SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE. 211 



necessary dogma of uniformitarianism. It is extremely astonishing to 

 me that any one who has carefully studied Lyell's great work can have 

 so completely failed to appreciate its purport, which yet is " writ 

 large " on the very title-page : " The Principles of Geology, being an 

 Attempt to explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface by 

 Reference to Causes now in Operation." The essence of Lyell's doc- 

 trine is here written so that those who run may read ; and it has noth- 

 ing to do with the quickness or slowness of the past changes of the 

 earth's surface, except in so far as existing analogous changes may go 

 on slowly, and therefore create a presumption in favor of the slowness 

 of past changes. 



With that epigrammatic force which characterizes his style, Buff on 

 wrote, nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, in his famous " Theorie 

 de la Terre," " Pour juger de ce qui est arrive, et meme de ce qui 

 arrivera, nous n'avons qu'a examiner ce qui arrive." The key of the 

 past, as of the future, is to be sought in the present, and only when 

 known causes of change have been shown to be insufficient have we 

 any right to have recourse to unknown causes. Geology is as much 

 an historical science as archaeology ; and I apprehend that all sound 

 historical investigation rests upon this axiom. It underlay all Hutton's 

 work, and animated Lyell and Scrope in their successful efforts to 

 revolutionize the geology of half a century ago. 



There is no antagonism whatever, and there never was, between 

 the belief in the views which had their chief and unwearied advocate 

 in Lyell and the belief in the occurrence of catastrophes. The first 

 edition of Lyell's "Principles," published in 1830, lies before me, and 

 a large part of the first volume is occupied by an account of volcanic, 

 seismic, and diluvial catastrophes which have occurred within the his- 

 torical period. Moreover, the author over and over again expressly 

 draws the attention of his readers to the consistency of catastrophes 

 with his doctrine : 



Notwithstanding, therefore, that we have not witnessed within the last three 

 thousand years the devastation by deluge of a large continent, yet, as we may 

 predict the future occurrence of such catastrophes, we are authorized to regard 

 them as part of the present order of Nature, and they may he introduced into 

 geological speculations respecting the past, provided that we do not imagine them 

 to have been more frequent or general than we expect them to be in time to 

 come (vol. i, p. 89). 



Again : 



If we regard each of the causes separately, which we know to be at present 

 the most instrumental in remodeling the state of the surface, we shall find that 

 we must expect each to be in action for thousands of years, without producing 

 any extensive alterations in the habitable surface, and then to give rise, during 

 a very brief period, to important revolutions (vol. ii, p. 161).* 



* See also vol. i, p. 460. In the Dinth edition (1853), published twenty-three years 

 after the first, Lyell deprives eves the most careless reader of any excuse for misunder- 



