, which practically settled the controversy between the Neptunists, or followers of Werner, who held that all rocks had originally been precipitated from a universal ocean, and the Plutonists, or followers of Hutton, who recognised ioneous agencies as sharing in the formation of the earth-crust. Smith, how- ever, was weak as to the older rocks ; and so also were the Geological Society of London, who did much good work in the newer formation. About 1840, Murchison surveyed and examined the older rocks of Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Wales, down to the base of the present Ordovician, while Sedgwick began with the Cambrian, and worked up to the Silurian. The Geological survey of England and Wales was soon after constituted, with Murchison at its head. The South Staffordshire coal-field was very carefully surveyed by Mr. Jukes, whose report, completed in 1859, is of great in- terest. Dr. Lloyd in 1849, found the cranium of a Labyrin- todon in the Permian strata of East Warwickshire ; a few years later Mr. Gibbs and the liev. P. B. Brodie discovered fish remains in the Lower Keuper Sandstone of Proms- grove and Eowington ; and various important palaeonto- logical discoveries were made by Sir P. Egerton and others. In 1869 was published the Survey Peport on the Trianicand Permian rocks of the Midlands, by Mr. Hull, who, with Mr. Howell, had been engaged for some years in examining these strata under the direction of Professor Pamsay. The GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. 19 chief results of this investigation were the separation of the Lower Permian of Warwick from the Trianic, with which it had previously been grouped, and the three-fold sub-division of the Bunter Sandstone, which had been regarded as only a confused mass of sand stones and conglomerates. The sinkings for coal, at Hampstead and Sandwell Park, have shown the true relation of the Permians to the underlying- coal measures. Professor Bonney has investigated the origin of the pebbles in the Bunter beds of Stafford shire, Dr. Lap- worth, in a paper published in 1882, gives an account of the oldest rocks in the district, which crop out at the Lower Lickey and Nuneaton, and have hitherto been described as L'pper Silurian, but which he has identified as Cambrian. III.— SO-CALLED ABCELEAX ROCKS. The rocks usually known as Archaean underlie the fossili- ferous formations, and consist of gneisses, schists, marbles, &c. At first sight many of them seem to be regularly stratified, but on more careful observation it will be seen that the lines of lamination do not always lie parallel, as in strata deposited on the ocean floor. The crystalline character of the rocks has also puzzled the geologist. They are all extremely hard, generally steeply inclined, and of enormous thickness, occu- pying nearly half of the present surface of the globe. A peculiar marking in the " Laurentian " rocks of Canada has been imagined by Prof. Dawson and Dr. Carpenter to be the remains of a gigantic Protozoon, which has been named the " Eozoon Canadeuse ;" but this idea is now generally dis- credited. The Archaeans are typically developed in Canada, where they are overlain by the Cambrians, the basement-bed of which contains a conglomerate, formed of Archaean fragments. Sir Wm. Logan, who first worked out these rocks, named them Laurentian, from the St. Laurence river. They are full of crystallized minerals, as apatite, graphite, tourmaline, iron, serpentine, hornblende, and there are great veins of pegma- c 2 20 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. tite, quartz, porphyries, gabbro, dolerite, and basalt. Here and there are enormous masses of limestone, sometimes six thousand feet thick. Other pre-Cambrian systems, as the Huronian, are found in America. This latter, named from Lake Huron, contains copper so abundantly that it is some- times known as the cupriferous formation. Theories of the origin of the Archcean rocks: — (1) These formations are supposed by some to be the relics of the first crust of the globe. Originally of igneous character, they have re-crystallised and have been re-arranged by water, which has distributed the quartz, felspar and mica in different layers. But if this theory be correct, the Archreans ought to show every gradation between the debris of the first cooled crust, and the modern sedimentary mud stones and sand stones. This, however, is not the case, as the oldest and youngest Archaean rocks appear to be of identical