In On the relation between the Holy Scriptures and some parts of geological science, John Pye Smith, a Congregational clergyman and polymath, abandoned traditional beliefs in the recent creation of the earth, the biblical flood, and the derivation of all animals from one centre of creation, while maintaining the truth of the Bible, ‘when taken in its own genuine sense’ (Pye Smith 1839, p. xi). The book itself does not appear in CD’s Reading notebooks (Correspondence vol. 4), but it is referenced in the anonymously published Explanations: a sequel to ‘Vestiges of the natural history of creation’ ([Chambers] 1845, p. 152), which CD had read by 6 February 1846.