Scientific Lectures. 215 



Agriculture and Political Economy. 

 Did time permit, we might go over other battle-fields no less 

 instructive than those we have seen. "We might go over the battle- 

 fields of agricultural progress, and note how, by a most curious per- 

 version of a text of Scripture, great masses of the peasantry of 

 Eussia were prevented from raising and eating potatoes. We might 

 go over the battle-fields of technology, and note how the introduc- 

 tion of railways into France was declared by an earnest churchman 

 an evidence of the Divine displeasure against country innkeepers, 

 who set meat before their guests on fast days. We might go over 

 the battle-fields of political economy, and note how a too literal 

 interpretation of scriptural text regarding usance wrought fearful 

 injury not only upon the material interests, but upon the moral 

 character of hosts of enterprising and thrifty men. 



Geology. 

 But I shall ask you to only one more of these battle-fields ; and I 

 select it because it shows more clearly than any others how Protes- 

 tant nations, and in our own time, have suffered themselves to be 

 led into the same errors that have wrought injury to religion and 

 science in other times. "We will look very briefly at the battle-fields 

 of geology. From the first lispings of investigators in this science 

 there was war. The early sound doctrine was that fossil remains 

 were lusus natur<x, — freaks of nature ; and in 151Y Fracastor was 

 violently attacked because he thought them something more. No 

 less a man than Bernard Palissy followed up the contest, on the right 

 side in France, but it required 150 years to carrr}^ the day fairly 

 against this single preposterous theory. The champion who dealt it 

 the deadly blow was Scilla ; and his weapons were foots obtained by 

 examination of the fossils of Calabria (1670). But the advocates of 

 tampering with scientific reasoning soon retired to a new position. 

 It was strong, for it was apparently based on Scripture ; though, as 

 the whole world now knows, an utterly exploded interpretation of 

 Scripture. The new position was, that the fossils were produced by 

 the deluge of Noah. In vain had it been shown by such devoted 

 Christians as Bernard Palissy that this theory was utterly untenable ; 

 in vain did good men protest against the injury sure to result to 

 religion by tying it to a scientific theory sure to be exploded ; the 

 doctrine that the fossils were remains of animals drowned at the 

 flood continued to be upheld by the great majority as " souncV doc- 



