1892 FURTHER CONTROVERSY ON GENESIS 315 



his critic whether he admits the existence of the contra- 

 diction involved, and if not, to state his reasons therefor. 

 These reasons were again given on February I as the new 

 interpretation of the two Hebrew words already referred to, 

 an interpretation, by the way, which makes the same word 

 stand both for " the vast and various population of the wa- 

 ters ' and <4 for such land animals as mice, weasels, and 

 lizards, great and small." 



On February 3 appeared the second letter, in which, set- 

 ting aside the particular form which his argument against 

 Mr. Gladstone had taken, he described the broad differences 

 between the teachings of Genesis and the teachings of evo- 

 lution. He left the minor details as to the interpretation 

 of the words in dispute, which did not really affect the main 

 argument, to be dealt with in the next letter of February 4. 

 It was a question with which he had long been familiar, as 

 twenty years before he had, at Dr. Kalisch's request, gone 

 over the proofs of his Commentary on Leviticus. 



The letter of February 3 is as follows : 



While desirous to waste neither your space nor my own time 

 upon mere misrepresentations of what I have said elsewhere 

 about the relations between modern science and the so-called 

 " Mosaic" cosmogony, it seems needful that I should ask for 

 the opportunity of stating the case once more, as briefly and 

 fairly as I can. 



I conceive the first chapter of Genesis to teach (i) that the 

 species of plants and animals owe their origin to supernatural 

 acts of creation; (2) that these acts took place at such times 

 and in such a manner that all the plants were created first, all 

 the aquatic and aerial animals (notably birds) next, and all 

 terrestrial animals last. I am not aware that any Hebrew 

 scholar denies that these propositions agree with the natural 

 sense of the text. Sixty years ago I was taught, as most people 

 were then taught, that they are guaranteed by Divine authority. 



On the other hand, in my judgment, natural science teaches 

 no less distinctly (i) that the species of animals and plants 

 have originated by a process of natural evolution; (2) that this 

 process has taken place in such a manner that the species of 

 animals and plants, respectively, have come into existence one 

 after another throughout the whole period since they began to 

 exist on the earth ; that the species of plants and animals known 



