600 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



later Van de Velde found it utterly washed away ; and that a few 

 years later Palmer found there " a statue bearing a striking re- 

 semblance to an Arab woman with a child in her arms." Thus 

 ended the last great demonstration thus far on the side of sacred 

 science the last retreating shot from the theological rear-guard. 



It is but just to say that a very great share in the honor of the 

 victory of science in this field is due to men trained as theolo- 

 gians. It would naturally be so, since few others have devoted 

 themselves to direct labor in it ; yet great honor is none the less 

 due to such men as Reland, Mariti, Robinson, Smith, Schaff, Stan- 

 ley, and Tristram. 



They have rendered even a greater service to religion than to 

 science, for they have made a beginning, at least, of doing away 

 with that enforced belief in myths as history which has become 

 a most serious danger to Christianity. 



For the worst enemy of Christianity could wish nothing 

 more than that its main leaders should prove or insist that it can 

 not be adopted save by those who accept, as historical, statements 

 which enlightened men throughout the world know to be mythi- 

 cal. The result of such a demonstration would only be more and 

 more to make thinking people inside the church dissemblers, and 

 thinking people outside, scoffers. 



Far better is it to welcome the aid of science, in the conviction 

 that all truth is one, and, in the light of this truth, to allow the- 

 ology and science to work together in the steady evolution of 

 religion and morality. 



The revelations made by the sciences which most directly deal 

 with the history of man all converge in the truth that during the 

 earlier stages of this evolution moral and spiritual teachings must 

 be inclosed in myth, legend, and parable. " The Master " felt this 

 when he gave to the poor peasants about him and so to the 

 world his simple and beautiful illustrations. In making this 

 truth clear, science will give to religion far more than it will take 

 away, for it will throw new life and light into all sacred lit- 

 erature. 



The origin of the Malays is traced by Dr. B. Hagen to the highlands of west 

 Sumatra, whence the peoples extended slowly eastward; the first movement be- 

 ing probably by the races that are now to be found only in the interior of the 

 great islands. These " aborigines " of the islands crushed out a population already 

 in possession, as remains of which the negritos may be taken. The Malays in the 

 narrower sense occupying Sumatra, Malacca, and north Borneo, are to be regarded 

 as the last emigration from this center, which occurred between the twelfth and 

 fifteenth centuries a. d. Crosses and mixtures arose with the Indians and Chinese, 

 who have been long in intercourse with the archipelago, and in less measure also 

 with the Arabs. For this reason we must not expect to find the pure racial type, 

 especially not in the coast population. 



