-but
they are in a great hurry to escape from the consideration of it,
and evidently concur in the opinion of Linnaeus, that no proofs
whatever of the Deluge are to be discovered in the structure of
the earth.' And after an attempt to reply to some of Lyell's
arguments, which it would be cruel to reproduce, the writer
continues:--'When, therefore, upon such slender grounds, it is
determined, in answer to those who insist on its universality,
that the Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event,
far beyond the reach of philosophical enquiry; not only as to the
causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most likely
to result from it; that determination wears an aspect of
scepticism, which, however much soever it may be unintentional in
the mind of the writer, yet cannot but produce an evil impression
on those who are already predisposed to carp and cavil at the
evidence of Revelation.'"

The great evil of authority was its tendency to erect itself into some
form of infallibility of universal application. When, for a time, the
geological victory was won, and the supporters of authority had
comforted themselves with reconciliations, there arose the much
greater and more serious opposition between authority and the
conceptions involved in evolution. Huxley, as we have seen in an
earlier chapter, found that all the old weapons of authority were
resumed with a renewed assurance, and his advocacy of the duty of
doubt became not merely the defence of a great principle but a means
of self-defence. The conception of infallible authority had been
transferred by Protestants from the Church to the Bible, and against
this Huxley strove with all his might. It is convenient to reserve a
full treatment of Huxley's attitude to the Bible for a separate
chapter, but at this point a quotation will shew his general view.

[Illustration: SIR CHARLES LYELL]

"The truth is that the pretension to infallibility, by whomsoever
made, has done endless mischief; with impartial malignity it has
proved a curse, alike to those who have made it and those who
have accepted it; and its most baneful shape is book
infallibility. For sacerdotal corporations and schools of
philosophy are able, under due compulsion of opinion, to retreat
from positions that have become untenable; while the dead hand of
a book sets and stiffe