ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN RACE 215 



sis may have been intended mainly, he suggests, 

 as a guide to the memory. 22 At all events it 

 served its original purpose. "For this period," 

 says Vigouroux, "the chronology of the Bible is 

 quite uncertain." 23 It is an uncertainty which 

 in no way conflicts with the supreme end of sav- 

 ing our immortal souls. The chronological sys- 

 tem of the Scripture, it must be remembered, is 

 in no sense intended as a scientific study, and there 

 is full freedom for scientific investigation on our 

 part. But when the latest Sunday supplement 

 announces the finding of a new "missing link," 

 or some university professor discovers an im- 

 plement used by Eolithic man whose alibi has 

 not yet been disproved dated back millions of 

 years ago, let the reader knowingly smile. Per- 

 haps it may date back a thousand years, perhaps 

 a few thousand even, perhaps it may have been 

 consigned to the earth hardly one generation ago 

 or two, like the once famous Talgai skull, whose 

 incalculably remote antiquity was vouched for be- 

 yond cavil by its complete mineralization, yet 

 which, as we elsewhere show, was found to have 

 been scarcely older than the skull of poor Yorik 

 when it drew from Hamlet those fond recollec- 

 tions and all that wise philosophizing upon mor- 

 tal things: 



* "Catholic Student's 'Aids' to the Bible," pp. 19, ai. 

 *"Dist. de la Bible," 273. 



