<6 7 ) 28* 



thence to the rocks which bound the Nile valley, and 

 which team with organic remains. Thus, in his own 

 clear and admirable way, he caused the idea of the 

 world's age to expand itself indefinitely before the mind 

 of his audience, and he contrasted this with the age 

 usually assigned to the world. 



During his discourse he seemed to be swimming 

 against a stream ; he manifestly thought that he was op- 

 posing a general conviction. He expected resistance ; 

 so did I. But it was all a mistake ; there was no ad- 

 verse current, no opposing conviction, no resistance, 

 merely here and there a half humorous but unsuccess- 

 ful attempt to entangle him in his talk. The meeting 

 agreed with all that had been said regarding the an- 

 tiquity of the earth and of its life. They had, indeed, 

 known it all long ago, and they good-humoredly rallied 

 the lecturer for coming amongst them with so stale a 

 story. It was quite plain that this large body of clergy- 

 men, who were, I should say, the finest samples of their 

 class, had entirely given up the ancient landmarks, and 

 transported the conception of life's origin to an indefi- 

 nitely distant past. 



In fact, clergymen, if I might be allowed a paren- 

 thesis to say so, have as strong a leaning towards scien- 

 tific truth as other men, only the resistance to this bent 

 a resistance due to education is generally stronger 

 in their case than in others. They do not lack the pos- 

 itive element, namely, the love of truth, but the negative 

 element, the fear of error, preponderates. 



The strength of an electric current is determined by 

 two things the electro-motive force, and the resistance 

 that force has to overcome. A fraction, with the former 

 as numerator and the latter as denominator, expresses 



