I io GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



Greek history, so too in that of Israelitish history, the 

 period of critical demolition is at an end, and it is 

 time for the archaeologist to reconstruct the fallen 

 edifice. 



'But theveryword "reconstruct" implies thatwhat 

 is built again will not be exactly that which existed 

 before. It implies that the work of the " higher 

 criticism " has not been in vain ; on the contrary, the 

 work it has performed has been a very needful and 

 important one, and in its own sphere has helped us 

 to the discovery of the truth. Egyptian or Assyrian 

 research has not corroborated every historical state- 

 ment which we find in the Old Testament, any more 

 than classical archaeology has corroborated every 

 statement which we find in the Greek writers ; what 

 it has done has been to show that the extreme 

 scepticism of modern criticism is not justified, that the 

 materials on which the history of Israel has been based 

 may, and probably do, go back to an early date, and 

 that much which the " higher " critics have declared to 

 be mythical and impossible was really possible and 

 true.' 



In point of fact a much stronger position might 

 be held in favour of Genesis, and we shall find in 

 comparing it with the monuments of the palanthropic 

 and early neanthropic ages that its statements vin- 

 dicate themselves as derived from original contem- 

 porary documents, which were under no obligations 

 to the literature or philosophy of those later times, to 

 which they have been relcgited by some of the critics. 



