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earth, in such a latitude as that of Britain, as it falls now in 
India, and raised even the ocean to a temperature such as that 
of the Indian Ocean now, is the problem which we think astro- 
nomy, as generally understood, cannot solve. Even if we 
errant the truth of the fundamental principles on which the cal- 
culations of the first philosophical astronomers of our time are 
based (and many competent thinkers will not grant so much), 
we are totally without anything in the popular teachings of the 
science that accounts in any degree for the facts of geology 
to which we refer. . , , - 
In coming to a conclusion,* we are very forcibly reminded ol 
a saying of one great man of science, which has been quoted 
and applied to a special idea by another of nearly equal 
standing. We direct attention to it, because it falls so signally 
short of the whole truth, and yet so faithfully represents a part 
of that truth. It fails to express that very thought which is of 
greatest moment as science stands at the present day. Agassiz 
has said, “ that whenever a new and startling fact is brought 
to light in science, people first say, c It is not true ; then, It is 
contrary to religion and, lastly, that f Everybody knew it be- 
fore/ Sir Charles Lyell quotes this in reference to the idea of 
the former existence of man with many extinct mammalia, 
holding that this, which he seems to regard as a t( fact,” has 
gone through all the three stages spoken of by Agassiz, at 
least so far as practical geologists are concerned. This idea of 
the coexistence of men with mammoths, it is important to ob- 
serve is not a fact, even if perfectly true. It is only an inference, 
at best, perhaps a theory by which certain facts are partially 
explained. So far as this matter of coexistence of man with 
extinct species of animals is concerned, we are not anxious as 
to what may prove to be its ultimate development. TV e refei 
to it at present only in connection with the idea of the three 
stages through which Agassiz said a new and startling fact 
passes. Such “ facts” are often only theories, and we think 
we have given abundant evidence that the law of such things 
in geology calls for a fourth stage, which follows the three 
thus mentioned. In this fourth stage, (( people believe and 
teach the startling doctrine for a generation or two, and then 
find out that they have been all the while thoroughly deceived ! 
Let any one pass carefully over the ground at which we have 
but glanced in this paper, and then let him say if the vast 
* In preparing this paper I have left out of sight not a few of the specu- 
lations by which geology has come into conflict with the Bible, partly because 
moderate limits had to be studied, and also because I was desirous not to re- 
peat here what I have published already. 
