494 
The Constitution of the Earth. 
[August, 
II. the constitution of the earth. 
By Robert Ward. 
f HE notice which was given, in the “ Journal of Science” 
for June, of my book, “The Constitution of the 
Earth,” well deserves my thanks as an honest attempt 
to give a fair idea of its contents. A book which, as the 
reviewer observes, is “strangely at variance with the 
teachings of our received scientific text-books,” might have 
been safely described in garbled language which appealed to 
the prejudices of the reader, and the writer might have tri- 
umphantly retired from his work with the proud conscious- 
ness of having annihilated the humble individual who had 
presumed to disturb the orthodox scientific teaching of this 
enlightened age. It is undoubtedly the fault of my book 
that it apparently comes into conflict with many ideas which 
have gained a place in our scientific text-books , but I be- 
lieve that I am entitled to plead, in mitigation of my offence, 
that the various departments of science are often greatly in 
conflict with each other. In his “ Physiology of Common 
Life,” the late G. H. Lewes tells us that “ we must never 
attempt to solve the problems of one science by the order of 
conceptions peculiar to another.” I believe that the ob- 
servation is pregnant with truth, and yet we would not be 
justified in concluding that there is some adtual discordance 
in Nature which thus results in conclusions which are in- 
harmonious, if not actually antagonistic. Rather we must 
infer that the seeming incongruity arises from the relativity 
of human knowledge, which is therefore in every direction 
imperfect. If I understand aright the view of creation 
which I have attempted to unfold in my book, instead of 
being in adtual conflict with the great truths which are 
taught in our text-books, it goes far to reconcile many state- 
ments in the different departments of science which are 
more or less inconsistent with each other ; and my faith in 
it is all the more because, as I believe, it also reconciles the 
fundamental dodtrines of Religion with the great truths of 
Science. 
My book might, appropriately enough, have been entitled 
<( The Evolution of the Earth,” but, as explained in the 
introductory chapter, its present title was chosen thirty-six 
years ago, when I published “An Essay on the Constitution 
