216 LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE vi 



leader lighted up once more ; and, referring to 

 the difficulties which beset his early efforts to 

 create a rational science of geology, spoke, with 

 his wonted clearness and vigour, of the social 

 ostracism which pursued him after the publication 

 of the " Principles of Geology," in 1830, on account 

 of the obvious tendency of that noble work to 

 discredit the Pentateuchal accounts of the Creation 

 and the Deluge. If my younger contemporaries 

 find this hard to believe, I may refer them to a 

 grave book, " On the Doctrine of the Deluge/' pub- 

 lished eight years later, and dedicated by its 

 author to his father, the then Archbishop of 

 York. The first chapter refers to the treatment 

 of the " Mosaic Deluge," by Dr. Buckland and 

 Mr. Lyell, in the following terms: 



Their respect for revealed religion has prevented them from 

 arraying themselves openly against the Scriptural account of it 

 much less do they deny its truth 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 

 (P- 1). 



And after an attempt to reply to some of I/yell'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 upon its universality, that the 

 Mosaic Deluge must be considered a preternatural event, far 

 beyond the reach of philosophical inquiry ; not only as to the 

 causes employed to produce it, but as to the effects most likely 