structure. The peculiar nature of the lamination is another difficulty. (2) The Arcfueans were at first ordinary sedimentary rocks ; but they have been depressed to a great depth by the weight of overlying masses, and the central heat has melted them up. In re-crystallisation, the minerals arranged themselves in layers according to their natural relationships. If this be true, every continuous mass of Archaean rock ought to be identical in chemical constitution with some ordinary sedimentary bed, or with several beds. There ought to be representatives of sand-stones, lime-stones, shales, and clays. In a few cases this does happen; but the great majority of the Archaeans represent igneous rocks. Gneisses and some schists have the same composition as granite, and green and dark schists correspond to gabbros, -ruen-stones, &c. i'S) In the formation of mountains, the rocks are first bent into the form of a great arch; the pressure being in the earliest stages only sufficient to crush the clays and shales into slates. As the lateral pressure in- creases in intensity, the arch rises, and finally gives UEOLOGY OK THE BIBMINGHAM DISTRICT. 21 way at some point, one part riding forwards and upwards over the other. Thus an over-fault (2) is the final stage of an over-fold (1). In the shearing plane (a b) the beds are rolled out, inter- mixed, and twisted, as though in a mill. Foliation is thus produced, and the more fluid constituents of the rock are in some cases squeezed out, and crystallize between the laminae of more solid materials. Thus a set of rocks of very varied composition may be transformed into an apparently homo- geneous sheet of enormous thickness. This seems the most probable mode of origin of " Archaean " rocks. Some are doubtless pre- Cambrian, while others are certainly newer; but petrologically, the two classes are indistinguishable. TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AECHAEANS IN BEITAIN. The whole of Scotland, north of a line drawn from Glas- gow to Stonehaven, is paved with gneisses and schists, and slates here and there. They contain vast dykes of pegmatite and gabbro, and veins of marble. In Caniop and Assynt the gneisses are covered by the Torridon sandstone, which under- lies a system of quartzites and limestones with Ordovician fossils, and is therefore in the place of the Cambrian. In other parts, however, the metamorphic rocks are evidently of later date. Ten years ago, Dr. Hicks discovered at St. David's, in South Wales, a dome of rocks rising from beneath the Cambrian. The east side is formed of granitic rock with decomposed mica, the west side of bedded traps and ashes. These beds have nearly the same clip as the Cambrian, but the base of the latter is formed of their fragments. Dr. Hicks 22 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTBIOT. at once instituted two new systems, calling the granitic rock Dimetian,and the ashy strata Pebidian. It is, however, probable that the " Pebidian" is merely a series of volcanic rocks in the lower part of the Cambrian, and that the " Dimetian " is common granite, which has forced its way through the Cambrian. Anglesea also is largely composed of gneisses and schists. Examples in Birmingham district : — (1) The Malverns. The core of the Malvern range, with all its highest points, is composed of a crystalline rock formed of quartz, felspar and mica (see Section c). As a general rule these minerals are arranged some- what heterogeneously, so that the rock may be classed as confusedly crystalline (igneous) ; but in some cases they have a foliated arrangement, many of the bands having the character of true gneiss. Whether this rock be classed as igneous or metamorphic, it is certainly of very great antiquity, since Cambrian beds rest upon it unconformably, and are in part composed of its debris. Dr. Holl, Dr. Callaway and others claim it as Laurentian, while by others it is termed a syenite. It is cut through by innumerable igneous dykes ; some of which are of a highly acid, others of a highly basic type. The acid type is pink in colour, and is com- posed wholly of quart/ and felspar (aplite) ; the basic type is of a blackish green, with more or less altered augite. This latter may be classed as dolerite or dia- base. Along the west Hank of the core, the central mass takes on a schistose character, and the crystals partly vanish. To the South, round Herefordshire Beacon, the quartz felspar rocks greatly preponderate, and form such a large proportion