us creation that had operated for a long
period through secondary causes. Others take days as periods, and thus
allow the required time, admitting that creation was one in progress,
a grand whole, instead of a _first_ creation excepting man by one
method, and a _second_ with man by the other. This is now the
remaining question between the theologians and geologists; for all the
minor points, as to the exact interpretation of each day, do not
affect the general concordance or discordance of the Bible and
science.

"On this point geology is now explicit in its decision, and indeed has
long been so. It proves that there was no return to chaos, no great
revolution, that creation was beyond doubt one in its progress. We
know that some geologists have taken the other view. But it is only in
the capacity of theologians, and not as geologists. The Rev. Dr.
Buckland, in placing the great events of geology between the first and
second verses of the Mosaic account, did not pretend that there was a
geological basis for such an hypothesis; and no writer since has ever
brought forward the first fact in geology to support the idea of a
rearrangement just before man; not one solitary fact has ever been
appealed to. The conclusion was on Biblical grounds, and not in any
sense on geological. The best that Buckland could say, when he wrote
twenty-five years since, was that geology did not absolutely disprove
such an hypothesis; and that can not be said now.

"It is often asserted, in order to unsettle confidence in these
particular teachings of geology, that geology is a changing science.
In this connection the remark conveys an erroneous impression. Geology
is a progressive science; and all its progress tends to establish more
firmly these two principles: (1) The slow progress of creation through
secondary causes, as explained; and (2) the progress by periods
analogous to the days of Genesis."

I have, I trust, shown that the principal objections to the
lengthening of the Mosaic days into great cosmical periods are of a
character too light and superficial to deserve any regard. I shall now
endeavor to add to the internal evidence previously given some
considerations of an external character which support this view.

1. The fact that the creation was progressive, that it proceeded from
the formation of the raw material of the universe, through successive
stages, to the perfection of living organisms, if we regard the
analogy of God's