ii ABSURD ALTERNATIVE 99 



That is to say, he puts that idea into 

 an absurd form, and then ascribes that 

 absurdity to his opponents. Huxley 

 used to picture a deluge as involving the 

 idea of a mass of water, thousands of 

 feet deep, holding its place at one time 

 and over the whole globe, in defiance of 

 the laws of gravitation, and especially of 

 hydrostatics. It is a pity that Huxley 

 did not live to see the venerable Sir 

 Joseph Prestwich the greatest authority 

 on quaternary geology avow his con- 

 viction that during that period of the 

 earth's history there is a clear geological 

 evidence that there must have been 

 at least over the whole Northern Hemi- 

 sphere some great submergence which 

 was very wide, sudden, transitory, and 

 extensively destructive to terrestrial life. 

 In like manner Mr. Spencer insists 

 that those who have believed in Special 

 Creation must believe that the bodies of 