of the mass that they are claimed by Dr. Callaway and others as part of the : ' Pebidian system." Such indications of foliation as occur are transverse to the strike of the ridge. The origin, character, and age of the central core must he left for future discovery. (2) The Wrekin. (See Section e). The rhyolitic lavas GEOLOGY OV THE BIRMINGHAM DI8TRI 23 and ashes, which underlie the Cambrian Quartzit the Wrekin, are considered by Dr. Callaway to be Pre-Cambrian <»r Pebidian. Rounded fragments of these rocks are contained in the Quartzite, which is in its turn overlain by the Hollybush Sand-tone. IV. All fossiliferous strata older than the New Red Sandstone are termed PALEOZOIC. Those which underlie the Old lied are known as Proterozoic, and the succeeding systems up to the New Pied as Deuterozoic. f Deuterozoic j ( 1 :' 1I 1 1,i; ' n , z • t ,. , vj. \ < Cai'boniierous P \L EOZOIC I < Devonian or Old Red (period of ancient life). ~] , ffilnri - aT1 Proterozoic (^ (period of earliest life)."1 p Ordovician Cambrian PKOTEEOZOIC ROCKS.— These are generally of a dingy grey or greenish colour, and consist of sheets of gritstones, flagstones, limestones, and shales. In the British isles the gritstones (grey wackes) and shales predominate, and there are not more than half-a-dozen small limestones ; but, as we pass eastwards, the limestones become more important, and the greywackes thin out. In Scandinavia and Bohemia three- quarters of the thickness consists of limestones, and there are no greywackes ; while in Kussia there is nothing but lime- stones and blue and red muds. But the three systems themselves thin out to the east, so that a thousand feet in Wales is represented by an inch in Scandinavia. From these facts we conclude that the shore of the Proterozoic ocean lay towards the West, where we rind coarse and thick deposits; and that the waters gradually deepened in an easterly direc- tion, becoming clear enough to permit the luxuriant growth of corals. The materials carried out come from a continent stretching down the middle of the present Atlantic. The whole of Europe was submerged, the deepest parts corre- 24 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. sponding to those which are now the most elevated. The rocks of all three systems were laid down under conditions such as now prevail on the flanks of continents and in deep seas. W Ireland England France Germany (J-0.000 FT.) (30.0QOFT) Silu Sweden (20 000 FT.) Norway ! Russia ' (10,090 FT.) Onl Cam SKETCH SHOWING GRADUAL EASTWARDLY THINNING OF PR0TER0Z0IC SYSTEMS. Classification : — The whole of the Proterozoic rocks were formerly named Greyivacke, from their prevailing penological character, or Transition, a term applied by Werner to indicate that they were physically and biologically intermediate between his so-called Primary and Secondary systems. Murchison gave the name Silurian to the two upper divisions of the Grey- wacke, and Sedgwick appropriated Cambrian to the two lower divisions. When, however, the fossils were examined, it was found that the upper member of the Cambrian was identical with the lower member of the Silurian. The term Cambrian was next restricted to the lowest strata, in which no fossils had been discovered, and when nearly all of these, a few years later, were found to be crowded with fossils, they were added to the Silurian. The Murchisonian party still claim all the rocks below the Old Red, excepting a few unf ossiferous patches, as Silurian ; while the Sedgwick party still adhere to his original Cambrian. A third party have adopted the following classification : — Silurian =Murchison's Upper Silurian. Ordovician=: so-called Lower Silurian or Upper Cam- brian. Cambrian = Sedgwick's Lower Cambrian. These three systems are separated by great unconformities ; each has its own distinct flora and fauna, and each is as thick GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. 