Similarly, geologists come back to the individual phenomena. Dr Johnson, with the classicising mind of the 18th century, once said that 'It is not the business of the poet to number the streaks of the tulip' - but it may be a significant part of the business of the geneticist or the biologist or the geologist to do just that. It is an oxymoron, with two opposed senses. Truth lies in the general, which is what Dr Johnson was saying. But if we read it to mean that we penetrate to the heart of the matter only by paying scrupulous attention to the fine detail, then we are with Lyell and those who followed him.
Geology is also one of the Romantic sciences in being time bound.
It is now common to talk about Earth History, extending the concept of history well beyond that of human history, to the birth of the planet. Geology has an abundance of written records for those who take the trouble to learn to read them. But it has not always been seen as historical. James Hutton, often known as 'the father of geology' in the British tradition, had a cyclic view. But Hutton was of the eighteenth century.