ii2 POPULAR LECTURES AND ADDRESSES. 



" and the critical examination of the grounds upon 

 " which the very grave charge of opposition to the 

 " principles of Natural Philosophy has been brought 

 " against us, rather shows that we have exercised 

 " a wise discrimination in declining to meddle with 

 " our foundations at the bidding of the first passer- 

 " by, who fancies our house is not so well built as 

 " it might be." 



The quotations which I have given above prove 

 that my call for reform was very far indeed from 

 being superfluous, and that what Professor Huxley 

 describes as a " reforming from within," has been 

 for the last ten or fifteen years in the wrong 

 direction, so far as the estimation of geological 

 time is concerned : and they bear out my state- 

 ment, that modern British popular geology, " as 

 " represented by a very large, very influential, and 

 " in many respects philosophical and sound body of 

 " geological investigators, constituting perhaps a 

 " majority of British Geologists," is, on some very 

 important points, in " direct opposition " to the 

 principles of Natural Philosophy, and of Physical 

 Astronomy. 



