VI LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE 215 



confronted and opposed, on their own ground, 

 by ecclesiastical pretensions to better knowledge, 

 it is, undoubtedly, most desirable for them to 

 make sure that their conclusions, whatever they 

 may be, are well founded. And, if they put aside 

 the unauthorised interference with their business 

 and relegate the Pentateuchal history to the 

 region of pure fiction, they are bound to assure 

 themselves that they do so because the plainest 

 teachings of Nature (apart from all doubtful 

 speculations) are irreconcilable with the assertions 

 which they reject. 



At the present time, it is difficult to persuade 

 serious scientific inquirers to occupy themselves, 

 in any way, with the Noachian Deluge. They 

 look at you with a smile and a shrug, and say 

 they have more important matters to attend to 

 than mere antiquarianism. But it was not so in 

 my youth. At that time, geologists and biologists 

 could hardly follow to the end any path of inquiry 

 without finding the way blocked by Noah and his 

 ark, or by the first chapter of Genesis ; and it 

 was a serious matter, in this country at any rate, 

 for a man to be suspected of doubting the literal 

 truth of the Diluvial or any other Pentateuchal 

 history. The fiftieth anniversary of the founda- 

 tion of the Geological Club (in 1824) was, if I 

 remember rightly, the last occasion on which the 

 late Sir Charles Lyell spoke to even so small a 

 public as the members of that body. Our veteran 



