Archaia. 475 



glimmering rays have only a few years ago been gathered into lights 

 great and small in the firmament of truth. If the conservative 

 religious spirit of the age has not quite been able to keep pace with 

 its progress, this has been partly because science has somewhat 

 broken loose from its natural espousals with religion, and partly 

 because the sagacious spirit of Christianity always climbs with a 

 cautious step the airy heights of human knowledge. The princes 

 of science need not therefore chide very sharply the more vener- 

 able if more tardy priests of the christian faith. 



We have been led into these remarks partly in sympathy with 

 many of the wise and truthful statements in the introductory 

 chapters of "Archaia," and partly by the slightest possible objec- 

 tion we have to some sentiments which it contains bearing upon 

 the treatment of science by the teachers of religion. Not that we 

 decidedly object to any statements advanced by our author, but 

 that we would wish to supplement them with kindly apologies for 

 the cautious and it may be unscientific student of theology. 



It is now time however to bring before our readers the special 

 objects aimed at by this thoughtful and genial book. On this 

 point we shall permit our author to speak for himself. 



" There can be no question that the whole subject (Biblical cosmogony) 

 is at the present moment in a more satisfactory state than ever 

 previously ; .that much has been done for the solution of difficulties ; 

 that theologians admit the great service which in many cases 

 science has rendered to the interpretation of the Bible, and that 

 naturalists feel themselves free from undue trammels. Above all, 

 there is a very general disposition to admit the distinctness and 

 independence of the fields of revelation and natural science, the possi- 

 bility of their arriving at some of the same truths, though in very 

 different ways, and the folly of expecting them fully and manifestly to 

 agree, in the present state of our information. The literature of this 

 kind of natural history has also become very extensive, and there are 

 few persons who do not at least know that there are methods of recon- 

 ciling the cosmogony of Moses with that obtained from the study of 

 nature. For this very reason the time is favourable for an unprejudiced 

 discussion of the questions involved ; and for presenting on the one hand 

 to naturalists a summary of what the Bible does actually teach respect- 

 ing the early history of the earth and man, and on the other to those 

 whose studies lie in the book which they regard as the word of God, 

 rather than in the material universe which they regard as his work, a 

 view of the points in which the teaching of the Bible comes into contact 

 with natural science, at its present stage of progress. These are the 

 ends which I propose to myself in the following pages, and which I shall 

 endeavour to pursue in a spirit of fair and truthful investigation ; paying 



