72 KEY. A. IRVING, E.A., D.SC, ON EVOLUTIONAKY LAW 



I supplemented and published by Messrs. Longmans in 1889 

 under the title of Chemical and Physical Studies in the Meta- 

 oiiorphism of Rocks. That was intended as an onslaught upon 

 the extreme, uniformitarian teaching of the Lyell School ; and, 

 so far as the writer is aware, has never been refuted. On the 

 contrary, after most favourable notices in such papers as the 

 Scotsman and the Saturday Ecview, witli many otlier minor 

 notices, its main contentions have been strengthened by such 

 utterances as are found in the papers enumerated below,* 

 wliile the fundamental conception, which underlies the more 

 speculative parts of the dissertation, has been amply confirmed 

 by the discovery of the frequent occurrence of "Spiral Nebulae," 

 I which were introduced to the acquaintance of the members of 

 this Institute in the striking lecture of Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S., 

 the Cambridge Astronomer, four years ago.f See further letters 

 to Nature, by myself, vol. Ixxii, pp. 8, 79. 



II. The Darwinian Dogma Non-Commen.surate 

 ^viTH Facts. 



Human knowledge is twofold : (i) there is the region of what 

 we can observe through the senses, aided and supplemented by 

 such powerful means as are furnished by the telescope, the 

 microscope, the spectroscope and the photographic plate, 

 together with the many and various devices of the chemical 

 and physical laboratory, all of which {pace Mr. A. J. BalfourjJ 

 can be included under the head of " phenomena " ; and (ii) there 

 are deeper truths, which the mind reaches by reasoning through 

 processes of induction from what is observed. These inductive 

 jtrocesses lead us a good way in the direction of the noumcna, 

 tlie inner entity of things, but with limitations; so there is 

 always an element of niystery remaining, furnishing a held for 

 speculation, and therefore for a reasoned faith, even in things 



Vid^' Professor l >oniioy's llrdc Zer-^/^yv at Cambridge (1893) ; Profesa(»r 

 Sollaa's Address on Hro'l nfiinml Geology to Section C of tlie British 

 Association (1900) ; l/>rd Kelvin's Adilress to tlie Victoria Institute 

 (1897); and Sir KolxM't iialTs Address (or Lec1ure)to the same Society 

 (19011 To these m;iy he added II ugh ( 'apron's (\Hijlirt of Truth (Hodder 

 and Stoughton, 1903), a work in which things are looked at from the 

 jistronomical ])oint of view, and possesses the great merit of literaiy 

 powt'r. 



t TraiiK. Vict. //'.'</., \()\. xxxiii. 



; Presid(;ntial Addi'ess, Ihitisli Association, Cambridge, 1904. 



