Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1869-05-13

THE Aag or THE NoeLD AND MAN
How oh i the worll7 The general an
swer Of Caris,end ,ui has been. .tnas quite
SIX & oasand years"-shst Is. there were
0oo years frnm the Creation to m
birth of C'lriss. and there have been lso9
years since. making in al $50 Aud
vet We have all seen within week or Two
,ha: Pr fcssor Marsh. Of ya'e College. III
describing the f,s>il bones Of 4 masssdon.
but recently founi At Cohoss. New YORK,
gives h. opinion that the animal must
hsva existed over ten thousand years ago
or more than four thousand years be-
fore the time when as the Scriptura' COM
mentators have usually supposed. Adam
gave names to all the newly made erea-
sarcs \ holy appearS to DO shocked ey
this statement. sni in fact there Is scarce
" scientific man. including some OF tn"
most devout believers OF the age, who
does not ascribe 20 he world a much great
er antiquity than that claimed in the old
fashioned chronology.
The evidences leading 70 this corclu-
sion are drawn from ne,r'y evety depart
ment Of natural science and. Of course.
become irresis,ibly strong as they are
brought togsther. To give an idea of
shoA in brief compass. Ineligible to
every mind. perhaps We cannot do better
than to condcnso Agsssiz's estimates
based Upon the formation Of the coral reefs
off the southern coas: of Florida. These
reefs are built u2 by an insect that be-
gins to work on the ground in the water
of twelve or fifteen fathoms deep. and he
cannot live unless he has the constant &C.
| ton of the opsh sea upon him, SO that he
stops a, the height Of high tide. BY nu-
mcrous experiments it has been ascertain
ed that the coral builder constructs about
half an inch in a century but 10 order
to err. If at all. on the safe 81 lie. Agas-
siz doubles this estimate in his calcula-
ton. making It an inch in a century
Now, outside the Florida Keys there is
4 long coral reef with anRaverage height
Of seventy feot. which. therefore. must
have boon begun I 900 years ago. or
900 years before the creation of Adam
Secondly. the Keys themselves are moth
ing but inner rep 'titions OF the same sort
OF coral reefs. of at least tue same average
height; and the builders must have fn-
| i,hed them before they began Oh the ou'-
side reef as appears from their necessity
of having the open sea, and from the fact
! that there are now no indication Of the
| beginning of q reef outside Of the ono we
have mentioned ab1ve The K va, there
fore. swell the record to If 900 years
4 Next We have the shore bluff of the main
| land which is also Of The same coral con-
struction. and which carries the earth.
record about 20, 900 years. Moreover
! there are ns YOU go INLAND seven well
defined and successive reefs. which, al
ded to the foregoing. would make the
world IS. 600 years old. And Prof
! Agassiz regards this as a very moderate
| estimate.
When these Astounding conclusions
! first gained acceptance in scientific circles.
| tho most frequent methoI Of rcconcihng
them with the Scriptural record was TO
suggest the lapse of a long period between
the creation of the world and The creation
of man. The ea~ans accent the hypoth-
esis, bat all of them arc not disposed to
admit that the human family first began
to exist six thousand years ago. Max
Muller is led greatly to extend the human
history from his studies in lsn entsc.-'
Prof. Ow>1 inf-rs from the increase OF
the sediment of the Nile in Egypt. that
man existed Is ,3I5 years ago in state
| of comparative civilization. Boscn think.
[ that the human race hiss been in existence
- 900 years, while the famous wiaian
! theory. which maintains the gra lual dcvcl :
! opment Of man from the lower type of or
| ganiz alton ueCcssitatcs an indefinite but
an enormous antiquity for the process
| 1t viii be interesting TO cite the argu-
| ments for these singular conclusions, and
the explanations of the Bible narrative to
which they have given rise, but our space
is insufficient We have only endcavor-
ed to glance at the astonishing progress
which, either wisely or unwlsely. the sci
enthc world has been making of late il
certain directions.