168 MR. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS y 



Socrates is reported to have said of the works 

 of Heraclitus that he who attempted to com- 

 prehend them should be a "Delian swimmer," 

 but that, for his part, what he could understand 

 was so good that he was disposed to believe in 

 the excellence of that which he found unin- 

 telligible. In endeavouring to make myself 

 master of Mr. Gladstone's meaning in these pages, 

 I have often been overcome by a feeling analo- 

 gous to that of Socrates, but not quite the same. 

 That which I do understand has appeared to me 

 so very much the reverse of good, that I have 

 sometimes permitted myself to doubt the value 

 of that which I do not understand. 



In this part of Mr. Gladstone's reply, in fact, I 

 find nothing of which the bearing upon my argu- 

 ments is clear to me, except that which relates to 

 the question whether reptiles, so far as they are 

 represented by tortoises and the great majority of 

 lizards and snakes, which are land animals, are 

 creeping things in the sense of the pentateuchal 

 writer or not. 



I have every respect for the singer of the Song 

 of the Three Children (whoever he may have 

 been) ; I desire to cast no shadow of doubt upon, 

 but, on the contrary, marvel at, the exactness of 

 Mr. Gladstone's information as to the considera- 

 tions which "affected the method of the Mosaic 

 writer " ; nor do I venture to doubt that the 

 inconvenient intrusion of these contemptible rep- 



