Ill SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE 97 



its head quite so high as it once did." That is 

 great news indeed. But is it true ? All I can 

 say is that I am aware of nothing that has 

 happened of late that can in any way justify 

 it; and my opinion is, that the body of Ly ell's 

 doctrine, as laid down in that great work, "The 

 Principles of Geology," whatever may have hap- 

 pened to its head, is a chief and permanent con- 

 stituent of the foundations of geological science. 



But this question cannot be advantageously dis- 

 cussed, unless we take some pains to discriminate 

 between the essential part of the uniformitarian 

 doctrine and its accessories ; and it does not 

 appear that the Duke of Argyll has carried his 

 studies of geological philosophy so far as this 

 point. For he defines uniformitarianism to be 

 the assumption of the " extreme slowness and 

 perfect continuity of all geological changes." 



What " perfect continuity " may mean in this 

 definition, I am by no means sure ; but I can only 

 imagine that it signifies the absence of any break 

 in the course of natural order during the millions 

 of years, the lapse of which is recorded by 

 geological phenomena. 



Is the Duke of Argyll prepared to say that any 

 geologist of authority, at the present day,; believes 

 that there is the slightest evidence of the occur- 

 rence of supernatural intervention, during the 

 long ages of which the monuments are preserved 

 to us in the crust of the earth ? And if he is not, 



