of Darwin, the earth still seemed relatively young. Jefferson would, of course, have rejected the chronology based on the book of Genesis that, as interpreted by some, fixed the date and time of creation as sometime in October in 4004 B.C. Nonetheless, the age of the world was to be measured in thousands, not millions, of years—the earth perhaps ten to fifteen thousand years old. The planet, still warm from the creative touch of God, spoke the language of a natural religion equally accessible, equally