788 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ME. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS. 



By Peofessob T. II. HUXLEY. 



IN controversy, as in courtship, the good old rule to be off with the 

 old before one is on with the new greatly commends itself to my 

 sense of expediency. And, therefore, it appears to me desii'able that 

 I should preface such observations as I may have to offer upon the 

 cloud of arguments (the relevancy of which to the issue which I had 

 ventured to raise is not always obvious) put forth by Mr. Gladstone in 

 the January number of this review,* by an endeavor to make clear, to 

 such of our readers as have not had the advantage of a forensic educa- 

 tion, the present net result of the discussion. 



I am quite aware that, in undertaking this task, I run all the risks 

 to which the man who presumes to deal judicially with his own cause 

 is liable. But it is exactly because I do not shun that risk, but, rather, 

 earnestly desire to be judged by him who coraeth after me, provided 

 that he has the knowledge and impartiality appropriate to a judge, 

 that I adopt my present course. 



In the article on " The Dawn of Creation and Worship," f it will be 

 remembered that Mr. Gladstone unreservedly commits himself to three 

 propositions. The first is that, according to the writer of the Penta- 

 teuch, the " water-population," the " air-population," and the " land- 

 population " of the globe were created successively, in the order named. 

 In the second place, Mr. Gladstone authoritatively asserts that this (as 

 part of his " fourfold order ") has been " so aifirmed in our time by 

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

 established fact." In the third place, Mr. Gladstone argues that the 

 fact of this coincidence of the Pentateuchal story with the results of 

 modem investigation makes it *' impossible to avoid the conclusion, 

 first, that either this writer was gifted with faculties passing all human 

 experience, or else his knowledge was divine." And, having settled 

 to his own satisfaction that the first " branch of the alternative is truly 

 nominal and unreal," Mr. Gladstone continues, " So stands the plea for 

 a revelation of truth from God, a plea only to be met by questioning 

 its possibility. 



I am a simple-minded person, wholly devoid of subtlety of intel- 

 lect, so that I willingly admit that there may be depths of alternative 

 meaning in these propositions out of all soundings attainable by my 

 poor plummet. Still, there are a good many people who suffer under 

 a like intellectual limitation ; and, for once in my life, I feel that I 

 have the chance of attaining that position of a representative of average 

 opinion, which appears to be the modern ideal of a leader of men, 



* " Popular Science Monthly " for March, 1886. f See supplement to preaent number. 



