But the greatest champion appeared in England. We have already seen how, near the close of the seventeenth century, Thomas Burnet prepared the way in his Sacred Theory of the Earth by rejecting the discoveries of Newton, and showing how sin led to the breaking up of the "foundations of the great deep," and we have also seen how Whiston, in his New Theory of the Earth, while yielding a little and accepting the discoveries of Newton, brought in a comet to aid in producing the Deluge; but far more important than these in permanent influence was John Woodward, professor at Gresham College, a leader in scientific thought at the University of Cambridge, and, as a patient collector of fossils and an earnest investigator of their meaning, deserving of the highest respect. In 1695 he published his Natural History of the Earth, and rendered one great service to science, for he yielded another point, and thus destroyed the foundations for the old theory of fossils. He showed that they were not "sports of Nature," or "models inserted by the Creator in the strata for some inscrutable purpose," but that they were really remains of living beings, as Xenophanes had asserted two thousand years before him. So far, he rendered a great service both to science and religion; but, this done, the text of the Old Testament narrative and the famous passage in St. Peter's Epistle were too strong for him, and he, too, insisted that the fossils were produced by the Deluge. Aided by his great authority, the assault on the true scientific position was vigorous: Mazurier exhibited certain fossil remains of a mammoth discovered in France as bones of the giants mentioned in Scripture; Father Torrubia did the same thing in Spain; Increase Mather sent to England similar remains discovered in America, with a like statement.
For the edification of the faithful, such "bones of the giants mentioned in Scripture" were hung up in public places. Jurieu saw some of them thus suspended in one of the churches of Valence; and Henrion, apparently under the stimulus thus given, drew up tables showing the size of our antediluvian ancestors, giving the height of Adam as 123 feet 9 inches and that of Eve as 118 feet 9 inches and 9 lines.(156)
(156) See Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossements fossiles, fourth edition,
vol. ii, p. 56; also Geoffrey St.-Hilaire, cited by Berger de Xivery,
Traditions Teratologiques, p. 190.
But the most brilliant service rendered to the theological theory came from another quarter for, in 1726, Scheuchzer, having discovered a large fossil lizard, exhibited it to the world as the "human witness of the Deluge":(157) this great discovery was hailed everywhere with joy, for it seemed to prove not only that human beings were drowned at the Deluge, but that "there were giants in those days." Cheered by the applause thus gained, he determined to make the theological position impregnable. Mixing together various texts of Scripture with notions derived from the philosophy of Descartes and the speculations of Whiston, he developed the theory that "the fountains of the great deep" were broken up by the direct physical action of the hand of God, which, being literally applied to the axis of the earth, suddenly stopped the earth's rotation, broke up "the fountains of the great deep," spilled the water therein contained, and produced the Deluge. But his service to sacred science did not end here, for he prepared an edition of the Bible, in which magnificent engravings in great number illustrated his view and enforced it upon all readers. Of these engravings no less than thirty-four were devoted to the Deluge alone.(158)
(157) Homo diluvii testis.
(158) See Zoeckler, vol. ii, p. 172; also Scheuchzer, Physica Sacra,
Augustae Vindel et Ulmae, 1732. For the ancient belief regarding
giants, see Leopoldi, Saggio. For accounts of the views of Mazaurier and
Scheuchzer, see Cuvier; also Buchner, Man in Past, Present, and Future,
English translation, pp. 235, 236. For Increase Mather's views, see
Philosophical Transactions, vol. xxiv, p. 85. As to similar fossils
sent from New York to the Royal Society as remains of giants, see Weld,
History of the Royal Society, vol. i, p. 421. For Father Torrubia and
his Gigantologia Espanola, see D'Archiac, Introduction a l'Etude de
la Paleontologie Stratigraphique, Paris, 1864, p. 201. For admirable
summaries, see Lyell, Principles of Geology, London, 1867; D'Archiac,
Geologie et Paleontologie, Paris, 1866; Pictet, Traite de Paleontologie,
Paris, 1853; Vezian, Prodrome de la Geologie, Paris, 1863; Haeckel,
History of Creation, English translation, New York, 1876, chap. iii;
and for recent progress, Prof. O. S. Marsh's Address on the History and
Methods of Paleontology.
In the midst all this came an episode very comical but very instructive; for it shows that the attempt to shape the deductions of science to meet the exigencies of dogma may mislead heterodoxy as absurdly as orthodoxy.
About the year 1760 news of the discovery of marine fossils in various elevated districts of Europe reached Voltaire. He, too, had a theologic system to support, though his system was opposed to that of the sacred books of the Hebrews; and, fearing that these new discoveries might be used to support the Mosaic accounts of the Deluge, all his wisdom and wit were compacted into arguments to prove that the fossil fishes were remains of fishes intended for food, but spoiled and thrown away by travellers; that the fossil shells were accidentally dropped by crusaders and pilgrims returning from the Holy Land; and that the fossil bones found between Paris and Etampes were parts of a skeleton belonging to the cabinet of some ancient philosopher. Through chapter after chapter, Voltaire, obeying the supposed necessities of his theology, fought desperately the growing results of the geologic investigations of his time.(159)
(159) See Voltaire, Dissertation sur les Changements arrives dans notre
Globe; also Voltaire, Les Singularities de la Nature, chap. xii; also
Jevons, Principles of Science, vol. ii, p. 328.
But far more prejudicial to Christianity was the continued effort on the other side to show that the fossils were caused by the Deluge of Noah.