10 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGICAL 
supported by geological facts ; since it appears 
that the most ancient marine animals occur in 
the same division of the lowest transition strata 
with the earliest remains of vegetables ; so that 
the evidence of organic remains, as far as it 
goes, shows the origin of plants and animals to 
have been contemporaneous : if any creation of 
vegetables preceded that of animals, no evidence 
of such an event has yet been discovered by the 
researches of geology. Still there is, I believe, 
no sound critical, or theological objection, to the 
interpretation of the word “ day,” as meaning a 
long period ; but there will be no necessity for 
such extension, in order to reconcile the text of 
Genesis with physical appearances, if it can be 
shown that the time indicated by the phenomena 
of Geology* may be found in the undefined 
interval, following the announcement of the first 
verse. 
In my inaugural lecture, published at Oxford, 
1820, pp. 31, 32, I have stated my opinion in 
* A very interesting treatise on the Consistency of Geology 
with Sacred History has recently been published at Newhaven, 
1833, by Professor Silliinan, as a supplement to an American 
edition of Bakewell’s Geology, 1833. The author contends that 
the period alluded to in the first verse of Genesis, “ In the be. 
ginning,” is not necessarily connected with the first day, and that 
it may be regarded as standing by itself, and admitting of any 
extension backward in time which the facts may seem to require. 
He is further disposed to consider the six days of creation as 
periods of time of indefinite length, and that the w’ord “day” is 
not of necessity limited to twenty-four hours. 
