216 TUAXSACTIOXS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



trine. It took 120 years for the searchers of God's truth, as revealed 

 in nature, such men as Buffon, Linnasus, Woodward, and White- 

 hurst, to run under these mighty fabrics of error, and, by statements 

 which could not be resisted, to explode them. 



Stran<^e as it may at first seem, the war on geology was waged 

 more fiercely in Protestant countries than Catholic; and of all coun- 

 tries, England furnished the most bitter opponents. You have noted 

 already that there are generally two sorts otattacks on a new science. 

 First, there is the attack by putting against science some great 

 doctrine in theology. You saw tliis in astronoiriy, when Bellarmine 

 and others insisted that the doctrine of tlie earth's revolving about 

 the sun is contrary to the doctrine of the incarnation. So now against 

 geology it was urged that the scientific doctrine that the fossils repre- 

 sented animals which died before Adam was contrary to the doctrine 

 of Adam's fall, and that death entered the world by sin.' Then there 

 is the attack by the literal interpretation of texts, which serves a 

 better purpose generally in rousing prejudice. It is difficult to realize 

 it now ; but witliin the memory of the majority of those before me, 

 the battle was raging most fiercely in England, and both these kinds 

 of artillery were in full play and filling the civilized world with their 

 roar. Less than thirty years ago, the Rev. J. Mellor Bi'own was 

 hurling at all geologists alike, and especially at such Christian divines 

 as Dr. Buckland, Dean Conybeare, and Pye Smith, and sucli reli- 

 gious scholars as Professor Sedgwick, the epithets of " Infidel," 

 "Impugner of the Sacred Record," and "Assailant of the Volume of 

 God." riis favorite weapon was the charge, that these men were 

 " attacking the Truth of God," forgetting that they were simply 

 opposing the mistaken interpretations of J. Mellor Brown. lie 

 declared geology " not a subject of lawful inquiry ;" he speaks of 

 it as a " dark art," as " dangerous and disreputable," as a " forbidden 

 province." This attempt to scare men from the science having 

 failed, various other means were taken. 



To say nothing about England, it is humiliating to human nature 

 to remember the trials to which the pc^ttiest and narrowest of men 

 subjected such Christian scholars in our country as Benjamin Silli- 

 man and Edward Hitchcock. But it is a duty and a pleasure to state 

 here that one great Christian scholar did honor to religion and to 

 himself by standing up for the claims of science despite all these 

 •clamors. Tiiat man was Nicliolas Wiseman, better known afterwards 

 as Cardinal Wiseman. The conduct of this pillar of the Roman Catho- 



