Why, then, should it be studied?
Why, indeed, give a thought to it?
The scorn which Lactantius and St.Augustine had cast upon the study of astronomy was extended largely to other sciences.
(125) (125) For a compact and admirable statement as to the dawn of geological conceptions in Greece and Rome, see Mr.Lester Ward's essay on paleobotany in the Fifth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, for 1883-'84.

As to the reasons why Greek philosophers did comparatively so little for geology, see D'Archiac, Geologie, p.18.

For the contempt felt by Lactantius and St.Augustine toward astronomical science, see foregoing chapters on Astronomy and Geography.
But the germs of scientific knowledge and thought developed in the ancient world could be entirely smothered neither by eloquence nor by logic; some little scientific observation must be allowed, though all close reasoning upon it was fettered by theology.

Thus it was that St.
Jerome insisted that the broken and twisted crust of the earth exhibits the wrath of God against sin, and Tertullian asserted that fossils resulted from the flood of Noah.
To keep all such observation and reasoning within orthodox limits, St.
Augustine, about the beginning of the fifth century, began an effort to develop from these germs a growth in science which should be sacred and safe.

With this intent he prepared his great commentary on the work of creation, as depicted in Genesis, besides dwelling upon the subject in other writings.