1 877.] 
Notices of Books. 
553 
find is the real position of “ Verifier.” His mind, in approaching 
the question, is not “ tabula rasa,” but is filled with prepossessions 
and with an anti-geological — we can scarcely help saying utterly 
unscientific — dogmatism, which the work before us is an attempt 
to justify. “ The assumptions of modern geology,” he tells us, 
“ have filled some minds with alarm.” But alarm, or indeed 
emotion of any kind, is utterly to be avoided by the man who lays 
claim to the position of a sceptic. 
It may seem that we have brought grave charges against the 
unknown author, but on a careful examination of the book they 
will appear only too fully justified. He seems to anticipate 
“ rough usage,” if noticed at all, possibly from some internal 
misgivings concerning his “ facfts ” and his “ arguments,” but, as 
is common with writers of his school, he appeals to the “ candid 
reader.” 
Our first proof that he is by no means the disinterested doubter, 
the modest enquirer he would fain appear, may be found in his 
remarks on geological time. He tells us “ it is necessary to pro- 
test against the insatiable demands of geologists for time.” He 
sneers at the observation of Darwin that it cost only 300 millions 
of years to denude the Weald. He declares there cannot be a 
more “ groundless assumption” than the dicftum of Mr. Geikie 
that “ time is power.” Can he pretend to misunderstand Mr. 
Geikie’s meaning ? “ Would it not,” he asks, “ become the geolo- 
gists of our time to abandon a position which enforces on their 
followers a belief almost amounting to a superstition ?” Now we 
defy him to show any inherent or intrinsic improbability in the 
“ untold ages,” the “ incalculable periods of time ’’which move his in- 
dignation. A priori, it is equally likely that the world has existed for 
six thousand, six million, or six billion years, and those who suppose 
the latter are not more credulous than those, if any, who still believe 
the latter. The advocates of Usher’s chronology, who dream that 
“ the world was created in autumn, 4004 years before the vulgar 
Christian era,” have certainly no reason to tax geologists with 
credulity or superstition. Our argument in favour of the long 
past duration of the earth is drawn from the impossibility of com- 
pressing into a shorter time the occurrences of which the “ stone 
book ” has preserved the record. His grounds against the 
“ incalculable ages ” are never put forward at all, and may there- 
fore, without any want of charity, be set down as a mere preju- 
dice. It is instructive to note how eagerly, in default of any facts 
to prove the recent origin of the earth, he catches at shadows. 
He tells us in his Preface — “ Darwin, Lyell, and others who pro- 
claim a term of 300 millions of years insufficient for some of the 
operations of geology, are warned — £ So much the worse for 
geology, since physical conditions render it impossible to allow 
her more than 10 or 15 millions of years.’ ” But does he not 
know that we regard these “ physical considerations ” — the re- 
cently attempted mathematical investigations into the maximum 
