following upon Fraunhofer and Draper's perfection of spectral analysis, and the beautifully illustrative experiments of Plateau with rotating globules of oil, have closed the controversy.
A new science, which assumed a definite form only at the beginning of this century—the science of geology—at once entered into vigorous conflict with theology over the Genesiac legend. From time immemorial the fossils which are found in even the most superficial rocks had excited keen curiosity and much curious speculation: they were variously regarded as the product of "a stone-making force," a "formative influence," a "lapidific juice," a "fatty matter set into a fermentation by heat," a "seminal air," and other equally lucid causes—sometimes they were thought "sports of nature," sometimes (even by the great Chateaubriand, and in the face of the true version of their origin) sports of the Almighty. The true theory, that they were the petrified remains of animals and plants of previous ages, was, of course, suggested, but denounced as anti-scriptural. Even in the middle of the eighteenth century, in enlightened France, the great Buffon was forced to print an ignominious recantation of his geological teaching. Geology, however, gained in strength, and continued to reveal the secular evolution of the crust of the earth and the true nature of its fossil remains. Yet so great was the opposition that little more than half a century ago geology was still denounced by ecclesiastical writers as "not a subject of lawful inquiry," as "a dark art," a "for bidden province," an "infernal artillery," etc.; and Christian scholars who favoured it were assailed as "infidels" and "impugners of the sacred record." When the absurdity of the older views of the nature of fossils had gained recognition, the idea that they were traces of the great "Deluge" was generally defended by theologians. Dr. Buckland, an eminent Christian geologist, held the Deluge theory as late as 1823; but he at length yielded to the overwhelming evidence of his adversaries. In 1830 appeared Lyell's famous "Principles of Geology," and Lyell and William Smith succeeded in removing the old semi-religious theory from the path of progress. In 1856 it was quietly omitted from the new edition of Home's "Introduction to the Scriptures," which was the standard text-book of orthodoxy. In the Church of Rome and the Russo-Greek Church the diluvian
