534 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



by the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians before the tribes of Israel 

 invaded Palestine. And it is evident that these beliefs, from some 

 time after the exile and probably much earlier, completely inter- 

 penetrated the Jewish mind and thus became inseparably inter- 

 woven with the fabric of the synoptic Gospels. 



Therefore, behind the question of the acceptance of the doc- 

 trines of the oldest heathen demonology as part of the funda- 

 mental beliefs of Christianity, there lies the question of the credi- 

 bility of the Gospels, and of their claim to act as our instructors, 

 outside that ethical province in which they appeal to the con- 

 sciousness of all thoughtful men. And still, behind this problem, 

 there lies another how far do these ancient records give a sure 

 foundation to the prodigious fabric of Christian dogma which 

 has been built upon them by the continuous labors of speculative 

 theologians during eighteen centuries ? 



I submit that there are few questions before the men of the 

 rising generation on the answer to which the" future hangs more 

 fatally than this. We are at the parting of the ways. Whether 

 the twentieth century shall see a recrudescence of the superstitions 

 of mediaeval papistry, or whether it shall witness the severance of 

 the living body of the ethical ideal of prophetic Israel from the 

 carcass, foul with savage superstitions and cankered with false 

 philosophy, to which the theologians have bound it, turns upon 

 their final judgment of the Gadarene tale. 



The gravity of the problems ultimately involved in the discus- 

 sion of the legend of Gadara will, I hope, excuse a persistence in 

 returning to the subject, to which I should not have been moved 

 by merely personal considerations. 



With respect to the diluvial invective which overflowed 

 thirty-three pages of this Review last January, I doubt not that 

 it has a catastrophic importance in the estimation of its author. 

 I, on the other hand, may be permitted to regard it as a mere 

 spate ; noisy and threatening while it lasted, but forgotten almost 

 as soon as it was over. Without my help, it will be judged by 

 every instructed and clear-headed reader ; and that is fortunate, 

 because, were aid necessary, I have cogent reasons for withhold- 

 ing it. 



In an article characterized by the same qualities of thought 

 and diction, entitled A Great Lesson which appeared in this 

 Review for September, 1887, the Duke of Argyll, firstly, charged 

 the whole body of men of science interested in the question with 

 having conspired to ignore certain criticisms of Mr. Darwin's 

 theory of the origin of coral reefs ; and, secondly, he asserted 

 that some person unnamed had " actually induced " Mr. John 



