ro8 GEOLOGY AMD HISTORY 



all these points and many others the Chaldean 

 account agrees with the Biblical in representing ante- 

 diluvian men, or some of them, as civilised, possessing 

 domestic animals, and competent to construct large 

 ships. 



When we leave the Deluge and come to the post- 

 diluvian or neanthropic period, similar coincidences 

 occur. The foundation of a primitive Cushite or 

 Akkadian kingdom in the Euphratean valley, the 

 dispersion of men according to their families and their 

 languages, the early kingdoms contemporary with 

 Abraham, mentioned in the narrative of his campaign 

 to recover the captives taken from the cities of the 

 plain, the extremely early use of the arrow-headed 

 characters in Asia, of the hieroglyphic writing in 

 Egypt, and of a proto- Phoenician or early Hebrew 

 alphabet among the Mineans of ancient Arabia, 

 tend at once to vindicate the Bible history, and to 

 show how at a very early period this history may have 

 been rendered permanent in written documents. On 

 all these grounds scientific archaeologists are begin- 

 ning to attach more value than formerly to the Hebrew 

 annals, and to recognise them as true historical 

 accounts of the times to which they relate. 



It may seem rash to make such a statement at a 

 time when it is well known that many divines of 

 repute avow themselves as believers in the theory that 

 the earlier Biblical books are of comparatively late 

 composition. But Science will have her way in a 

 matter of this kind, whatever literature or criticism 



