76 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



" the other hand, Kant is true to science. He 

 " knows no bounds to geological speculation, but 

 " those of intellect. He reasons back to a begin- 

 " ning of the present state of things ; he admits the 

 " possibility of an end." Professor Huxley does 

 not use words without a meaning : and these mean 

 that Hutton was not true to science, when he said, 

 " The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, 

 " that we find no vestige of a beginning, no pros- 

 " pect of an end." The chief complaint on which 

 I am now brought into court is, that I have 

 extended the same accusation to modern followers 

 of Hutton who have used this dictum as a funda- 

 mental maxim of their geology. 



3. In opening his case, Professor Huxley asks, 

 " What is it to which Sir W. Thomson refers when 

 " he speaks of 'geological speculation ' and ' British 

 " ' Popular Geology ' ? " then enters on a highly 

 interesting and instructive discussion of various 

 schools of geological philosophy, which constitutes 

 the chief substance of his address, and recurs to 

 the question, " Which of these is it that Sir William 

 " Thomson calls upon us to reform ?" Hut instead 



