44 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



not satisfy some great geologists the earth must 

 have been rotating more than twice as fast 

 as at present and if it had been solid then, it 

 must be now something totally different from what 

 it is. Now, here is direct opposition between 

 physical astronomy, and modern geology as re- 

 presented by a very large, very influential, and, 

 I may also add, in many respects, philosophical 

 and sound body of geological investigators, con- 

 stituting perhaps a majority of British geologists. 

 It is quite certain that a great mistake has been 

 made that British popular geology at the present 

 time is in direct opposition to the principles of 

 natural philosophy. Without going into details 

 I may say it is no matter whether the earth's 

 lost time is 22 seconds, or considerably more or 

 less than 22 seconds, in a century, the principle is 

 the same. There cannot be uniformity. The 

 earth is filled with evidences that it has not been 

 going on for ever in the present state, and that 

 there is a progress of events towards a state in- 

 finitely different from the present. 



21. But it is not only to the effect of the 



