130 FKAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



raged here is a reverent freedom a freedom preceded 

 by the hard discipline which checks licentiousness in 

 speculation while the thing to be repressed, both in 

 science and out of it, is dogmatism. And here I am 

 in the hands of the meeting willing to end, but ready 

 to go on. I have no right to intrude upon you, un- 

 asked, the unformed notions which are floating like 

 clouds, or gathering to more solid consistency, in the 

 modern speculative scientific mind. But if you wish 

 me to speak plainly, honestly, and undisputatiously, I 

 am willing to do so. On the present occasion 



You are ordained to call, and I to come. 



Well, your answer is given, and I obey your call. 



Two or three years ago, in an ancient London 

 College, I listened to a discussion at the end of a lec- 

 ture by a very remarkable man. Three or four hundred 

 clergymen were present at the lecture. The orator 

 began with the civilisation of Egypt in the time of 

 Joseph ; pointing out the very perfect organisation of 

 the kingdom, and the possession of chariots, in one of 

 which Joseph rode, as proving a long antecedent period 

 of civilisation. He then passed on to the mud of the 

 Nile, its rate of augmentation, its present thickness, 

 and the remains of human handiwork found therein : 

 thence to the rocks which bound the Nile valley, and 

 which teem with organic remains. Thus in his own 

 clear way he caused the idea of the world's age to ex- 

 pand itself indefinitely before the minds of his audience, 

 and he contrasted this with the age usually assigned to 

 the world. During his discourse he seemed to be swim- 

 ming against a stream, he manifestly thought that he 

 was opposing a general conviction. He expected resist- 

 ance in the subsequent discussion ; so did I. But it 

 was all a mistake ; there was no adverse current, no 



