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corrected Rogations (Sidon., lib. vii. Epist. i ad Mamercum), at such time 
as he and his people were after afflicted with famine, and besieged with 
potent adversaries.” 
I need not, however, make further citations from Hooker, who explains 
the connection between these “ Rogations ” and the Rogation Days established 
by the Council of Aurelia, a.d. 506, and also with the petitions in the Litany 
of the Church of England against sudden calamities, to which Cartwright had 
objected. The Oxford edition of Hooker’s works (1845), from which I quote, 
refers also to Palmer’s Ongines Liturgicce, i. 267-272, where, also, these 
“ dreadful calamities ” are referred to, thus affording a sufficient key to this 
neglected passage of “true history well-nigh forgotten, though twelve 
centuries later than the First Olympiad ! 
And what is the brief sum of the whole matter as regards the extinct 
volcanoes of Auvergne? Supposing Sir Charles Lyell to be right in his 
conviction that these mountain cones have never been covered with water 
since they were last erupted, then that certainly would prove that they were 
not erupted prior to the general deluge. But, instead of that conclusion 
supporting Dr. Colenso’s illogical scepticism, that therefore the deluge was not 
universal, as the Bible “ manifestly ” teaches, it merely confirms the modem 
historical evidence that the eruptions took place not only long after Noah’s 
flood, but even long after Julius Caesar invaded Gaul, — namely, in the fifth 
century of our era. Thus the sacred history of the universal deluge is not affected 
by what “ we know for certain ” respecting Auvergne ; and one of the most 
positive geological conclusions of Sir Charles Lyell, that these mountain 
cones were never under water, is confirmatory of the historic evidence, which 
every time we hear the Litany in church, and as often as the Rogation 
Days before Ascension-tide come round— as often, even, as we see the boys of 
a parish “ beating the bounds,” that old custom being in fact a relic of the 
Auvergne processional Rogations, — must now be brought to our remembrance, 
to remind us of this extraordinary specimen of “ the Logic of Scepticism ” 
with which Dr. Colenso has “ especially ” identified himself. One thing is 
completely settled besides, by the whole evidence now before us,— namely this, 
the very modern character of those mountain cones, the fancied great antiquity 
of which was first guessed at, and then put forward as established upon 
“ geological grounds,” and lastly relied on as one of the grand proofs of the 
antiquity of man in connection with his probable ape origin! — Verily, 
“ pulchr® ill® meditationes et speculations human® et causationes res mala- 
sana sint, nisi quod non adsit qui advertat ! ” (Nov. Org., Aph. X.) I may 
add, that the age of the deposits in the valley of the Somme is also affected 
by this disproof of the antiquity of the Auvergne mountain cones ; inasmuch 
as the “ flint implements ” there found were embedded with pal® ontological 
remains, similar to those discovered along with the “fossil man of St. Denise.” 
