dd, that the result of his own calculation had not that effect on the
philosopher himself, or his free-thinking associates, which, for their
own sakes, was desirable; but it is no less valuable to us on that
account; for we know that an unwilling witness to the truth is worth a
score of evidences already prejudiced in its favor."

Now, this is clear, distinct statement; and nothing can be more evident
than that the theologian who makes it holds he is reasoning with
conclusive effect in behalf of what may be termed the short
chronology,--not in its legitimate connection with the recent
introduction of the human species, but in its supposed bearing on the
age of the earth. And in doing so he commits himself to the apparent
positive fact, determined on what may be regarded as geologic data, that
the river Nile has been flowing over its bed for about as many years as
have elapsed, according to the Hebrew chronology adopted by Usher, since
the creation of man, and no more. To the integrity of this inference he
pledges himself, as an inference to which the infidel ought to have
yielded, as conclusive in its bearing on the question of the earth's
age, and as of singular value to the believer who sets himself to deal
with the evidences of his faith. Now, without referring to the
circumstance that the data on which the French savans under Napoleon
founded have since been challenged by geologists, such as Lieutenant
Newbold and Sir G. Wilkinson, who have carefully surveyed the rocks and
soils of Egypt with the assistance of clearer light than existed at the
commencement of the century, let us, for the argument's sake, hold the
inference to be quite as good as this theologian regards it. And see, we
urge upon him, that you yourself do not suffer it to drop should you
find that it commits you to the other side of the argument. Be at least
as fair and honest as you say the infidels ought to have been. The six
and a half metres of silt and slime,--representative, let us hold, of
from five to six thousand years,--rest, you say, on "a foundation of
sand like that of the adjacent desert." But have you ascertained on what
the sand rests? I know nothing of that, replies the theologian; I had
not even thought of that. But the geologist has thought of it, we reply;
and has spent much time under the hot sun in ascertaining the point. For
nearly three hundred miles,--from the inner boundaries of the delta to
within a few hours' journey of the