THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY 67 



place among geologists of late years. First, as to 

 whether there has been a continuous succession of 

 events in the organic and inorganic worlds, uninter- 

 rupted by violent and general catastrophes ; and 

 secondly, whether clear evidence can be obtained 

 of a period antecedent to the creation of organic 

 beings on the earth. I am old enough to remember/ 

 he continued, ' when geologists dogmatised on both 

 these questions in a manner very different from that 

 in which they would now venture to indulge/ A 

 sidelight upon the controversy of interest to us 

 appears in connexion with the fact that uniformi- 

 tarian views were contested by Thomson (Kelvin) on 

 the ground that they entailed altogether exaggerated 

 ideas of the extent of geological time. He thus 

 found himself in opposition with Darwin and Huxley 

 among others ; but Huxley, in introducing him as 

 his successor to the chair in 1871, was able to quote 

 the phrase : 



Gentler knight 

 There never broke a lance. 



Kelvin, in the address so introduced, referred to 

 the hypothesis of ' the origin of species by natural 

 selection/ upon which he commented thus : ' I have 

 always felt that this hypothesis does not contain the 

 true theory of evolution, if evolution there has been, 

 in biology/ Twenty-three years later the Marquis 

 of Salisbury, in his presidential address at Oxford, 

 quoted Kelvin's view of the duration of geological 

 time as one of the strongest objections to the 

 Darwinian explanation of ' the origin of the infinite 

 variety of life/ It was a noteworthy circumstance 

 that Kelvin himself and Huxley should respectively 

 propose and second the vote of thanks for this 



