ral view that the Earth is only six thousand years
old, and that it was made in a week.--Patristic chronology
founded on the ages of the patriarchs.--Difficulties arising
from different estimates in different versions of the Bible.

Legend of the Deluge.--The repeopling.--The Tower of Babel;
the confusion of tongues.--The primitive language.

Discovery by Cassini of the oblateness of the planet
Jupiter.--Discovery by Newton of the oblateness of the
Earth.--Deduction that she has been modeled by mechanical
causes.--Confirmation of this by geological discoveries
respecting aqueous rocks; corroboration by organic remains.--
The necessity of admitting enormously long periods of
time.--Displacement of the doctrine of Creation by that of
Evolution--Discoveries respecting the Antiquity of Man.

The time-scale and space-scale of the world are infinite.--
Moderation with which the discussion of the Age of the World
has been conducted.

THE true position of the earth in the universe was established only
after a long and severe conflict. The Church used whatever power she
had, even to the infliction of death, for sustaining her ideas. But
it was in vain. The evidence in behalf of the Copernican theory became
irresistible. It was at length universally admitted that the sun is the
central, the ruling body of our system; the earth only one, and by no
means the largest, of a family of encircling planets. Taught by the
issue of that dispute, when the question of the age of the world
presented itself for consideration, the Church did not exhibit the
active resistance she had displayed on the former occasion. For,
though her traditions were again put in jeopardy, they were not, in her
judgment, so vitally assailed. To dethrone the Earth from her dominating
position was, so the spiritual authorities declared, to undermine the
very foundation of revealed truth; but discussions respecting the date
of creation might within certain limits be permitted. Those limits were,
however, very quickly overpassed, and thus the controversy became as
dangerous as the former one had been.

It was not possible to adopt the advice given by Plato in his "Timaeus,"
when treating of this subject--the origin of the universe: "It is proper
that both I who speak and you who judge should remember that we are but
men, and therefore, receiving the probable mythological tradition,