324 GEOLOGICAL REFORM x 



and I presume it will have become obvious that 

 in my belief, the last is destined to swallow up 

 the other two. But it is proper to remark that 

 each of the latter has kept alive the tradition of 

 precious truths. 



CATASTROPHISM has insisted upon the existence 

 of a practically unlimited bank of force, on which 

 the theorist might draw; and it has cherished the 

 idea of the development of the earth from a state 

 in which its form, and the forces which it exerted, 

 were very different from those we now know. 

 That such difference of form and power once 

 existed is a necessary part of the doctrine of 

 evolution. 



UNIFORMITARIANISM, on the other hand, has with 

 equal justice insisted upon a practically unlimited 

 bank of time, ready to discount any quantity of 

 hypothetical paper. It has kept before our eyes 

 the power of the infinitely little, time being 

 granted, and has compelled us to exhaust known 

 causes, before flying to the unknown. 



To my mind there appears to be no sort of 

 necessary theoretical antagonism between Cata- 

 strophism and Uniformitarianism. On the contrary, 

 it is very conceivable that catastrophes may be 

 part and parcel of uniformity. Let me illustrate 

 my case by analogy. The working of a clock is a 

 model of uniform action ; good time-keeping 

 means uniformity of action. But the striking 

 of the clock is essentially a catastrophe; the 



