ON INCREDULITY WITH RESPECT TO GEOLOGICAL FACTS. 55 
think they were wrong ; but still they make a dead stop at the fact 
that the Wycombe Valley, e.g., was once at the bottom of the sea. 
You then take them to a chalk quarry, show them its nature, ask 
them how the fossils came there? The general reply, when any 
thought is exercised at all, is, that the Deluge left them there; and 
_ this, although a deception, is at least a point gained, for it makes 
them acknowledge that the Deluge wrought a change on the earth’s 
surface. But what are we to say to aman who declares, in spite 
of all you tell him, that he does not believe these fossils ever 
were living animals, but that God created the quarry with them 
in their present state embedded in it? Is he any better than un- 
believing philosophers who referred them to an abortive attempt 
of Nature—a sort of trial of skill before she attempted to make the 
perfect being? ‘With such a person we cannot argue, since he 
does not inherit the ground which we ought to possess in common, 
on which to base our premises—I allude to the use of his senses 
in connection with his reflective faculties. ‘Though the number 
of such people is decreasing it is still considerable ; and they are 
to be found mostly amongst those who make the greatest religious 
profession: they fancy that the Bible teaches them differently ; 
but ask them where, and they are lost; they will not however 
yield their belief any the more for that. Few educated people, who 
have honestly looked at both sides of the question, would now 
affirm that the earth is scarcely 6000 years old,—I say if they have 
looked at both sides,—because there is a certain section of educated 
persons who wil not look at the opposite side for fear it should 
prove to be the right one; they will tell you that they have con- 
scientiously examined one side and found it to be true, and they 
refuse on principle to examine the other. As these will not argue, 
they must go into the same class with the man who believes in the 
plastic attempts of the Creator. 
I thought of taking just one or two of the common facts of 
Geology that are more or less appalling to such persons as those I 
have mentioned, and of showing the simple grounds on which 
they are to be received and believed. 
