THE FOUNDATION-STONES OF THE EARTH. 659 



canic rocks should be altogether different in character from those 

 of Tertiary and recent times. During the periods mentioned vol- 

 canic rocks appear, as we should expect, to have been ejected from 

 beneath the earth's crust similar in composition and condition, 

 and to have solidified with identical environment. Hence the re- 

 sults, allowing for secondary changes, should still be similar. But 

 to assume that the environment of a rock in early Archaean times 

 was identical with that of similar material at a much later period 

 is to beg the whole question. My creed also is the uniformitarian, 

 but this does not bind me to follow a formula into a position 

 which is untenable. " The weakness and the logical defect of 

 unif ormitarianism " (these are Prof. Huxley's words) " is a refusal, 

 or at least a reluctance, to look beyond the * present order of 

 things,' and the being content for all time to regard the oldest 

 fossiliferous rocks as the ultima TJiule of our science." Now, 

 speaking for myself, I see no evidence since the time of these 

 rocks, as at present known, of any very material difference in the 

 condition of things on the earth's surface. The relations of sea 

 and land, the climate of regions, have been altered ; but because I 

 decline to revel in extemporized catastrophes, and because I be- 

 lieve that in nature order has prevailed and law has ruled, am I 

 therefore to stop my inquiries where life is no longer found, and 

 we seem approaching the first-fruits of the creative power ? Be- 

 cause palaeontology is perforce silent ; because the geologist can 

 only say, " I know no more," must I close my ear to those who 

 would turn the light of other sciences upon the dark places of our 

 own, and meet their reasoning with the exclamation, " This is not 

 written in the book of uniformity " ? To do this would be to 

 imitate the silversmiths of old, and silence the teacher by the cry, 

 " Great is Diana of the Ephesians ! " What, then, does the physi- 

 cist tell us was the initial condition of this globe ? I will 

 not go into the vexed question of geological time, though, as 

 a geologist, I must say that we have reason to complain of Sir 

 W. Thomson. Years ago he reduced our credit at the bank of 

 time to a hundred million years. We grumbled, but submitted, 

 and endeavored to diminish our drafts. Now he has suddenly put 

 up the shutters, and declared a dividend of less than four shillings 

 in the pound. I trust some aggrieved shareholder will prosecute 

 the manager. While personally I see little hope of arriving at a 

 chronological scale for the age of this earth, I do not believe in its 

 eternity. What, then, does the physicist tell us must have been 

 in the beginning ? I pass to the consistentior status of Leibnitz, 

 when the molten globe had crusted over, and its present history 

 began. Rigid uniformitarian though you may be, you can not 

 deny that, when the very surface of the ground was at a temper- 

 ature of at least 1,000° Fahr., there was no rain, save of glowing 



