lOO PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



the nature of light; and Roemer measured its speed; 

 Halley estimated the sun's distance, predicted the 

 return of comets, and observed the transits of Venus 

 and Mercury; Hunter dissected specimens, and laid 

 the foundations of the science of comparative anat- 

 omy; and many another illustrious worker con- 

 tributed to the world's stock of knowledge " without 

 let or hindrance," for in all this " matters of theology 

 were precluded." 



But the old spirit of resistance was aroused when, 

 after a long lapse of time, inquiry was revived in 

 a branch of science which, it will be noticed, has no 

 distinct place in the subjects dealt with by the Royal 

 Society at the start. That science was Geology; a 

 science destihed, in its ultimate scope, to prove a far 

 more powerful dissolvent of dogma than any of its 

 compeers. 



It seems strange that the discovery of the earth's 

 true shape and movements was not sooner followed 

 by investigation into her contents, but the old ideas 

 of special creation remained unaffected by these and 

 other discoveries, and the more or less detailed 

 account of the process of creation furnished in the 

 book of Genesis sufficed to arrest curiosity. In the 

 various departments of the inorganic universe the 

 earth was the last to become subject of scientific re- 

 search; as in study of the organic universe, man ex- 

 cluded himself till science compelled his inclusion. 



After more than two thousand years, the Ionian 

 philosophers " come to their own " again. Xenoph- 



