78 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



as a temporary aberration worthy of being ener- 

 getically protested against. 



4. In the course of his lecture, Professor Huxley 

 says : " I do not suppose that at the present day 

 " any geologist would be found to maintain 

 "absolute uniform! tarianism, to deny that the 

 " rapidity of the rotation of the earth may be 

 " diminishing, that the sun may be waxing dim, 

 " or that the earth itself may be cooling. Most of 

 "us, I suspect, are Gallios, 'who care for none of 

 " ' these things,' being of opinion that, true or 

 " fictitious, they have made no practical difference 

 " to the earth, during the period of which a record 

 " is preserved in stratified deposits." 



It is precisely because so many geologists " have 

 cared for none of these things," which (though not 

 matters of words merely) do certainly belong to 

 the law of Nature, that they have brought so much 

 of British popular geology into direct opposition 

 to the principles of Natural Philosophy. Professor 

 Huxley tells us that they have been of opinion 

 that the secular cooling of the earth has made 

 no practical difference to it during the period of 



