been a complete cataclysm of the globe, but
the same space has not always the same duration, and is
exhausted more quickly in one place than in another. Lands
of the same age contain different fossils, just as
depositaries very far distant from each other enclose
similar ones. The ferns of former times are identical with
the ferns of to-day. Many contemporary zoophytes are found
again in the most ancient layers. To sum up, actual
modifications explain former convulsions. The same causes
are always in operation; Nature does not proceed by leaps;
and the periods, Brogniart asserts, are, after all, only
abstractions."

Cuvier's work up to this time had appeared to them surrounded with the
glory of an aureola at the summit of an incontestable science. It was
sapped. Creation had no longer the same discipline, and their respect
for this great man diminished.

From biographies and extracts they learned something of the doctrines of
Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

All that was contrary to accepted ideas, the authority of the Church.

Bouvard experienced relief as if from a broken yoke. "I should like to
see now what answer Citizen Jeufroy would make to me about the Deluge!"

They found him in his little garden, where he was awaiting the members
of the vestry, who were to meet presently with a view to the purchase of
a chasuble.

"These gentlemen wish for----?"

"An explanation, if you please."

And Bouvard began, "What means, in Genesis, 'The abyss which was broken
up,' and 'The cataracts of heaven?' For an abyss does not get broken
up, and heaven has no cataracts."

The abbe closed his eyelids, then replied that it was always necessary
to distinguish between the sense and the letter. Things which shock you
at first, turn out right when they are sifted.

"Very well, but how do you explain the rain which passed over the
highest mountains--those that are two leagues in height. Just think of
it! Two leagues!--a depth of water that makes two leagues!"

And the mayor, coming up, added:

"Bless my soul! What a bath!"

"Admit," said Bouvard, "that Moses exaggerates like the devil."

The cure had read Bonald, and answered:

"I am ignorant of his motives; it was, no doubt, to inspire a salutary
fear in the people of whom he was the leader."

"Finally, this mass of water--where did it come from?"

"How do I know? The air was changed into water, just as hap