162 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



the foundation of all the varied cults and superstitions 

 that clustered round Ishtar and Tammuz, as well as 

 personages like Osiris and Isis, who seem to have 

 been later avatars, or revivals of the same tale. 



It would be easy to show that the deluge story has 

 intimate connections with other ancient myths and 

 superstitions, as well as with the results of modern 

 archaeology and geology. But were this all, our 

 inquiry, however interesting and curious, would have 

 little practical value. It has two important bearings 

 on the present time. Christianity bases itself, its 

 founder Himself being witness, on the early chapters 

 of Genesis, as history and prophecy, and the treat- 

 ment which these ancient and inspired records have 

 met with in modern times at the hands of destruc- 

 tive criticism is doing its worst in aid of the anti- 

 Christian tendencies of our time. To remove the 

 doubts that have been cast on these old records is 

 therefore a clear gain to the highest interests of 

 humanity, and if theology and philology are unable 

 to secure this benefit, natural science may well step 

 forward to lend its aid. Another connection with 

 present interests depends on the fact that, while 

 superstitions akin to that which deified the mother of 

 the promised seed, and introduced the world-wide 

 cults of Astarte and Aphrodite, still reign over great 

 masses of men, absolute materialism and desperate 

 struggle for existence among men and nations are 

 growing and extending themselves as never before 

 since the antediluvian times, and are provoking a 



