the sacred record of
Creation and left no place for miraculous intervention; and when it
was found that he had entirely cast aside their cherished idea that the
great geological changes of the earth's surface and the multitude of
fossil remains were due to the Deluge of Noah, and had shown that a far
longer time was demanded for Creation than any which could possibly
be deduced from the Old Testament genealogies and chronicles, orthodox
indignation burst forth violently; eminent dignitaries of the Church
attacked him without mercy and for a time he was under social ostracism.

As this availed little, an effort was made on the scientific side to
crush him beneath the weighty authority of Cuvier; but the futility of
this effort was evident when it was found that thinking men would no
longer listen to Cuvier and persisted in listening to Lyell. The great
orthodox text-book, Cuvier's Theory of the Earth, became at once so
discredited in the estimation of men of science that no new edition
of it was called for, while Lyell's work speedily ran through twelve
editions and remained a firm basis of modern thought.(164)

(164) For Buckland and the various forms of attack upon him, see Gordon,
Life of Buckland, especially pp. 10, 26, 136. For the attack on Lyell
and his book, see Huxley, The Lights of the Church and the Light of
Science.

As typical of his more moderate opponents we may take Fairholme, who in
1837 published his Mosaic Deluge, and argued that no early convulsions
of the earth, such as those supposed by geologists, could have taken
place, because there could have been no deluge "before moral guilt could
possibly have been incurred"--that is to say, before the creation of
mankind. In touching terms he bewailed the defection of the President of
the Geological Society and Dean Buckland--protesting against geologists
who "persist in closing their eyes upon the solemn declarations of the
Almighty"

Still the geologists continued to seek truth: the germs planted
especially by William Smith, "the Father of English Geology" were
developed by a noble succession of investigators, and the victory was
sure. Meanwhile those theologians who felt that denunciation of
science as "godless" could accomplish little, laboured upon schemes for
reconciling geology with Genesis. Some of these show amazing ingenuity,
but an eminent religious authority, going over them with great
thoroughness, has well characterized them as "d