152 THE COMING [CH. 



end, Huxley accepted the same view 148 . ' Geology/ he 

 asserted, 'is as much a historical science as archaeology.' 



The sober historian has always had to contend 

 against the traditional belief that ' there were giants 

 on the earth in those days ! ' The love of the 

 marvellous has always led to the ascription of past 

 events to the work of demigods who were not of like 

 powers and passions with ourselves. Hence the 

 invention of those ' catastrophies ' in which the 

 reputations of deities as well as of men and women 

 have often suffered. It is the same tendency in the 

 human mind which makes it so difficult to conceive 

 of all the changes in the earth's surface-features and 

 its inhabitants being due to similar operations to 

 those still going on around us. 



LyelTs views have constantly been misrepresented 

 by the belief being ascribed to him that ' the forces 

 operating on the globe have never acted with greater 

 intensity than at the present day.' But his real 

 position in this matter was a frankly ' agnostic ' one. 

 * Bring me evidence,' he would have said, 'that 

 changes have taken place on the globe, which cannot 

 be accounted for by agencies still at work when 

 operating through sufficiently long periods of time, 

 and I will abandon my position.' But such evidence 

 was not forthcoming in his day, and I do not think 

 has ever been discovered since. Professor Sollas has 

 very justly said, * Geology has no need to return to the 



