206 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



contained in the Book of Genesis, and to prove 

 their great antiquity, on the other hand these 

 documents prove to be the most precious sources 

 of information as to the antediluvian age, the great 

 Flood, the earliest dispersion of men, the old Nimrodic 

 empire, the connections of Asiatic and African 

 civilisation, and other matters connected with the 

 origins of the oldest nations, respecting which we 

 have little other written history. 



We thus learn that, relatively to Bible history, 

 there is no prehistoric age, since it carries us back 

 beyond the Deluge to the origin of man, so that we 

 might properly restrict this term in its narrower 

 signification to those parts of the world not covered 

 by this primitive history. It is true that a tide of 

 criticism hostile to the integrity of Genesis has been 

 rising for some years ; but it seems to beat vainly 

 against a solid rock, and the ebb has now evidently 

 set in. The battle of historical and linguistic criticism 

 may indeed rage for a time over the history and date 

 of the Mosaic law, but in so far as Genesis is con- 

 cerned it has been practically decided by scientific 

 exploration. 



Since writing the preceding pages I have met 

 with a remarkable paper by Mr. Horatio Hale in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada)- It is 

 one which should commend itself to the study of 

 every Biblical scholar and archaeologist ; but is 

 contained in a periodical which perhaps meets the 

 1 Vol. IX. Sec. II. 1891. 



