THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



JUNE, 1895. 



NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 



XX. FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM. 



By ANDEEW DICKSON "WHITE, LL. D. (Yale), Ph. D. (Jena), 



FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. 



THE great sacred books of the world are the most precious of 

 human possessions. They embody the deepest searchings 

 into the most vital problems of humanity in all its stages, the 

 naive guesses of the world's childhood, the opening conceptions 

 of its youth, the more fully rounded beliefs of its maturity. 



These books, no matter how unhistorical in parts and at times, 

 are profoundly true. They mirror the evolution of man's loftiest 

 aspiratioDS, hopes, loves, consolations, and enthusiasms; his hates 

 and fears ; his views of his origin and destiny ; his theories of his 

 rights and duties; and these not merely in their lights but in 

 their shadows. Therefore it is that they contain the germs of 

 truths most necessary in the evolution of humanity, and give to 

 these germs the environment and sustenance which best insure 

 their growth and strength. 



With wide differences in origin and character, all this sacred 

 literature has been developed and has exercised its influence in 

 obedience to certain general laws. First of these in time, if not in 

 importance, is that which governs its origin : in all civilizations 

 we find that the Divine Spirit working in the mind of man shapes 

 his sacred books first of all out of the chaos of myth and legend, 

 and of these books, when life is thus breathed into them, the fit- 

 test survive. 



So broad and dense is this atmosphere of myth and legend en- 

 vox. XLVII. 13 



