212 REV. A. IRVING, D.SC., B.A., ON 
The notion of a “frozen globe” melted by “ fierce. sunshine ” is 
one of which, as a geologist, I have never heard until now, and is on 
physical considerations inadmissible. I have adopted the calculations 
of Lord Kelvin, as a working hypothesis ; but we have it on his own 
authority, that the ‘matter-of-fact foundation” for his conclusion 
(that is to say, his primary data) is furnished by “the heat which we 
know to be now conducted out of the earth yearly.”* Such observations 
and measurements are as independent of the hypothesis of the 
consolidation of the earth from the centre to the circumference, as 
the use of the balance in the determinations of atomic weights (and 
in quantitative analysis generally) is independent of the theory of 
“electrons.” For my purpose “consolidation of the earth” need 
mean no more than consolidation of the external crust. The 
conclusion as to the age of the sun, in comparison with that of 
the earth, based on “the well-founded dynamical theory of the 
sun’s heat,” seems to me independent of such considerations. 
However, I am obliged to my critic for giving me an opportunity 
for putting this point more definitely. 
(4) The notion of directivity is one which gives my critic much 
trouble. Even if the consensus of “accredited authorities ” were so 
one-sided as he asserts, the thoughtful student of science would not 
be bound by their credo. To admit such an assumption would be to 
put an end to scientific enquiry. Mr. Woods Smyth does not 
attempt to answer the arguments adduced in my two papers: he 
merely contradicts on the strength of his own summing-up of 
“authorities.” That is rather the way of ‘“ Vaticanism” than of 
either science or philosophy. I deny that ‘authority” on this 
question belongs to the biologists exclusively, or even in any special 
degree to.such men as Herbert Spencer (who was not a scientist) or 
the prophet of Jena.t Men like Lord Kelvin, who speak of 
“ Creative and Directive Power,” and look at these matters in a 
* See his lecture on “the Age of the Earth,” to the Victoria Institute. 
(The italics are Kelvin’s own.) 
+ “Has the mantle of Infallibility been torn from the shoulders of 
the Pope merely to be placed upon those of the Professor ?” sagely asks. 
Mr. G. T. Manley in his splendid paper ou the “Old Testament in 
Relation to Science,” read at the Church Congress in 1907. (See the 
Guardian October 9th, 1907.) 
