Darwinism. The Noachian Flood / A lecture delivered before the Torquay Natural History Society, Jan. 31st, 1870

Transcribed from the 1870 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price.
DARWINISM .
A LECTURE
DELIVERED BEFORE
THE TORQUAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY,
JAN. 31ST, 1870,
THOMAS R. R. STEBBING, M.A.,
Late Fellow and Tutor of Worcester College , Oxford .
London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1870.
OXFORD:
BY T. COMBE, M.A., E. B. GARDNER, E. P. HALL, AND H. LATHAM, M.A., PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Darwinism implies almost throughout that no universal Deluge has drowned our globe, either within the last ten thousand years, or even within a period indefinitely longer. Let us speak with due respect of the contrary belief. It seems to rest upon the testimony of a Volume the most precious in the world. It was taken for granted till a few years back as much in science as in religion. For a while, the arguments that began to be raised against it were met by counter-arguments so plausible, and the objectors differed so widely among themselves, that unscientific opinion had a kind of right and prudence in adhering to that which had been taught for centuries, and was still taught without deviation in nursery, and school, and pulpit.