PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON THE WAR-PATH. 59 



the traditions of a deluge, is an " hypothesis which involves only 

 the trifle of a physical revolution of which geology knows noth- 

 ing." Now here we have a positive assertion ; and it is one which 

 can only be met by a contradiction as direct and flat as truth de- 

 mands, and as the courtesies of literature will allow. Once upon 

 a time in discussion with an illustrious and venerable man, Prof. 

 Huxley felt called upon to say that his opponents' assertions were 

 " demonstrably contrary to fact." * I may safely assume, there- 

 fore, that this is a form recognized by the highest authority as 

 occasionally required even in the calm and lofty debates of sci- 

 ence. This, accordingly, is the form of contradiction which I now 

 venture to adopt in meeting the confident assertion of Prof. Hux- 

 ley. I do so, however, declaring emphatically that I have no sus- 

 picion whatever that Prof. Huxley intended to deceive anybody, 

 whether himself or others. All that I am sure of is that if others 

 believe what he says on this matter they will be deceived, and de- 

 ceived grossly. The explanation lies in the fact that, in the hot 

 pursuit of his theological antipathies, he has made the very simple 

 and natural mistake of confounding " geology " with himself. But 

 these two are not identical or convertible terms. He may not have 

 seen because prejudice has shut his eyes some things which 

 geology has seen, and seen very clearly too. He may not know 

 of, or recognize the full import of, facts which geology does 

 know of, and has established. But whether he knows of them or 

 not whether he has ever " put two and two together " in respect 

 to them it does so happen that among the difficult problems of 

 Quaternary geology, three great salient conclusions have been 

 established. The first is, that among the very last and latest 

 changes in the history of the globe there was a great extension 

 to the south of the conditions of climate which are known as 

 glacial. The second is, that during part of that time and almost 

 certainly during the very last part of it or even since it ended 

 there was, over some great part at least of the northern hemi- 

 sphere, a great submergence of the land under the waters of the 

 sea.f The third is that man had already appeared upon the earth, 

 and had more or less spread upon it, before that late submergence 

 took place, and must, therefore, have been a witness, and may pos- 

 sibly have been a victim, to it. Now, the first two of these conclu- 

 sions are not only " known to geology," but are among its most 

 widely accepted doctrines, while the third has made great prog- 

 ress and is rapidly taking if, indeed, it has not already taken 

 the same place and rank in the category of discovered and admit- 

 ted truths. 



If, then, these three great facts have acquired this position 

 and even if they be disputed by a few writers, or by Prof. Huxley 



* Comparative Anatomy, p. 98. f Text-Book of Geology, by A. Geikie, p. 891. 



