74 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



" certain that a great mistake has been made that 

 " British popular geology, at the present time, is 

 1 in direct opposition to the principles of natural 

 " philosophy." 



2. Professor Huxley attempts to answer these 

 charges, and appeals to "that higher court of 

 " educated scientific opinion to which we are all 

 "amenable," for a verdict of "not guilty." He 

 prefaces " his pleading " with the following remark- 

 able statement : " As your attorney-general for 

 " the time being, I thought I could not do better 

 " than get up the case with a view of advising you. 

 " It is true that the charges brought forward by 

 " the other side involve the consideration of matters 

 " quite foreign to the pursuits with which I am 

 "ordinarily occupied; but in that respect I am 

 " only in a position which is, nine times out of ten, 

 " occupied by counsel, who, nevertheless, contrive 

 " to gain their causes, mainly by force of mother- 

 " wit and common sense, aided by some training 

 " in other intellectual exercises." 



I must, therefore, in the beginning, be permitted 

 to say that the very root of the evil to which I 



