The discussions that arose as to the age of the earth were long after the conflict as to the criterion of truth--that is, after the Reformation; indeed, they were substantially included in the present century.

They have been conducted with so much moderation as to justify the term I have used in the title of this chapter, "Controversy," rather than "Conflict." Geology has not had to encounter the vindictive opposition with which astronomy was assailed, and, though, on her part, she has insisted on a concession of great antiquity for the earth, she has herself pointed out the unreliability of all numerical estimates thus far offered.

The attentive reader of this chapter cannot have failed to observe inconsistencies in the numbers quoted.

Though wanting the merit of exactness, those numbers, however, justify the claim of vast antiquity, and draw us to the conclusion that the time-scale of the world answers to the space-scale in magnitude..