25 as any other geological system. The new nomenclature seems, therefore, to be the best yet introduced. (I) CAMBKIAN AND OEDOVlrlAX ROCKS. (a) The Cambrians are the oldest fossil-bearing rocks in Geology. Their characteristic genera arc; : — Mollusca. — Lingula and Orttiis (Brachiopoda). Crustacea. — Hymenocaris (Phyllopod), Paradoxides and Olenus and Agnostus (Trilobites). ] Divisions of Cambrians : (1) Lower Cambrians, sometimes called Paradoxidians. (2) Upper „ „ „ Olenidian. (Olenus being absent from the Lower, and Paradoxides from the Upper Cambrians). (b) The characteristic ORDOVICIAN genera are : — Cede ntc rota — the Dichograptidae and Dicranograp- tidae (Graptolites). Mollusca — Orttus and Strephomena (Brachiopods). Crustacea — Asaphus and Ogygia (Trilobites). Divisions of Ordovicians: (1) Lower Ordovician. (a) Arenig. (&) Llanvern. (2) Upper „ (c) Llandeilo. (d) Caradoc. (Named from places where they are most characteristically shown. A better division may perhaps be founded on the Graptolites, Phyllograpsus being found in the lowest beds, Dicranograpsus in the middle beds, and Leptograpsus in the highest). PHYLLOGRAPSUS. DICRAXOGRAr>l"s. 26 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. Typical development of Cambrian and Orclovician rocks in Britain : — (1) Merionethshire. a Harlech % (lech \Lingula TBEMAD0C Gar th B t (Picranoprvpnu) Laneitom BAL^iW.* : Cambrians (2) Shropshire. Blf-k Vol- Black % i Longmynd, sandstones conglomerates $ yrits Shates cpMcsmei pIHShimeton-* 4 ;'" 0iadiwf 8 K K P ^ Ue S^i Shales j Ordovicians J olcamcrocka Shineton oj Caer Ca'radoc Shiili ■ Qum Sandstm i Ordovicians Cambrians Examples in Birmingh am district : — No Orclovician rocks have been found in the Birmingham district, although the pebble beds of the Bunter contain fragments with fossils of the Armorican Sandstone (Stiper Stones of France), and of the May (Bala) Sandstone. The Cambrian, however, occurs in the Malverns, the Lickey Hills, Nuneaton, the Wrekin, while all Charmwood Forest is either ( Jambrian or pre-Cambrian. (1) The Malverns. Ludlow Wenlock ... Llandovery £l i^Limest ^^hope ; j i . tftiu I ; | Ludlow IWenlock] I Shal Tremadoc "'■','"* SlAtes • s/ ";' / ' N (l'ii hion. mil) J Hollubush Stnitt.-tniii Fault Silurian ( lambrian So-called Archaean rias GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. 2\ The long narrow ridge of the Malvern Eilla is formed of an upturned sheet of Palaeozoic rocks, crushed againsl a long straight fault which forms the east side of the Midland Trias. The contrast between the two sides of the ridge gives a good example of the manner in which the scenery of a district is determined by its geology. To the west lie the more ancient rocks, all more or less convolute* I and contorted ; to the east the newer rocks form a flat fertile plain. Northward the great axial fault of the Malverns is prolonged through the Abberley Hills, and finally vanishes in many fan-like cracks under the Trias of North Staffordshire. To the south it passes May Hill, crosses the Severn at Pyrton Passage, forms the antictine of Tort worth, and brings the Bristol coalfield to the surface. The Palaeozoic rocks are Cambrian, Silurian and Old Eed Sandstone ; the Neozoic rocks are Trias, and more distant Juranic. As we have seen, the core of the range is formed of so-called Archaean rock. The sedimentary rocks which overlie it show their deepest strata at the south-east extremity. The Cambrians are as follows : — (a) Holly-bush Sandstone contains in its lower beds large fragments of the gneissose rocks on which it rests. It is of a greenish-grey or brown colour, and contains few fossils. Its age is uncertain, though from the presence of the Brachiopod Obolella Sagittalis, it has been supposed to be of the same age as the Menevian Beds of Wales (see section a). Kutorgina cingulata, a horny Brachiopod, is also found. (b) Olenus Shales are black or dark coloured, and are equivalent to the Dolgelly or Upper Lingula Flag series. They are pierced by numerous dykes of igneous rock, generally Diorite. Their fossils are Parabolina spinulosa, and in the upper parts Pettura scarabeoides. They have also yielded the Trilobites Agnostus, Conocoryphe, Olenus, Sphaerophthalmus, and the Brachiopods Lingula and Obolello. (c) Dictyonema Slates. The net-like Polyzoon, Dictyo- nema Sociale, shows that these greyish beds belong 28 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. to the upper division of the Tremadoc or Slimetou group. (2) The Lickeys. From Barnt Green Station to Eubery the Lickeys are composed of a dome of Cambrian quartzite, underlaid by ashy and trappy beds. It is unfossiliferous, and probably the same rock as the Hartshill quartzite of Nuneaton. (3) Nuneaton. Red Fermipn Clays.Caal M( a'sxri u..~,,..