Mr. 80-81.] UNIFOKMITARIANISM. 369 



grade step, that I am reviving an exploded doctrine, and that I 

 am ignoring the doctrine of uniformity, which now, it may be 

 urged, regulates geological progress. But I refuse to be judged 

 on such a basis. While admitting as a fundamental truth the 

 proposition of the identity of forces in present and past times, I 

 contend that the exhibition of these forces has been unequal in 

 degree. The contention for this uniformity is based solely upon 

 the value of man's personal evidence, and when the term of this 

 is compared with that term beyond which it does not extend, 

 the propositions are such as to render it comparatively valueless. 

 It is a limited terrestrial measure of distance compared to the 

 measure of our solar distance, and we can no more tell what may 

 have occurred beyond that term than we can tell what cosmical 

 phenomena may have occurred in the vast interval which 

 separates us from our luminary, except on the evidence of the 

 residual phenomena. 



Half a century ago Dr Buckland, after considerable investiga- 

 tion, came to the conclusion that a deluge had passed over the 

 land, and that we had in our superficial deposits and the remains 

 of the entombed animals evidence of the fact. Sedgwick and 

 other distinguished men adopted the same view for a time, but it 

 was abandoned in consequence of other evidence of a conflicting 

 character subsequently brought forward. But, while abandoned 

 in this country, that opinion has held its ground on the Con- 

 tinent, and a nomenclature in accordance with that view has 

 been adopted for certain geological deposits, such as Diluvium 

 rouge, Diluvium gris, and Alluvium ancienne. 



As may be seen from his letters, Joseph Prestwich 

 held strong anti-uniformitarian views, and yet he could 

 not be classed as a catastrophist in the old sense of the 

 word. Always at work, the autumn of 1893 found 

 him occupied in writing a magazine article, " On the 

 Position of Geology (a Chapter on Uniformitarianism)." 

 This appeared in the ' Nineteenth Century ' for October, 

 and the two following notes to his friend the Rev. O. 

 Fisher have reference to it. It was a declaration of 



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