138 THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 



from the controlling and perverting influ- 

 ence of theology, all-powerful at the ear- 

 lier date. As the geologist of my young 

 days wrote, he had one eye upon fact, and 

 the other on Genesis ; at present, he wise- 

 ly keeps both eyes on fact, and ignores 

 the pentateuchal mythology altogether. 

 The publication of the 'Principles of 

 Geology ' brought upon its illustrious au- 

 thor a period of social ostracism ; the in- 

 struction given to our children is based 

 upon those principles. Whewell had the 

 courage to attack Ly ell's fundamental 

 assumption (which surely is a dictate of 

 common sense) that we ought to exhaust 

 known causes before seeking for the ex- 

 planation of geological phenomena in 

 causes of which we have no experience. 

 But geology has advanced to its present 

 state by working from Lyell's * axiom ; 



* Perhaps I ought rather to say Boffon's axiom. 

 For that great naturalist and writer embodied the 

 principles of sound geology in a pithy phrase of the 



