The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Cast upon it by Geological Speculations

The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Cast upon it by Geological Speculations

Harcourt, Leveson Vernon

London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1838

Internet Archive

1838

George Eliot to Maria Lewis, 22 November 1839. "As I have a trip to London for a week in prospect I am induced to allot the residue of an unfavourable evening to you, lest the accumulation of little matters of business consequent on such an absence from home duties should deprive me of the pleasure of writing to you for some time after my return. I have emerged from the slough of domestic troubles, or rather to speak quite clearly, malheurs de cuisine, and am beginning to take a deep breath in my own element, though with a mortifying consciousness that my faculties have become superlatively obtuse during my banishment from it. I am surrounded with unread books and like Addison's ass between two bundles of hay, I am held in suspense by two equally alluring bonnes bouches and so taste neither. I have just swallowed without much mastication "The Doctrine of the deluge," by the Revd V. Harcourt, -- a work containing much information though too allusive and elliptical to be appreciated by those who have not previously trodden the path of which it notes only prominent objects and characteristics. After tracing the image of the Ark and Mt. Ararat through the faded tapestries that line the temple of mythological history, until one is ready to fancy one sees the first in a linen chest and the last in Vandyke's frills, just as objects in which we have long gazed remain on the retina when we would fain be rid of them, the author deduces from the doctrine of the deluge that of baptismal regeneration and I humbly opine supports or rather shakes a weak position by weak arguments." GEL 1: 33-4

Harcourt, Leveson Vernon, The Doctrine of the Deluge; Vindicating the Scriptural Account from the Doubts Cast upon it by Geological Speculations, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57376

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/8091d21f37e8125501415b522f340348.pdf