456 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



our beautiful and useful contemporary — I might almost call him col- 

 league — the Horse {Equus cahallus), is the last term of the evolutional 

 series to which he belongs, just as Homo scqnots is the last term of 

 the series of which he is a member. If I want to know whether the 

 species Equiis cahallus made its appearance on the surface of the globe 

 before or after Homo scqyiens, deduction from known laws docs not 

 help me. There is no reason that I know of why one should have ap- 

 peared sooner or later than the other. If I turn to observation, I find 

 abundant remains of J^quus caballus in Quaternary strata, perhaps a 

 little earlier. The existence of Homo sapiens in the Quaternary epoch 

 is also certain. Evidence has been adduced in favor of man's exist- 

 ence in the Pliocene or even in the Miocene epoch. It does not satisfy 

 me ; but I have no reason to doubt that the fact may be so, neverthe- 

 less. Indeed, I think it is quite possible that further research will 

 show that Homo sa2nens existed, not only before JEquus cahallus, but 

 before many other of the existing forms of animal life ; so that, if all 

 the species of animals have been separately created, man, in this case, 

 would by no means be the " consummation " of the land-population. 



I am raising no objection to the position of the fourth term in Mr. 

 Gladstone's " order " — on the facts, as they stand, it is quite open to 

 any one to hold, as a pious opinion, that the fabrication of man was the 

 acme and final achievement of the process of peopling the globe. But 

 it must not be said that natural science counts this opinion among her 

 " demonstrated conclusions and established facts," for there would be 

 just as much, or as little, reason for ranging the contrary opinion 

 among them. 



It may seem superfluous to add to the evidence that Mr. Gladstone 

 has been utterly misled in supposing that his interpretation of Genesis 

 receives any support from natural science. But it is as well to do one's 

 work thoroughly while one is about it ; and I think it may be advis- 

 able to point out that the facts, as they are at present known, not only 

 refute Mr. Gladstone's interpretation of Genesis in detail, but are op- 

 posed to the central idea on which it appears to be based. 



There must be some position from which the reconcilers of science 

 and Genesis will not retreat, some central idea the maintenance of 

 which is vital and its refutation fatal. Even if they now allow that 

 the words " the evening and the morning " have not the least reference 

 to a natural day, but mean a period of any number of millions of years 

 that may be necessary ; even if they are driven to admit that the word 

 "creation," which so many millions of pious Jews and Christians have 

 held, and still hold, to mean a sudden act of the Deity, signifies a 

 process of gradual evolution of one species from another, extending 

 through immeasurable time ; even if they are willing to grant that the 

 asserted coincidence of the order of Nature with the " fourfold order " 

 ascriV)ed to Genesis is an obvious error instead of an established truth 

 — they are surely prepared to make a last stand upon the conception 



