of geology, which in a stable and tested form belongs to the nineteenth
century. Of its theoretic founders in the eighteenth century, Werner
and Dr. James Hutton (1726-1797), the latter and more important [1899]
is known from his Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge (1794)
to have been consciously a freethinker on more grounds than that of
his naturalistic science; and his Theory of the World (1795) was
duly denounced as atheistic. [1900] Whereas the physical infinity
of the universe almost forced the orthodox to concede a vast cosmic
process of some kind as preceding the shaping of the earth and solar
system, the formation of these within six days was one of the plainest
assertions in the sacred books; and every system of geology excluded
such a conception. As the evidence accumulated, in the hands of men
mostly content to deprecate religious opposition, [1901] there was duly
evolved the quaint compromise of the doctrine that the Biblical six
"days" meant six ages--a fantasy still cherished in the pulpit. On
the ground of that absurdity, nevertheless, there gradually grew
up a new conception of the antiquity of the earth. Thus a popular
work on geology such as The Ancient World, by Prof. Ansted (1847),
could begin with the proposition that "long before the human race
had been introduced on the earth this world of ours existed as the
habitation of living things different from those now inhabiting its
surface." Even the thesis of "six ages," and others of the same order,
drew upon their supporters angry charges of "infidelity." Hugh Miller,
whose natural gifts for geological research were chronically turned to
confusion by his orthodox bias, was repeatedly so assailed, when in
point of fact he was perpetually tampering with the facts to salve
the Scriptures. [1902] Of all the inductive sciences geology had
been most retarded by the Christian canonization of error. [1903]
Even the plain fact that what is dry land had once been sea was
obstinately distorted through centuries, though Ovid [1904] had put
the observations of Pythagoras in the way of all scholars; and though
Leonardo da Vinci had insisted on the visible evidence; nay, deistic
habit could keep even Voltaire, as we saw, preposterously incredulous
on the subject. When the scientific truth began to force its way in
the teeth of such authorities as Cuvier, who stood for the "Mosaic"
doctrine, the effect was proportionately marked; and whether or not the
suicide of Miller (1856) was in any way due to despair on perception of
the collapse of his reconciliation of geology with Genesis, [1905] the
scientific demonstration made an end of revelationism for many. What
helped most to save orthodoxy from humiliation on the scientific side
was the attitude of men like Professor Baden Powell, whose scientific
knowledge and habit of mind moved him to attack the Judaism of the
Bibliolaters in the name of Christianity, and in the name of truth
to declare that "nothing in geology bears the smallest semblance to
any part of the Mosaic cosmogony, torture the interpretation to what
extent we may." [1906] In 1857 this was very bold language.