448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It may, indeed, be now fairly said that the thinking leaders of 

 theology have come to accept the conclusions of science regarding 

 the origin of language, as against the old explanations by myth 

 and legend. The result has been a blessing both to science and 

 to religion. No harm has been done to religion ; what has been 

 done is to release it from the clog of theories, which thinking men 

 saw could no longer be maintained. No matter what has become 

 of the naming of the animals by Adam, the origin of the name of 

 Babel, the fears of the Almighty lest men might climb up into 

 his realm above the firmament, the confusion of tongues and the 

 dispersion of nations ; the essentials of Christianity, as taught by 

 its Blessed Founder, have simply been freed, by comparative phi- 

 lology, from one more great incubus and incumbrance, and have 

 therefore been left to work with more power upon the hearts, 

 minds, and conduct of mankind. 



Nor has any harm been done to the Bible. On the contrary, it 

 has been made, by this new divine revelation through science, all 

 the more precious to us. In these myths and legends caught 

 from earlier civilizations, we see an evolution of the most im- 

 portant religious and moral truths for our race. Myth, legend, 

 and parable seem, in obedience to a divine law, the necessary set- 

 ting for these truths, as they are successively evolved, ever in 

 higher and higher forms. What matters it then that we have 

 come to know that the accounts of Creation and many early 

 events in the sacred books were remembrances of lore obtained 

 from the Chaldeans ? What matters it that the beautiful story 

 of Joseph is found to be in part derived from an Egyptian 

 romance, of which the hieroglyphs may still be seen ? What 

 matters it that the story of David and Goliath is poetry ; and 

 that Samson, like so many men of strength in other religions, 

 is probably a sun-myth ? What matters it that the inculcation 

 of high duty in the childhood of the world is embodied in such 

 quaint stories as those of Jonah and Balaam ? The more we 

 realize these facts the richer becomes that great body of literature 



Trustees of the Public Library of Victoria. For Galloway, see his Philosophy of the 

 Creation, Edinburgh and London, 18S5, pp. 21, 238, 239, 446. For citation from Baylee, 

 see his Verbal Inspiration the True Characteristic of God's Holy Word, London, 1870, p. 

 14, and elsewhere. For Archdeacon Pratt, see his Scripture and Science not at Variance, 

 London, 185G, p. 55. For the citation from Dr. Eadie, see his Biblical Cyclopaedia, Lon- 

 don, 18*70, p. 53. For Dr. Dwight, see The New-Englander, vol. xvi, p. 465. For the 

 theological article referred to as giving up the sacred theory, see the Cyclopedia of Bibli- 

 cal, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, prepared by Rev. John McClintock, D. D., 

 and James Strong, New York, 1873, vol. v, p. 233. For Arabic as an earlier Semitic de- 

 velopment than Hebrew, as well as for much other valuable information on the questions 

 recently raised, see article Hebrew, by W. R. Smith, in the latest edition of the Ency- 

 clopaedia Britannica. For quotation from Canon Farrar, see his Language and Languages, 

 London, 1878, pp. 6, 7. 



