THE MUSEUM. 



105 



false delicacy on the part of those who 

 should expound it correctly; that is, 

 the prejudice in favor of a popular 

 error, that this earth of ours was made 

 and completed as we see it, and that 

 all its varied productions, its immense 

 deposits, and its great planetary sys- 

 tem was created in the short space of 

 six literal days. This error — a funda- 

 mental one — is still extensively be- 

 lieved and its continuance is a con- 

 stant source of weakness on the part 

 of the assailed, in every attack made 

 by the sceptic upon the authenticity of 

 the sacred writings. 



Again too, as to the number of years 

 this old world of ours has been in ex- 

 istence, we have always believed that 

 the earth was created some 6,000 

 years ago; but Lord Kelvin the Presi- 

 dent of the I^oyal Society of England, 

 believes otherwise. His estimate, 

 based on dates necessarily incomplete, 

 was that the created earth, fit for the 

 support of animal or vegetable life, 

 could not be less than 10,000,000 or 

 more than 400,000,000 years old. 

 Since he published this result, which 

 was discredited at the time, geologists 

 have modified their conceptions, and 

 even come to the conclusion that after 

 all, the time allowed is quite, if not 

 amply sufficient. Dr. Clarence King, 

 one of the most eminent American ge- 

 ologists, has calculated from geological 

 datas, that all the stratified rocks 

 could very well have been produced by 

 the action of water in 24,000,000 

 years. Quite recentl}', however, Pro- 

 fessor John Perry, F. R. S., has ques- 

 tioned Lord Kelvin's estimate, and as- 

 suming that his Lordship did not al- 

 low enough for the greater conducting 

 power of rocks for heat and high tem- 

 peratures has calculated that the age 



of the earth is one hundred and twen- 

 ty times what Lord Kelvin made it, or 

 a matter of thousands of millions of 

 years. Lord Kelvin, thus challenged, 

 has reverted to the subject, and made 

 experiments, only to discover that so 

 far from rocks conducting better when 

 heated, they appear to conduct worse, 

 so that if anything, the lower figures 

 of the estimate are probably more cor- 

 rect. This result also agrees with Dr. 

 King's conclusions, and with the age 

 of the sun as calculated by Holmbolt, 

 Newcomb and Kelvin, at fifteen or 

 twenty million years, for in accordance 

 with the nebular hypothesis of Lap- 

 lace, the sun and planets originated in 

 the same nebular. 



My article may be termed in 

 a great measure a compilatio.n, as I in- 

 tend to depend upon many of the best 

 authors for what I require for my sub- 

 ject; and in order that my geological 

 theory may not be charged with bias 

 from any connection with orthodox 

 authority, I shall prefer to take the 

 geological history as given by science 

 from those authors who have been ap- 

 pealed to by the sceptic as the oppon- 

 ent of revelation. 



THE ARGUMENT. 



Let us suppose an intelligent per- 

 son cast upon an island, which, from 

 all previous knowledge, had never be- 

 fore received the foot of human being. 

 In his perambulations round this is- 

 land, and while viewing the natural 

 beauties of the place, suppose this per- 

 son to come accidentally upon a build- 

 ing — say a house, which has all the 

 appearance of being built and adapted 

 for the habitation of man, furnished 

 throughout with every requisite for his 

 comfort, and lacking only the inhabi- 



