THE HUXLEY FILE
[241] In a letter which appeared in last week's Nature [p. 217], Dr. Dupré refers to a "too much forgotten paper by Immanuel Kant," and speaks of Kant's contributions to natural science as being, at present, "almost universally overlooked."
Whatever may be the case elsewhere, I do not think that, in England, we are open to this reproach, inasmuch as in the year 1869, when I had the honour to be President of the Geological Society, a very considerable portion of my anniversary address "On Geological Reform" was devoted to an attempt to do justice to Kant's work, and to indicate the high place which it occupies in the history of scientific geology. The address is reprinted in my "Lay Sermons," and therefore I have reason to know that a considerable portion of the reading, or at any rate book—buying, public has no excuse for "overlooking Kant's work."
I may remark, in passing, that so far as my knowledge extends, the extreme "Uniformitarianism" which Prof. Ball atttacks, has long been as much "a creed outworn" as "Plutonism" or "Neptunism." Indeed, I said as much in 1869.
THE HUXLEY FILE