THE INTERPRETERS OF GENESIS AND NATURE. 457 



which underlies the whole, and which constitutes the essence of Mr. 

 Gladstone's "fourfold division, set forth in an orderly succession of 

 times." It is, that the animal species which compose the water-popu- 

 lation, the air-population, and the land-population respectively, origi- 

 nated during three distinct and successive periods of time, and only 

 during those periods of time. 



This statement appears to me to be the interpretation of Genesis 

 which Mr. Gladstone supports, reduced to its simplest expression. 

 " Period of time " is substituted for " day " ; *• originated " is substi- 

 tuted for " created " ; and any order required for that adopted by Mr. 

 Gladstone. It is necessary to make this proviso, for if " day " may mean 

 a few million years, and "creation" may mean evolution, then it is ob- 

 vious that the order (1) water-population, (2) air-population, (3) land- 

 population, may also mean (1) water-population, (2) land-population, (3) 

 air-population ; and it would be unkind to bind down the reconcilers to 

 this detail when one has parted with so many others to oblige them. 



But even this sublimated essence of the pentateuchal doctrine (if 

 it be such) remains as discordant with natural science as ever. 



It is not true that the species composing anyone of the three popu- 

 lations originated during any one of three successive periods of time, 

 and not at any other of these. 



Undoubtedly, it is in the highest degree probable that animal life 

 appeared first under aquatic conditions; that terrestrial forms appeared 

 later, and flying animals only after land animals ; but it is, at the same 

 time, testified by all the evidence we possess, that the great majority, 

 if not the whole, of the primordial species of each division have long 

 since died out, and have been replaced by a vast succession of new 

 forms. Hundreds of thousands of animal species, as distinct as those 

 which now compose our water, land, and air populations, have come 

 into existence and died out again, throughout the aeons of geological 

 time which separate us from the lower Palaeozoic epoch, when, as I 

 have pointed out, our present evidence of the existence of such dis- 

 tinct populations commences. If the species of animals have all been 

 separately created, then it follows that hundreds of thousands of acts 

 of creative energy have occurred at intervals throughout the whole 

 time recorded by the fossiliferous rocks ; and, during the greater part 

 of that time, the " creation " of the members of the water, land, and 

 air populations must have gone on contemporaneously. 



If we represent the water, land, and air populations by a, b, and c 

 respectively, and take vertical succession on the page to indicate order 

 in time, then the following schemes will roughly shadow forth the 

 contrast I have been endeavoring to explain : 



Genesis (as interpreted by Mr. Gladstone). Nature (as interpreted by natural science). 

 b b b c^ a? b"" 



c c c c a'^ b^ 



a a a 6 a' 6 



