450 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of all competent judges, even if it were extended to the whole of the 

 cosmogony and biology of Genesis : 



As, however, the original traditions of nations sprang up in an epoch less 

 remote tlian our own from the primitive life, it is indispensable to consult them, 

 to compare them, and to associate them with other sources of information which 

 are available. From this point of view, the traditions recorded in Genesis pos- 

 sess, in addition to their own peculiar charm, a value of the highest order; but 

 we can not ultimately see in them more than a venerable fragment, well deserv- 

 ing attention, of the great genesis of mankind. 



Mr. Gladstone is of a different mind. He dissents from M. Re- 

 ville's views respecting the proper estimation of the peutateuchal tradi- 

 tions no less than he does from his interpretation of those Homeric 

 myths which have been the object of his own special study. In the 

 latter case, Mr. Gladstone tells M. Reville that he is wrong on his own 

 authority, to which, in such a matter, all will pay due respect : in the 

 former, he affirms himself to be " wholly destitute of that kind of 

 knowledge which carries authority," and his rebuke is administered in 

 the name and by the authority of natural science. 



An air of magisterial gravity hangs about the following passage : 



But the question is not here of a lofty poem, or a skillfully constructed nar- 

 rative : it is whether natural science, in the patient exercise of its high calling to 

 examine facts, finds that the works of God cry out against what we have fondly 

 believed to be his word and tell another tale; or whether, in tliis nineteenth 

 century of Christian progress, it substantially echoes back the majestic sound, 

 which, before it existed as a pursuit, went forth into all lands. 



First, looking largely at the latter portion of the narrative, which describes 

 the creation of living organisms, and waiving details, on some of which (as in 

 verse 24) the Septuagint seems to vary from the Hebrew, there is a grand four- 

 fold division, set forth in an orderly succession of times, as follows : on the fifth 

 day — 



1. The water-population ; 



2. The air-population ; 

 and, on the sixth day, 



3. The land-population of animals ; 



4. The land-population consummated in man. 



Now this same fourfold order is understood to have been so affirmed in our 

 time by natural science, that it may be taken as a demonstrated conclusion and 

 established fact (p. C'J6). 



"Understood" ! By whom? I can not bring myself to imagine 

 that Mr. Gladstone has made so solemn and authoritative a statement 

 on a matter of this importance without due inquiry — without being 

 able to found himself upon recognized scientific authority. But I 

 wish he had thought fit to name the source from which he has de- 

 rived his information, as, in that case, I could have dealt with his 

 authority, and I should have thereby escaped the appearance of making 

 an attack on Mr. Gladstone himself, which is in every way distasteful 

 to me. 



