1898] NEW SCHEME OF GEOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 41 



other, indulge. There is no way of bursting our bonds but that of 

 indulging in timely impertinence, and this can only be done by 

 those who do not care a fig for conventional orthodoxy, and would 

 rather be burnt with Savonarola than go on repeating worn-out 

 shibboleths with Pope Leo or Pope Pius, with Pope Lyell or Pope 

 liamsay. I have now laid down some audacious impertinences. If 

 they are false, my superstructure must be a mere building of sand, 

 and I myself must be a more ridiculous person than even some of 

 my orthodox friends have thought. If they be true, I may perhaps 

 claim for my position, at least, a more lasting reputation than can 

 be claimed for a very large part of the orthodox geology of 

 recent years. Having laid these foundations, I shall, in the next 

 chapter, try in some measure to justify my rashness, and grapple 

 more concretely with the problem I set out to face, namely, to 

 assimilate more closely than at present the terminology and methods 

 of geology to the conclusions which accumulated experience seem 

 to render necessary. Henky. H. Howortii. 



