82 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



" /// a manner that would almost make us suppose 

 " tliat some miraculous agency was at work to retard 

 ' ' the progress of the formation of these rocks. Indeed 

 " it has been well observed that the mantle of the 

 " preachers has fallen on the geologists, and that 

 " the figures and images by which the former paint 

 " to their terrified audience the duration of 

 "eternity, a parte post have been seized on, and 

 " adopted by the geologists in endeavouring to 

 "describe eternity a parte ante. The infinite time 

 " of the geologists is in the past ; and most of their 

 " speculations regarding this subject seem to imply 

 " the absolute infinity of this time, as if the human 

 " imagination was unable to grasp the period of 

 " time requisite for the formation of a few inches 

 " of sand or feet of mud, and its subsequent consoli- 

 " dation into rock." 



" Professor Thomson x has made an attempt to 

 " calculate the length of time during which the 

 " sun can have gone on burning at the present rate, 

 " and has come to the following conclusion : ' It 

 " ' seems, therefore, on the whole, most probable 



1 Manual of ecology. By the Rev. S. Haughton, F. R. S. Kilition 

 1865, p. 82. 



