280 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [Chap. 



would bo easy to give numerous examples. It will be bet- 

 ter, however, only to cite one or tAVO authorities of weight. 

 Now, perhaps no writer of tlie earlier Christian ages could 

 be quoted Avhose authority is more generally recognized 

 than that of St. Augustine. The same may be said of the 

 mediicval period, for St. Thomas Aquinas ; and, since the 



pliysico-theological systcnis of Burnet, "Whiston, and Woodward ; while 

 Vallisncri, in his coniincuts on the Woodwardian theory, remarked how 

 much the interests of reli}j;ion, as well as tliofie of sound phihisophy, had 

 sulVercd by porpotiuilly mixing up the sacred writinj^s with questions 

 of physical science." Again, he quotes the Carmelite friar Cenerelli, 

 who, illustrating Moro before the Academy of Cremona in 1749, strongly 

 oi)posed those who would introduce the supernatural into the donmin of 

 Nature. " I hold in utter abomination, most learned Academicians ! 

 those systems which are built with their foundations in the air, and can- 

 not be propped up without a miracle, and I undertake, with the assist- 

 ance of Moro, to explain to you how these marine monsters were trans- 

 ported into the mountains by natural causes." 



Sir Charles Lyell notices with exemplary impartiality the spirit of in- 

 tolerance on both sides. How in France, BufTon, on the one hand, was 

 influenced by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne to recant his theory 

 of the earth, and how Voltaire, on the other, allowed his prejudices to 

 get the better, if not of his judgment, certainly of his expression of it. 

 Thinking that fossil remains of shells, etc., were evidence in favor of or- 

 tbodox views, Voltaire, Sir Charles Lyell (Principles, p. 56) tells us, 

 ''endeavored to inculcate skepticism as to the real nature of such shells, 

 and to recall from contempt the exploded dogma of the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, that they were sports of Nature. He also pretended that vegetable 

 impressions were not those of real plants." ..." He would sometimes, 

 in defiance of all consistency, shift his ground when addressing the vul- 

 gar; and, admitting the true nature of the shells collected in the Al|)S 

 and other places, pretend that they were Eastern species, whieli had 

 fallen from the hats of pilgrims coming from Syria. The numerous essays 

 written by him on geological subjects were all calculated to strengthen 

 prejudices, partly because he was ignorant of the real state of the science, 

 and partly from his bad faith." As to the harmony between many early 

 Church writers of great authority and modern views as regards certain 

 matters of geology, see "Geology and Kevelation," by the liev. Gerald 

 Molloy, D. D., London, 1870. 