„ , Villaneous rock Jii 'I • Smulstatw S «-H-^ N i Shineton wenloc vnes / <,' , x \ : Shalef ; / ,- 'The>wre % kin ! : Coal .1/ SECTION OF THE WREKIN DISTRICT. It may be observed that the English Cambrians crop out along the axes of buried mountain ranges — i.e., ranges worn down by the action of rain and rivers, and partially obliterated by the disposition of newer formations upon their flanks. (II) SILUEIAN KOCKS. Characteristic fossil genera: — Hyclrozoa. — Monograpous, Cyrtograpous, Eastrites. (These Graptolites are all single, proceeding from the root in one direction only.) Actinozoa. — Halysites, Favosites, Cyathophyllum, Helio- lites. Mollusca. — Pentamerus (P.leus, P. Oblongus, P. Knightii) Atrypa (Brachiopods), Orthoceras (Cephalopod). Crustacea. — Phacops, Homalonotus, Illaenus (Trilobites), Eurypterus and Pterygotus (Phyllopods). Divisions of Silurian : (ft) Llandovery Piocks (Sandstones) : Lower \ Middle > containing Pentamerus leus and oblongus. Upper / 30 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. (b) Limestone and Shales : Taram Shales. Woolhope Limestone. Wenlock Shales. Wenlock Limestone. Ludlow Shales ) ^ , ir • i , •• > rentamerous Jvnightn. Ludlow Limestone J (c) Sandstones (Downton) like Llandovery, passing into Old Red. Between Ordovician and Silurian times, intervened a period of oscillation ; in some places the Ordovician appeared at the surface and was denuded, and the Silurian rocks, in different localities, rest upon all the underlying systems. The fossils in the last Ordovician beds, and the first Silurian Limestone are wholly distinct ; but the intermediate or Llan- dovery beds show a gradual transition. In the top and bottom beds of the Silurian shallow water forms predominate ; reef-inhabiting forms in the middle beds. The Eurypteridae are found in the highest beds, which also contain fishes' teeth and skin. Typical development of Silurian rocks in Britain : — The typical district, or the region where these rocks were first worked out and are best shown, is Central Shropshire. There both the limestones and the shales are perfectly developed. As we pass North-west or South-east, the rocks change their character. To the North-west they thicken rapidly, and are all flagstones and greywackes. The Llan- doverys are all present. To the East— Bristol, Malverns, Dudley, the sandstones are gone, and there are only shales and limestones. LONGMYND \ >-°*> °C, Cambrian ^. .^/V'; ^ t £» r.Q-. -•• {: [;>-. ;.'•':• \"«\ '.>•"■>; (• : .U .: ;^. ; :•;.'>; >.';.'- 1 ';.'- v-Y- : Millstone G^-j-iY.s'^ i;'',' '/i /j'-, . •','.';• :'<•,' •. V/'l"''-'^--'.--'/'. V.vi : ;' '• ; .''.'' : Yoredale 2fr> Limestone I __ii - I jj \ J ^t^vr- Lorver Lime -\ ^S^^ -^g;^^^^ ^ c -stone Shale* fWs SSf^l^^ \>^ Old RedSaud\ ' ' I JT^** Life, of Carboniferous times : — Caboniferous fossils are of two types, marine and fresh- water ; the former being found in the lower, and the latter in the upper strata ; while both are obtained from the inter- mediate beds. (I.) Lower Carboniferous fossils : Corals. — Lithostrotion, Cyathophyllum, and many others. (It should be noticed that the corals of ton nation older than the Permian all show a quadripartite ar- rangement of the stony lamellae, while in newer forms the arrangement is nearly always sixfold.) Mollusca. — Produotus giganteus, &c, several Spirefers, Terebratuluhastala (Brachiopoda), Euomphalus (Gas- teropod), Orthoceratiles and Goniotiles (Cephalopoda). GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. Fishes. — Sharks and mail-clad fish, some having teel h sharp and pointed, as in ordinary sharks, 1 mt the majority, as Psammodus and Cochliodus, having massive palatal teeth fitted for grinding. Foraminifera are also abundant. (II.) Upper Carboniferous fossils : — (1) Fauna : Mollusca. — Marine and fresh-water, several species of the latter belonging to the genus TJnio (Anthracosia.) Crustacea. — Limulus, resembling the modern king-crab, and a long-tailed crustacean referred to the genus Gl) T phaca. Fishes. — Megalichthys, Holoptychius, &c. Several species of scorpions, of hectics, and of neuropterous insects have been found. In 1844 the footprints of a large animal were discovered in the coal strata of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, It was sup- posed to have been an air-breathing reptile, and was pro- visionally named Cheirotherium * From the structure of some bones discovered later, it is now referred to the Labyrinthodont family of sauroid batrachians. The skeletons of three other reptiles have been described under the generic name of Archegosaurus. (2) Flora: Cryptogams. These largely predominate. The commonest coal-measure plant is the Lepiclodendron, allied to the modern club-moss. Specimens are found 100 feet high, and 15 feet in circumference, branched, with cones at the ends of the branches, leaves long and thin, leaf-scars arranged in spirals. The Segillaria is as tall as the Lepiclodendron, but is un- branched, its fruit is unknown, and its leaf-scars are arranged vertically. Its root is the so-called Stigmaren, found in the clay under the coal. Catamites (corresponding to our horse-tails or Equisetum, but generally of gigantic size), are very abundant, and vary much in length and mode of branching. The branching forms have names determined * Of a different genus from the European Cheirotherium, whose foot- prints were discovered in the trias. 