HOW THEY MUST BE MET. 445 



him a better judge than others are, of the extent and 

 value of this evidence. 



Now, the merit of great knowledge in his own depart 

 ments must undoubtedly be conceded to Agassiz, and 

 any opinion supported by the weight of his name is 

 entitled to be received with a degree of respect. And 

 the more so, that he has been hitherto favourably 

 known as a defender of Christianity against the errors 

 of the Vestiges. The custom, often followed in this 

 country, of answering unchristian views by casting 

 obloquy on the author of them, will not answer the end 

 in this case. The assertions of Agassiz must be looked 

 fully in the face, and fairly met by men who know his 

 own subject as well as himself, or who have made them 

 selves fully master of the groups of facts upon which he 

 chiefly relies. 



I believe that before a calm lover of truth, cooler and 

 sounder in reasoning, the supposed evidence relied on by 

 Agassiz will for the most part disappear, and that the 

 truth will come out the clearer for the trial. 



At the same time, as natural knowledge advances, 

 we must be prepared to review the interpretation or 

 meaning we have been accustomed to attach to certain 

 words, phrases, or passages of Scripture to separate 

 their supposed or received, from their necessary meaning 

 and thus to rid ourselves of interpretations which, 

 not being necessary, may be represented as inconsistent 

 with the known laws of nature.** 



* That I may not be misunderstood as to the kind of concessions 

 adverted to in the text, I append, by way of illustration, the following 

 passage from a recent work by the liev. Dr King : 



&quot; I have found some persons startled at the idea that the world, as it 

 existed before the creation and transgression of man, presents, in the 

 delineations of geologists, so little that is paradisaical. But where does 

 the Bible say that the whole earth was ever a paradise 1 If it had been 

 so, what need would there have been for any paradise at all ] Eden 

 was brought into existence, if we are to believe the Scriptures in iuime- 