38 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. by the form and arrangement of the leaves, as Astero- phyllites, Annularia, &c. The Ferns are of the same type as modern ferns, with similar spores arranged in a similar manner. Both tree-ferns and ordinary ferns of undergrowth are found. The commonest are Xeuropteris, Pecopteris, and Sphenopteris. Gh/mnosperms. These are much rarer than the Cryptogams. They consist of conifers, allied to the yew. One, bearing a triangular seat, has been named Trigonocarpum. Examples in the Birmingham district : — Carboniferous rocks are found in three distinct areas, viz. : (1) South Staffordshire. (2) East Warwickshire. (3) Forest of Wyre. In all three the lower and middle members of the forma- tion are missing, and the upper or coal-bearing division alone occurs, even this being of less thickness than in other coal- fields. In E. Warwickshire the thickness is greatest, not only of the interposed " partings " of shale and sandstone, but of the coal itself. (1) South Staffordshire Coal-field : — Three divisions occurring in regular sequence have been clearly made out : (a) The true Dudley coal-measures, consisting of coal- seams separated by " partings " of brownish-grey fire- clays, grey and yellow sandstones, and grey or black shales. Ironstones occur either in thin regular seams or in layers of nodules, balls, or concretions. The thickness of this division varies much from north to south : in the northern parts being thousands of feet, and in the extreme south, near the Leckey, diminish- ing to a few hundreds. (b) Above the coal-measures lie the brickclays. These are purple, white, red, green, and blue, and occasion- ally contain small coals and fireclays. At Essington, GEOLOGY OF THE BJIJMIXGILY.M DISTRICT. 39 Walsall, and Rowley they are worked for brickmalri Their thickness is about 200-400 feet. In the East Warwickshire coal-field they are also found and worked, but they are much thinner, (c) Hales Owen Sandstones. Upon the fire-clays, in the southern portion of the coal-field, lie a series of coarse sandstones, olive-green, brownish, yellow, or inclining to red, and containing bands of gravel, calcareous seams, and a few thin patches of impure coal. At the summit is a calcareous bed, known as the Spirorbis limestone, from its characteristic fossil, a small annelid. The bed is of freshwater formation. It is of great value as a geological horizon, its equivalent being found, not only at Coalbrook Dale, Shrewsbury, but also in Lancashire. Cumberland and South Scotland. The Hales Owen Sandstones are about 800 feet thick. Sequence of South Staffordshire coal-measures proper. It will be seen later, that the grouping of the coals and ironstones changes so greatly from the northern to the southern extre- mities of the coal-field, that it is not possible to give a general section which will be true throughout. The following section is of the Central and Southern parts: — „ o M K BEDS. Upper Sulphur Coal [ Sulphur Measures (Sandstones) ^ Little Coal (Two-foot) . Two-foot Measures J J j Si I 2 o 1—1 •■— I — ce o > Brooch Coal Ironstone Measures Herring Coal ...... Penny-earth Ironstone Measures . Intermediate Measures .... Thick Coal with Blackery and Whitery Ironstone Gubbin Ironstone Measures, Table Bait, &c. . Heathen Coal .... Heathen Measures .... Lower Heathen Coal Intermediate Measures . Measures with Pennystone Ironstone Lower Sulphur Coal THICKNESS. 1 ft. 140 ft. 2 it. 50 ft. 4 ft. 7— 20 ft. 2— 4 ft. 7—30 ft. 38—157 ft. 30 ft. 0— 2 10— 10— 2— 30 ft. 3 ft. 43 ft. 4 ft. 30 ft. 25 ft. 9 ft. 40 GEOLOGY OF THE BIRMINGHAM DISTRICT. si .2 ^ UH O O ^3 4 G Total Thickness 39ft. 5 ins. 4 6 2 9 3 -~? if !'■ rth < Wyrl >')' ■ ! 'Coal Wyrley ■ Wyr 1 Wyrley ]'< r :,l ■ $ Coal Wyrley Sfc: or Butt<;,n Bentlei) 1L,>i Coal Heathen hilphi'r Coal PelsallYardCoal ■' Bj.l.